Simon Blackwell, a banker in London, thinks to himself that trading is just dumb luck and equates it to betting at a roulette table (p. 89). What do you think of his attitude about the stock market? Do you share his opinion at all?

BookBrowse Book Club The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down Discussion
1

Simon Blackwell, a banker in London, thinks to himself that trading is just dumb luck – “being in the right place at the right time” – and equates it to betting at a roulette table (p. 89). What do you think of his attitude about the stock market? Do you share his opinion at all?

2

My sister keeps telling me everything on the stock market is on some kind of algorithm, so for Simon to think it’s “dumb luck” she might say no. I really don’t know - this is why I have a financial advisor - but I think Simon’s decision to bet on the dollar when everyone else wasn’t could have been “dumb luck” or just being smart. He seemed like such a weak-willed guy; his obsession with his vain wife was an ego boast for me because he really wasn’t someone who saw himself as smart. I was thinking when I read Simon’s story, what would Warren Buffet have done? There are the smart people in finance and the wanna bes - Simon was the later. He just got lucky.

3

The stock market is a fickle entity. If you pass laws, as does Congress, and know what’s coming, you can invest, make money. If you sign orders that affect bitcoin but buy lots before the order becomes effective, you make money. Inside trading??? Illegal if caught, ask Martha Stewart.

Warren Buffet is/was a different investor. His method has worked well for him and Berkshire-Hathaway. Most of us don’t know enough to move on any one stock or fund. We aren’t privy to inside info. Simon was basically a greedy idiot who happened to fall into luck.

4

He had some knowledge of the market workings but he gambled. He got lucky most don’t.

5

I believe that some luck is involved in that we do not know all the issues that are affecting the world at any one time which can influence the market. However, I think that Simon was educated and savvy enough to make his own luck so to speak. If it was all just luck, we would not really need financial advisers making all the decisions for us.

6

I believe trading is a combination of luck and skill.

7

I believe that you would really need to know a lot about trading. He certainly made some mistakes and thought he was going to lose his job. Then dumb luck helped him.