Free Lecture Friday 4/29: Philosopher's Union at The Red Room presents Philosopher Elie Ayache

[John Berndt]

Folks, 

The Philosopher's Union at the Red Room (at Normals Books and Records) is back in action next Friday with a great modern thinker, Elie Ayache.

http://redroom.org/philosophers-union-presents-elie-ayache/

Author Elie Ayache is a very strange philosopher of "the market" who has some interestingly counter-intuitive things to say, and who has the background of also being a professional derivatives trader. Perhaps the only philosopher who has been up-to-his-neck in the abstract commodities that nearly destroyed the market.

Since we all live under the giant robotic limbs of an out-of-control "economy" of which "the market" is a highly visible component, I for one am fascinated by contrarian philosophical voices have to say about it. 

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"To write a contingent claim and to trade it is literally to be situated in the middle of the event triggering it. Events take place; they don’t take time. Writing is the technology addressing the event outside of chronology and the market is the medium of contingency. They both recognize that time, although unavoidable, is unessential." - Elie Ayache

October 19th 1987 was a day of huge change for the global finance industry. On this day the stock market crashed, the Nobel Prize winning Black-Scholes formula failed and volatility smiles were born, and on this day Elie Ayache began his career, on the trading floor of the French Futures and Options Exchange.

The author of groundbreaking books like "The Blank Swan: The End of Probability" and "The Medium of Contingency: An Inverse View of the Market," Ayache has emerged as a rare thinker focused on the market's epistemology and on developing a unique philosophy of contingent claims. His work is both visionary and extraordinarily timely, injecting new thinking at the intersection of economics, market practice, and fundamental philosophy. We are extremely honored to have him speaking in our series!

Bests, 

John Berndt 

"Red Room: Expanding The Definition of Expanding The Definition."