Black Swans Win Big

Please hes the like the prophet that warns of doom, and he reminds everyone every day and that it could happen tomorrow. He does this for years, and then hes a genius. I put him in the same boat with Boone Pickens, he can say that oils going to 200 and it's good to be right, but as soon as hes wrong he's a one hit wonder. If you can't show consistent returns in your strategy, then its more pure luck then skill.
 
Hi Everyone;
I read the above article the other day in the WSJ about Taleb and Universa . I've also read alot of his writings , both lay and technical and I have a question :
I've always wondered about his methodology and thought that if you"re buying DOTM options you should be trying to get them cheaply . Yet , when I look at a 1 year IV chart @ ivolatility.com for the SPX , the time when Taleb/Spitznagel were buying SPX puts , the IV was at or near the yearly high . I guess DOTM puts would have an even higher IV . I'm sure they have an alternative pricing scheme for these options , but by BSM they sure look expensive . I know Taleb believes that the market underprices these options for rare/Black Swan events , but how do you benchmark their cheapness/expensiveness ? Or is it just a shot in the dark that you hope eventually pays off ?( I doubt that latter version )
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Bill
 
Quote from wje3:

Hi Everyone;
I read the above article the other day in the WSJ about Taleb and Universa . I've also read alot of his writings , both lay and technical and I have a question :
I've always wondered about his methodology and thought that if you"re buying DOTM options you should be trying to get them cheaply . Yet , when I look at a 1 year IV chart @ ivolatility.com for the SPX , the time when Taleb/Spitznagel were buying SPX puts , the IV was at or near the yearly high . I guess DOTM puts would have an even higher IV . I'm sure they have an alternative pricing scheme for these options , but by BSM they sure look expensive . I know Taleb believes that the market underprices these options for rare/Black Swan events , but how do you benchmark their cheapness/expensiveness ? Or is it just a shot in the dark that you hope eventually pays off ?( I doubt that latter version )
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Bill

u can try to post this question to this quant forum

http://www.wilmott.com/index.cfm?NoCookies=Yes&forumid=1

taleb sometimes write there with the 'kurtosis' nick
 
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