More Than You Know

In this summary you will learn

• What investors do, and do not, understand about financial markets, based on knowledge from various unrelated fields
• What lessons investors can learn from sources as diverse as the U.S. Social Security system and the average bee hive

getAbstract rating

Why you should read More Than You Know

This book began as a series of 50 short essays Michael J. Mauboussin wrote for investors. He advocates using a multidisciplinary perspective to try to understand how markets behave. By its nature as a collection of essays, this book is capricious and desultory, jumping around from subject to subject. The essays do not necessarily relate to each other, but that has some advantages, given the author's belief in multiple analyses. His book is not the place to seek a sound, consistently argued theory about why the market does what it does. On the contrary, Mauboussin repeatedly contends that no one really understands why the market acts the way it acts. In fact, he says, attempts to explain it often rely on patterns that aren't really there. getAbstract highly recommends this book as an excellent antidote for the disease of being overconfident about the wisdom of prevailing financial and economic opinions.

About the Author

Michael J. Mauboussin is the chief investment strategist at a major capital management company and an adjunct professor at Columbia University's Business School.