Paradigm [Hardcover]

Robert Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 13, 2006

What is tomorrow's Wall Street Journal worth to you today? Where is the line between reality and fiction? Are the financial markets really predictable? Does an ancient artifact hold the key to how some of the world's wealthiest families made their fortunes?

When a mysterious granite and cypress Egyptian box is found hidden away in a secret room in the palatial Biltmore Estate, twin scientists Alex and Nicholas Shepard work to unlock the secret of its intricate dials, gauges, crystals, and carvings. What they discover has the potential to make them rich beyond their wildest dreams. But it could also collapse financial markets, bankrupt corporations around the globe, and destroy many of the world's most powerful families. As the twins quickly find out, people will not only kill to make money, but will kill to keep it.

What begins as a simple scientific experiment in the stock market quickly descends into a nightmarish intrigue of murder, deception, and mystery. When one Shepard brother is killed, the surviving twin and his wife find themselves in a desperate gambit to learn the truth about the box's legacy. Using ancient documents found with the box, they unearth clues to trace its history through the ages, from the catacombs of Paris to the Knights of the Templar in Scotland. Their investigation takes them from London to Paris, Venice, and finally, to the Vatican itself, where they uncover the greatest deception ever perpetuated by man.

Robert D. Taylor's enthralling debut novel "Paradigm" is a unique and masterful blend of intelligent scientific suspense and bold historical mystery stretching from earliest antiquity to the present day-and beyond. His intriguing plot and cast of memorable characters makes for a suspenseful pager-turn that will keep readers guessing about where the lines of reality and fiction merge.

"Paradigm" demands we believe the unbelievable. The challenge of finding out just what is truly real and what is not is now up to you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Robert D. Taylor is a research scientist and the CEO of Trend Corporation, Inc. He is a successful businessman. His research focus in econo-physics has been vital to the development of the economic modeling software. He lives with his wife in Atlanta, Georgia.

Reviews:

"Robert Taylor's fascinating, ingenious, and well-written novel, Paradigm, should be at the top of everyone's fall 2005 reading list. It's a fabulous book about the breathtaking pursuit of the secrets behind a mysterious Egyptian box - and how that desperate chase leads to riches, treachery, and murder. Paradigm is the Da Vinci Code for Wall Street arbitragers and others who enjoy fantasizing about offbeat ways to make money"" (Dan E. Moldea, Author of The Hoffa Wars)

"Robert Taylor's intelligent Wall Street thriller, Paradigm, has more twists and turns than a steep mountain road. It's a very well written, first rate murder mystery that will challenge the readers intellectually." (Vincent Bugliosi, author of Helter Skelter, 'Till Death Do Us Part, and the acclaimed New York Times #1 hardcover bestseller, And the Sea Will Tell.)

"The science wrapped in this novel will challenge how we think about gravity and the relationship between science and business. Truth and fiction merge to tell an intriguing tale." (M. Douglas Ivester, Former Chairman and CEO, Coca-Cola)

"Simultaneously an exciting tale of intrigue and adventure and an intellectual paradigm-quake, this enthralling reality-fiction novel's emotionally gripping plot and players completely absorb both the reader's mind and heart until the final, satisfying denouement." (Dr. Robert W. Bass, M.A. Oxon -Rhodes Scholar- Professor. of Physics and Astronomy, BYU 1971-81, retired)

"Paradigm rockets along powered by the ultimate 'what if.' WHAT IF someone could predict when the stock market would rise or fall? Paradigm weaves a tale full of suspense and secrecy and Robert Taylor takes it even one step further-the science behind the story is real!" (Jeff Sagansky, past President of CBS Entertainment and Tri-Star Pictures)

"Paradigm is not only a quick read but a wicked blend of both reality and fiction. If you liked The Da Vinci Code, you'll love Paradigm!" (Alan (Ace) Greenburg, Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Executive Committee, Bear Stearns)

