Review of Chaos Kings

Book Link: https://smile.amazon.com/Chaos-Kings-Street-Traders-Billions/dp/1982179937

An audiobook listen during my work commute that explores the Black Swan and Dragon King investment philosophy that bets options on horrible events (unforeseen and foreseen respectively) that loose money most of the time but pay off significantly when they occur, typically more than covering the losses from the previous days. It closely follows a few individuals through the incpetion of these philosophies and how they were able to leverage them to great success (i.e. money) around recent events like the 2010 flash crash, 2020 pandemic, and government/regime changes. It is definitely engaging and educational - I'm now aware of the Precautionary Principle and VUCA - but it felt very repetitive and spent too much time on social media flame wars. As a climate person, I appreciate that the back 1/3 was focused on that as the next potential Black Swan moment(s) to prepare for. It felt like the author was trying to send out a giant blinking "Look here" sign to the readers that this is the next thing that will tip markets. Given the longevity of climate impact, I'm not sure that is going to be true but it never hurts to draw more attention to it!