Red-Blooded Risk: The Secret History of Wall Street Kindle Edition

The book has some interesting topics but so much rant it's not worth time or money. Illustrations are hard to impossible to read on kindle and not very revealing or interesting even if you manage to do it. Instead, a brief summary of each chapter would make the book more valuable in my opinion. The logic is often very hard to follow because the author jumps from one thing to second and then to third and back. I had to reread some parts several times just to understand what the author was trying to say (and I can't say I always succeeded). Reading description and reviews on Amazon I was quite excited to get this book but my expectations got lower after each chapter. To summarize, I don't think I've learned too much about finance, trading, or risk that I didn't know before or that could possibly be learned from the book (and didn't sound like conspiracy theory), and the historical chapters weren't very interesting or revealed secrets (but they were a bit self-promoting). I am puzzled and disappointed, partly because I've seen comments made by the author on various forums and his reviews of other books on Amazon and I always found them good.

This author walks through (rather, with his facility with words, sometimes gracefully flies high over, then zooms down for sharp-focus closeup of) what seemed like more or less familiar concepts in probability and finance, and the whole landscape of government, asset classes, and strategies, as played out over history. He is able to hold so many of these seemingly familiar things up in new lights, and in a clever turn of phrase, to hit insights that, to use a fond word of his, "ignite" my imagination. I was plodding along assessing various alternative strategies for my personal portfolio -- being elsewhere inspired by works such as Poundstone's "Fortune's Formula" (introducing me to Kelly criterion) and Rebonato's "Plight of the Fortune Tellers" (critiquing frequentist versus subjectivist/Bayesian probability). Now comes Mr Brown to pull these ideas elegantly together, connect innumerable dots, and point ways forward for my thinking. I now have some elegant models of my own for portfolio construction including "igniting risk," as Mr Brown puts it, in a knowing and deliberate way.

Focus is on what risk management can actually accomplish, not the checking the boxes which most books limit themselves to.

If you like taleb, this is a must read. I have not seen a better distillation of what finance is all about, and the personalities within it.

I was impressed by the 5 stars of this book and bought it on my kindle. I realized the book is not as great as I have expected for the following reasons:

1. Interesting story made boring.
The author has many interesting little facts, academic experiment results and logic. I believe they will make him an interesting person to chat with, or an interesting presentation in a conference or seminar. However they become boring in text mainly because of the book's prolixity and disorganized article structure.

2. Misleading titles:
Both the book title and the chapter titles provide misleading information to what the content will tell you. For the most obvious example, you can hardly expect too much history on the wall-street on the "secret history of wall street". You will expect to be traced back history as far as stone age about how ancient people (and even animals) react to risk. (Probably "the history that made wall-street"?)

3. Lengthy introductions before making a point:
Whenever the author tried to put forth an idea, the author will trace all the way to its origin, and the origin of the origin. You often find yourself reading something like this: "before we talk about C, let's talk about B first.". Then it will follow "before we talk about B, let's talk about A." The author believe the origin of his knowledge is very important and he would like you to be equaly fascinated by the evolution of his ideas. This is understandable perhaps given his math background as he would just felt inclined to proof every result. However I just find myself lost within the process like I got lost in a math class. And often you will annoyingly read through redundant phrases like "However I will not go in to much detail here since this book is not about A or B" I often ended up not knowing what the book is about.

4. Debating against other view points without laying out the reasons constituting the counter-augument:
Frequently you will see the author claimed passionately "This is wrong!", "i don't agree with this!". And went on validating his points with his arguement. However I believe it will be more helpful if he can also lay out the reaons consitituting the opposing arguement of the point he was arguing against. Else I just felt like he was arguing with a wall.

5. Manga style illustration
The author seem to acknowledge the audience will not get him. So he added in manga to make his points clear. He stated if you would understand what he has written and agreed with the manga, you have got his point. (+1 stars from me for the effort.) However the manga was not a conversion from words to pictures, but a series of dialogues sparsely pasted over a series of seemingly related pictures.

The author has great ideas. However should he organize his writings in a clearer and more succint manner, I believe his ideas will be more efficient delivered to his audience.

Now, coming back and read through the reviews of this book again, I find some commenter seem to have a personal connection with the author and simply wanted to be made known their support. I think this is very unfortunate for the general audience such as myself.

Emerson said that America's geography is sublime but the men are not. Aaron Brown instantiates that statement by officiating this risk-ladden matrimony between conventional finance and gambling. If the real-world nuances of risk, and in particular, Value-at-Risk is critical to your portfolio of interests, then forget any more reviews and get the book!

Red-Blooded Risk is a great read. It is written in a down to earth and accessible style. The author offers his hard earned wisdom and observations in a well thought out and novel presentation designed to be as entertaining as it is illuminating.

His stories add factual detail to what many may think are merely amusing urban myths--fleshing out, correcting misconceptions, and educating so painlessly that readers may forget they are learning valuable lessons and insights from an accomplished practitioner.

I loved the "100 useful books" section. There is so much to read and learn; a guide like this could prove invaluable.

Excellent reading and very analytical.Would be interesting to hear what Taleb has to say!Comparing to other books it makes fun reading.