"Almost immediately, I realized this book is reality itself. Reading it was like watching wonderful, complex people on a screen as they move through their extraordinary lives. Paradigm redefines not only how we will view the stock market, but novel writing itself." (Tony Romano, Producer, "Catch Me If You Can" and "I, Robot")

REVIEWS

GOLD MEDAL FOR FICTION, 2006, MILITARY WRITERS SOCIETY OF AMERICA

Product Details

• Hardcover: 628 pages
• Publisher: Savas Beatie; Signed By Author edition (March 13, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932714162
• ISBN-13: 978-1932714166
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #345,429 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Key to the Vault?, April 10, 2006

By 

Allan P. Harris "http://allallan.blogspot.com" (Arizona) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paradigm (Hardcover)

Paradigm is a novel written by Robert Taylor, published by Savas Beatie in 2006. It is the story of two brothers who discover the holy grail of stock market timing and then are chased across Europe and the United States by powerful dark forces who already had discovered the secret and are not too happy about sharing it. It's 600+ pages were a quick and entertaining read and I recommend it to those of you who enjoy reading and in particular, enjoy reading about anything related to the stock market.

Here's the catch: It's not entirely a work of fiction. The storyline is make believe, but the holy grail, according to Taylor, is real. Wait. It gets better. It's for sale: http://taylortrends.com

I wrote the author and asked for some back data so I could check it out for myself. I received six years of charts with the author's methodology superimposed upon a chart of the S&P 500. I then subscribed to the timing service and checked all the previous timing signals, as far back is the web site went, just to make sure that the dates were authentic.

Does it work? Here are my hypothetical results, you can decide for yourself. All dates are based on the monthly mid-points, i.e. if a high or low was set for June, I chose June 15th for the date of my hypothetical trade. I also used the SPY (rounded to nearest whole number) for prices, although the timing would work for any general market tradable.

12/15/00.....SELL 132
03/15/01.....BUY 118
06/15/01.....SELL 121
09/15/01.....BUY 101
12/15/01.....SELL 113
04/15/02.....BUY 112
05/15/02.....SELL 110
09/15/02.....BUY 89
01/15/03.....SELL 94
03/15/03.....BUY 83
06/15/03.....SELL 100
08/15/03.....BUY 99
01/15/04.....SELL 113
05/15/04.....BUY 109
06/15/04.....SELL 114
08/15/04.....BUY 107
01/15/05.....SELL 122
04/15/05.....BUY 116
06/15/05.....SELL 121
10/15/05.....BUY 119
01/15/06.....SELL 128

Those are some impressive signals. The average gain per trade signal is 7.5% basis the SPY. But when applied to the Double Beta Funds (2X the market gains) of Pro Funds, the average trade signal jumped to 11.87%. When applied to deep-in-the-money SPY options, the average trade signal was close to 100% for three-month options.

There is reason to be skeptical of any methodology that claims to be able to time the market. That reason is that so many of us have been trying for so long to time the market without success, it is easy to conclude that it just can't be done and that these posted trade signals are too good to be true.

Unless, of course, they're not and this is indeed, the key to the vault.

A

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well crafted and shocking mystery, highly recommended!, March 12, 2006

By 

Michael Lee Harris (Amesbury, Mass.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paradigm (Hardcover)

My wife bought me a copy of this book off Amazon after hearing rave reviews about it from a friend who had picked up an advance copy in New York City last year at a large book conference. It is a big book, so if you want something that is light Grisham-style reading that you can finish in a few hours, don't' buy this book. If you want a deeper, thinking-person's murder-historical-financial mystery, I don't think you can do much better than this one.

The Preface was intriguing and a real hook for me. If I don't like the first thing I read (style, content, believability), I get turned off. Taylor starts off right as the Great Depression is beginning, spinning a gripping tale of how a wealthy and powerful guy manipulates the market as it is crashing and makes a fortune. The old guy, who is dying, reveals his family secret to his son, who is then burdened and blessed with the "knowledge" his father passes to him. It was really a page-turner, so I kept reading. It hooked me, deeply. I had to know where Taylor was going with this.

