Benoit Mandelbrot
It was sad to hear of the passing of Mandelbrot last week. But that we should be blessed with his insight is a great thing. He also lived into his eighties, which is a good innings.
Mandelbrot is best know for his work on Fractals. The beauty of fractals is that, while not predictive, they can describe very complicated objects from very simple constructs and that, I believe, is the key to life universe and everything. Whether is subatomic particles, a coastline or a tennis match; all have their roots and descriptions in very simple origins. It’s quite amazing how simple systems can produce complex behaviour and it’s something I’ve explored for years. I never feel confident in something until I have broken it down into it’s finite constituent parts. When you look at Tennis Trader, it works by taking a very complicated and complex end result, the odds, then it breaks those down into some fundamental metrics which then allows it to project forward. While not strictly fractal in nature, I owe that thought process to people like Mandelbrot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beno%C3%AEt_Mandelbrot
If you are looking for a good book to read on this subject, a nice layman’s introduction is this one, it’s always been high on my recommended reading list: –
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mis-Behaviour-Markets-Fractal-Reward/dp/1846682622/ref=pd_sim_b_1
Category: General
