
The Dao of Capital: Austrian Investing in a Distorted World
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As today's preeminent doomsday investor Mark Spitznagel describes his Daoist and roundabout investment approach, "one gains by losing and loses by gaining." This is Austrian Investing, an archetypal, counterintuitive, and proven approach, gleaned from the 150-year-old Austrian School of economics, that is both timeless and exceedingly timely.
In The Dao of Capital, hedge fund manager and tail-hedging pioneer Mark Spitznagel - with one of the top returns on capital of the financial crisis, as well as over a career - takes us on a gripping, circuitous journey from the Chicago trading pits, over the coniferous boreal forests and canonical strategists from Warring States China to Napoleonic Europe to burgeoning industrial America, to the great economic thinkers of late 19th century Austria. We arrive at his central investment methodology of Austrian Investing, where victory comes not from waging the immediate decisive battle, but rather from the roundabout approach of seeking the intermediate positional advantage (what he calls shi), of aiming at the indirect means rather than directly at the ends. The monumental challenge is in seeing time differently, in a whole new intertemporal dimension, one that is so contrary to our wiring.
Spitznagel is the first to condense the theories of Ludwig von Mises and his Austrian School of economics into a cohesive and - as Spitznagel has shown - highly effective investment methodology. From identifying the monetary distortions and non-randomness of stock market routs (Spitznagel's bread and butter) to scorned highly-productive assets, in Ron Paul's words from the foreword, Spitznagel "brings Austrian economics from the ivory tower to the investment portfolio."
The Dao of Capital provides a rare and accessible look through the lens of one of today's great investors to discover a profound harmony with the market process - a harmony that is so essential today.
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- Listening Length11 hours and 29 minutes
- Audible release dateJuly 27 2020
- LanguageEnglish
- ASINB08DHCPTLJ
- VersionUnabridged
- Program TypeAudiobook
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Product details
Listening Length | 11 hours and 29 minutes |
---|---|
Author | Mark Spitznagel, Ron Paul |
Narrator | Jeremy Arthur |
Audible.ca Release Date | July 27 2020 |
Publisher | Gildan Media, LLC |
Program Type | Audiobook |
Version | Unabridged |
Language | English |
ASIN | B08DHCPTLJ |
Best Sellers Rank | #53,611 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #256 in Money & Monetary Policy Economics #261 in Monetary Policy (Books) #374 in Investing & Trading |
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The reader will be introduced, to all the leading proponents of Austrian economics. The list includes; Mises, Hazlitt, Carl Menger, Bohm-Bawerk, Bastiat, and Hayek. Austrian economics is based on human behavior. This is in complete contrast, to most modern economic models. The current models are based on mathematical principles. Spitznagel wants to be clear, that human behavior can not be graphed into a math equation. Spitznagel then compares and contrasts the two methods of economic thinking.
Spitznagel`s conclusion, is to invest in a round about fashion. Here is a straight forward example; avoid investing during euphoric periods.This sounds very simple. However, the human tendency is to get caught up in the euphoria. The round about approach, fights against our natural human instincts. The investor must understand the entire business cycle, in order to profit from human folly.
Spitznagel also dwells into other examples, to help understand the cyclical nature of the world. He lays out various military strategies. He sights lessons from Clausewitz and Sun Tzu. There is also a dendrology lesson, involving the life cycle of conifers. Spitznagel also explains how, forest fires play a role in the boreal forest ecosystem. The effect of forest fires, is also an analogy to the downturns in the business cycle.
Over all, this was a rather interesting read. There were times, when things got a little on the slow side. This is a great book, for anyone interested in understanding Austrian economics/investing.
If I read the word "roundabout" again, I will scream. Any illumination of Austrian econmics is smothered by layer upon layer of psydo-academic piffle. Did I mention that the content is endlessly repetative? Roundabout. Roundabout. Roundabout. Where was the editor? A lumberjack with a chainsaw would have made great improvements. When Spitznagel gets around to investment thought, he comes up with two ideas: Return on invested capital and Price/Book. At least that's what I think he was trying to convey, but I'm not sure because he does not define his terms.
The ideas are not annoying, just the way they have been presented.
For my $20, I'd rather buy some conifer seedlings and plant them in an Austrian meadow. Yes, that is a reference to the book. A whole chapter on conifers!
The book uses examples from the author's experience as a youngster in the Chicago trading pits, as well as from history to build a framework for how Austrian economics evolved.
From concepts observed in nature with conifers taking outlier paths to survive, as well as ancient philosophies of war and lessons of patience from different cultures.
The book describes the rise of bubbles and how a money printing fiat mindset brought us to where Keynsian / Monetarist economics is the dominant logic used in our broken money system.
Unfortunately the book does not have a prescription for the broken system we find ourselves in, it's more of a philosophy lesson than it is an investing guideline.
I've found myself holding most of my net worth in Bitcoin because of the principles taught in this book.
Since dollars are manipulated and printed like flyers for a furniture store that's going out of business, they are losing their value.
Bitcoin is a perfect form of Austrian sound money that holds it's value over long time frames like the conifers who use unconventional strategy to survive forest fires better than fast growing hardwood trees.
Definitely recommend this book for anyone looking for conviction on why they should not be all-in on our broken stock market & fiat system.
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A terrific book if you want to think about your investment strategy. Best thing was it made me think about when to sell equities. After reading it, one can quite straight forwardly tell when the market or a company are potentially overvalued. I enjoyed the biology, philosophy and economics that are described in the book. The author successfully uses the Austrian School method of keeping the use of equations to an absolute minimum. It is the ideas that matter rather than the maths or quantitative analysis.
What I don't know is how applicable his investment strategy could be used by small investors like myself. But don't let this put you off reading the book as even if you cannot implement his investment ideas to the letter the general ideas may well be beneficial to your portfolio.


Take a look at Investing (and life) in a different way.
How often does a really successful hedge fund manager share his view of the investment process for the cost of a book. Many people write about economics yet few (if any) risk their own real money in the markets.
I enjoyed following the thought process from Ancient China through Austria to Wall street. I really enjoyed Mark's book.