Fast forward to the present. Two twin Shepard brothers, Alex (the scientific yet nerdy one) and Nicholas (the economic professor guru) and their wives form the core of the balance of the book. One of the wives stumbles across a hidden room in the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, (a lovely place, by the way, and Taylor does a great job describing it) during a masquerade ball. Inside she finds an ancient granite/cypress Egyptian box with loads of ancient documents from that era all the way to the 1980s. The brothers eventually figure out what the box did after a few days of round the clock work, and also how it can still be used today--to make them wealthier than they ever imagined.

The development to get to that point takes about 120 pages, and it is interesting, but at times a tad slow. Taylor introduces some stock market lingo, and scientific terms, etc. All of it is necessary for what follows, which takes off like a rocket and never stops until the last sentence--literally. (Great twist at the very end so don't peak.)

It is a wild ride across modern-day US and Europe, with a parallel journey through the centuries as they figure out what has been making and breaking kings and wealthy families through the ages. I don't know how he came up with this idea, but it is one original and thought-provoking book.

The characters are richly detailed and by the time you are well into the book you can see and hear them. I think Taylor's ability to make them come alive is twice as good as Dan Brown did in the "Da Vinci Code" (which I also liked a lot). They are similar books in many ways, and I would rate them overall about the same. The Shepard brothers and their wives (Cassandra and Francesca) are at the hub of a giant wheel of fascinating people. Many you love (like Father Galen or Alex's kids) and many you love to hate (like Malachi Faust--man is that guy creepy! I can hear his voice and see his face as I type.) The most intriguing character (to me at least) is Mika Hunter, a Japanese assistant to Malachi. She is one cold woman, but as the book develops we discover things about her that . . . well, I don't want to spoil it.

The kicker to "Paradigm" are the science/article/essays included at the back of the book. They seem to be legitimate peer-reviewed work about stock market movement. Taylor includes this (sort of like Michael Crichton does for his books, only much more of it) as a means of spreading it to the masses. I was so intrigued by Taylor's theory I bought the software to test it. It just can't be true . . . but what if it is?

If you like smart, classy, page-turning thrillers with real eyebrow-raising twists, I can recommend "Paradigm" to you. In that case, run--don't walk, as they say--to your nearest store or buy one off Amazon. If you are like me, you will be recommending it to your friends before you are half way through. My whole email list has just received this review!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mindboggling!, April 30, 2006

By 

ellen "ellen in atlanta" (Atlanta, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Paradigm (Hardcover)

Robert Taylor is a gifted writer - Paradigm is chock full of so much information it takes your breath away, but it is wonderful. As a native Atlantan, I am proud when a writer from Atlanta makes a difference - Taylor describes Emory University, the Carlos Museum (my family and that family are friends), different places around Atlanta that I know well. When the excellent characters go to see a friend at Biltmore House, the magnificent mansion in Asheville - Alex and his twin Nicholas Shepard, their wives, Francesca and Cassandra meet their friend Gabe there and while exploring the mansion, they find a secret room with mysterious contents - a box that is obviously ancient Egyptian, and many accompanying documents. The twins develop a theory that the box measured gravity and it predicted the high and low pressures with the ups and downs of the stock market - They all agree to keep the box and contents secret until they have all the answers about it. One of the twins in his excitement lets out that he had found this box to his grad student, and thus starts a heck of a ride - to keep their lives, and to finalize their theory. They put the theory to work with their own seed money and make $50,000 into millions! With a tragic event, the family and friends go on a quest to find answers as to who has used the box and why - It is a great ride with these characters in all the places they follow clues to - exquisitely described by Taylor, and even the bad guys are colorful. I went to Taylor Trends on the Web, and saw that Taylor would for a monthly membership, share his software so the public can reap the benefits - The theory makes sense, and am sure the calculations match with the historic info, so folks really into stocks may try it out. For us nickel and dime investors, I don't know.
But it is fascinating and a great read - Looking forward to the next novel by Taylor - he's one to watch!