Greetings, all --
As someone who has been front and center in all of this (our global macro fund is down about 40% in the last three months, after being up about the same amount in the first six of 2008), I suppose I can say that a well-reasoned strategy and quantitative model cannot adequately address extreme events. This, of course, is a main point of Taleb's two books, both of which I have read. I think this entry and its links give a good overview:
http://conservationfinance.wordpress.com/2007/06/21/falkenstein-on-taleb/
- Claiborne -
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
http://www.friam.org