Editing Nassim Nicholas Taleb (section)

=== Finance ===
Taleb has been a practitioner of [[mathematical finance]]<ref>{{cite news| last=Tett| first=G. |date=27 March 2011 | title=Black swans, but no need to flap ...| work=[[Financial Times]]| page=12| url=https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ddd47642-55b7-11e0-a00c-00144feab49a.html |access-date=7 May 2015}}</ref> as a [[hedge fund]] manager,<ref name="fortune2024">{{cite web |last1=Daniel |first1=Will |title=The hedge funder who's made billions providing 'insurance' against market crashes insists he's no permabear: 'Cassandras make terrible investors' |url=https://fortune.com/2024/04/06/mark-spitznagel-hedge-fund-permabear-cassandras-make-terrible-investors/ |website=Fortune |access-date=5 August 2024 |quote=...he’s employed Nassim Taleb, the statistician and academic who popularized the concept of the rare and unexpected event called a “black swan,” as a “distinguished scientific advisor.” |date=6 April 2024}}</ref><ref name="universa2024">{{cite web |title=About us |url=https://www.universa.net/aboutus.html |website=www.universa.net |publisher=Universa Investments L.P. |access-date=5 August 2024 |quote=Spitznagel and Universa’s Distinguished Scientific Advisor, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, together began tail hedging formally for client portfolios over twenty years ago.}}</ref> and a [[derivative (finance)|derivatives]] [[trader (finance)|trader]].<ref name=BakerSaid08/><ref name="business.timesonline.co.uk">{{cite news |last=Appleyard |first=Bryan |author-link=Bryan Appleyard |date=1 June 2008 |title=Nassim Nicholas Taleb the prophet of boom and doom |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |url=http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article4022091.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080906052320/http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/economics/article4022091.ece |url-status=dead |archive-date=6 September 2008 |access-date=19 May 2010}}</ref>  He has held the following positions:<ref name=NassimTaleb37>Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Curriculum Vitae [http://fooledbyrandomness.com/CV.htm "Official Academic Biography"], at ''fooledbyrandomness.com'' accessed 9 May 2015.</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Taleb Outsells Greenspan as Black Swan Gives Worst Turbulence |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aHfkhe8.C._8|work=[[Bloomberg News]]}}</ref> managing director and proprietary trader at Credit Suisse [[UBS AG|UBS]], currency trader at [[First Boston Corporation|First Boston]], chief currency derivatives trader for [[Banque Indosuez]], managing director and worldwide head of financial [[option (finance)|option]] [[arbitrage]] at [[CIBC Wood Gundy]], derivatives arbitrage trader at [[Bankers Trust]] (now [[Deutsche Bank]]), proprietary trader at [[BNP Paribas]], independent option market maker on the [[Chicago Mercantile Exchange]] and hedge fund manager for [[Empirica Capital]].<ref name="institutional">{{cite magazine |last=Alexander |first=Jan |date=November 2011 |title=Spreading his Wings |url=https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/2bszpin5fblf1xw32c1ds/premium/universas-mark-spitznagel-spreads-his-wings |magazine=AR: Absolute Return + Alpha |publisher=Institutional Investor & Hedge Fund Intelligence |pages=24–32}}</ref>

Taleb reportedly became [[financial independence|financially independent]] after the crash of 1987 from his hedged short Eurodollar position while working as a trader for First Boston.<ref name="BakerSaid08" /> Next, Taleb pursued work toward his PhD in Paris, [[Nassim Nicholas Taleb#Education|completing the degree program in 1998]]. He returned to New York City and  [[Mark Spitznagel#Early life and education|founded Empirica Capital in 1999]]. During the market downturn in 2000, at the end of the [[dot com bubble|dot com bubble and burst]], Empirica's Empirica Kurtosis LLC fund was reported to have made a 56.86% return. Taleb's investing strategies continued to be highly successful during the [[NASDAQ|Nasdaq]] dive in 2000.<ref name=BW /> Several consecutive years of low market volatility and less spectacular returns followed, and Empirica closed in 2004.<ref name="institutional" />
In 2007, Taleb joined his former Empirica partner, [[Mark Spitznagel]],<ref name=institutional /> as an adviser to [[Universa Investments]], an asset management company based on the "black swan" idea, owned and managed by Spitznagel in Miami, Florida.<ref name=WallSt /> 

Taleb attributed the [[2008 financial crisis]] to the mismatch between reality and statistical distributions used in finance. Taleb's investing approach produced significant returns once again, with some Universa funds returning 65% to 115% in October 2008.<ref name="WallSt" /><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aW2ByfpGZflA |work=[[Bloomberg News]] |title=Taleb Says Business Schools Use 'Bogus' Risk Models (Update1) |date=7 November 2008}}</ref> In a 2007 ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' article, Taleb claimed he retired from trading and would be a full-time author.<ref name="WSJ_Patterson_2007">{{cite news|last=Patterson |first=Scott |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118429436433665637 |title=Mr. Volatility and the Swan|publisher=The Wall Street Journal |date=13 July 2007 |access-date=14 October 2009}}</ref> He describes the nature of his involvement as "totally passive" from 2010 on.<ref name=NassimTaleb37 /> The ''Wall Street Journal'' journalist Scott Patterson wrote that "Taleb's involvement with Universa made him fabulously wealthy, the cash from the fund far outdistancing the substantial profits from his bestsellers".<ref>Scott Patterson, ''Chaos Kings: How Wall Street Traders Make Billions in the New Age of Crisis'', Scribner, 2023, p. 16.</ref>

Taleb considers himself less a businessman than an [[epistemologist]] of [[randomness]], and says that he used trading to attain independence and freedom from authority.<ref name=BW>{{cite news|last=Stone|first=Amy|date=23 October 2005|title=Profiting from the Unexpected |work=[[Bloomberg Business Week]] |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/bw/stories/2005-10-23/profiting-from-the-unexpected | access-date=7 May 2015}} {{cite web |url=http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/busweek.mht |title=Profiting from the Unexpected |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061021070352/http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/busweek.mht |archive-date=21 October 2006 |access-date=7 May 2015}}</ref> He advocated for [[black swan theory|tail risk hedging]],<ref>{{cite news|last=Harrington |first=Shannon D. |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-20/pimco-sells-black-swan-protection-as-wall-street-profits-from-selling-fear.html |title=Pimco Sells Black Swan Protection as Wall Street Markets Fear |work=[[Bloomberg News|Bloomberg]] |date= 19 July 2010|access-date=1 October 2010}}</ref> which is intended to mitigate investors' exposure to extreme market moves. Tail risk hedging safeguards investors by reaping rewards from rare events, thus Taleb's investment management career has included several jackpots followed by lengthy dry spells.<ref name=BakerSaid08/><ref name="WallSt" />

Taleb attended the [[World Economic Forum]] annual meeting in [[Davos]] in 2009; at that event he had harsh words for bankers, suggesting that bankers' recklessness will not be repeated "if you have punishment".<ref>{{cite news |last=Ignatius |first=David |author-link=David Ignatius |date=1 February 2009 |title=Humbled Economic Masters at Davos |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/30/AR2009013002726.html |access-date=14 October 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Redburn |first=Tom |date=28 January 2009 |title=A Rallying Cry to Claw Back Bonuses |work=[[DealBook]] |publisher=The New York Times |url=https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/a-rallying-cry-to-claw-back-bonuses/ |access-date=14 October 2009}}</ref>