Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Do rules for investment exist?
My immediate answer would normally be no, followed by the aloof claim that investment is not a science but a very difficult art. But revisiting my bookshelves recently I stumbled across one of the few books on investing I have ever bought, Max Gunther's The Zurich Axioms. Webster's has the following to say about the word 'axiom':
1. (Logic & Math.) A self-evident and necessary truth, or a proposition whose truth is so evident as first sight that no reasoning or demonstration can make it plainer; a proposition which it is necessary to take for granted
2. An established principle in some art or science, which, though not a necessary truth, is universally received; as, the axioms of political economy.
Gunther isn't so arrogant to believe the Zurich Axioms are of the mathematical variety, if he did this book would resemble The Highway Code, sell for £1.49 and his children would starve. The author supports his assertions over a very readable 164 pages and at £7.99 his son needn't wear his older sister's dress to school. Gunther boils the nuggets of nuance I've alluded to down into twelve major and sixteen minor axioms.
Several of the axioms are so entrenched in my own philosophy they approach the mathematical definition of 'axiom', a proposition that it is necessary to take for granted. Failure to adhere to Minor Axiom I 'Always Play for Meaningful Stakes' as an investor is akin to an acrobat performing cartwheels on a park bench. If you suffer a loss it won't hurt too bad but you won't make much dough at it either.
I'll cover each of the Zurich Axioms in forthcoming blogs but if intrigued by Gunther's philosophy, see this.
The Artful Dodger
My immediate answer would normally be no, followed by the aloof claim that investment is not a science but a very difficult art. But revisiting my bookshelves recently I stumbled across one of the few books on investing I have ever bought, Max Gunther's The Zurich Axioms. Webster's has the following to say about the word 'axiom':
1. (Logic & Math.) A self-evident and necessary truth, or a proposition whose truth is so evident as first sight that no reasoning or demonstration can make it plainer; a proposition which it is necessary to take for granted
2. An established principle in some art or science, which, though not a necessary truth, is universally received; as, the axioms of political economy.
Gunther isn't so arrogant to believe the Zurich Axioms are of the mathematical variety, if he did this book would resemble The Highway Code, sell for £1.49 and his children would starve. The author supports his assertions over a very readable 164 pages and at £7.99 his son needn't wear his older sister's dress to school. Gunther boils the nuggets of nuance I've alluded to down into twelve major and sixteen minor axioms.
Several of the axioms are so entrenched in my own philosophy they approach the mathematical definition of 'axiom', a proposition that it is necessary to take for granted. Failure to adhere to Minor Axiom I 'Always Play for Meaningful Stakes' as an investor is akin to an acrobat performing cartwheels on a park bench. If you suffer a loss it won't hurt too bad but you won't make much dough at it either.
I'll cover each of the Zurich Axioms in forthcoming blogs but if intrigued by Gunther's philosophy, see this.
The Artful Dodger
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