In all of our “letters” to you a recent market event perhaps best sums up how nasty and volatile you can be. This time you really pulled one-off and caught the entire financial world flat-footed. If such a world were painted as a lake we have been enjoying a fairly pleasant view with relatively calm and peaceful waters. Now, without any warning, you have sent not one, but rather two black swans to land on the lake and alter the serene setting…
First off, what is a “black swan”? InvestorWords defines it as:
Definition
“Colloquial term for any extremely rare event. The term was popularized by a book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, entitled “The Black Swan”, and was based on a previous belief (now a misconception) that all swans were white and that black swans did not exist. The term is frequently used in the finance and investing sectors to denote an event that is unexpected, and impossible to accurately predict.”
INVESTOPEDIA EXPLAINS ‘BLACK SWAN’
“Black swan events are typically random and unexpected. For example, the previously successful hedge fund Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) was driven into the ground as a result of the ripple effect caused by the Russian government’s debt default. The Russian government’s default represents a black swan event because none of LTCM’s computer models could have predicted this event and its subsequent effects.” Continue reading