Safe Haven: Investing for Financial Storm, Mark Spitznagel, 2023

In “Safe Haven: Investing for Financial Storms”, Mark Spitznagel skillfully marries philosophical wisdom with the practicalities of investing. Spitznagel’s distinctive perspective on risk management underlines the essentiality of minimizing losses.

His philosophy-driven approach to investment is compelling: in the quantum realm of Schrödinger, where all potentialities exist simultaneously until the final moment, one might instinctively rely on the arithmetic mean of investment returns. However, by invoking Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence - living as if destined to repeat our lives innumerable times - Spitznagel invites us to reconsider the significance of sequence and order in our decisions. This is dramatically exemplified when considering that a stock needing to rebound by 100% after a 50% fall just to restore its original position.

The book further equips the reader with insightful strategies on asset allocation and the use of insurance to lever returns during unforeseen market crashes.

Due to the complex mathematics involved, I highly recommend digesting this work as a book rather than an audiobook. Some of the concepts demand contemplation and the mathematics can be challenging, but the core principles remain accessible and resonate long after reading.