Chaos Kings: How Wall Street Traders Make Billions in the New Age of Crisis - by Scott Patterson

In Chaos Kings, Scott Patterson explores the world of extreme event-driven finance, focusing on two opposing factions that seek to profit from market crises. One group, led by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, argues that catastrophic events, or "Black Swans," are inevitable and unpredictable, with their risks impossible to foresee. Taleb’s collaborator, Mark Spitznagel, founded the Universa hedge fund to profit from such events. The opposing faction, represented by mathematician Didier Sornette, believes that while rare events, or "Dragon Kings," can be predicted using complex models, they are still extremely difficult to anticipate. The book delves into their strategies and the clash between these two approaches to risk.