Prof. Charles Pahud

Short answers to some of the hardest issues facing investors today

New book for investing financial on markets by Prof. Jean-Marie Choffray and Charles Pahud de Mortanges: “Short answers to some of the hardest issues facing investors today”

Outline of the book

The future only exists because we believe in it, we want it, we create it. This short book was born from the idea that the era of uncertainty into which our world has entered, following the American conservative revolution, the opening of China, and the renunciation of Europe to its dreams, offered an exceptional opportunity to discuss the role that financial markets might have to play. Markets give those who have the intelligence and the courage to accept their limits and weaknesses three additional degrees of freedom: (1) to share the vision and the success of others, (2) to build financial independence responsibly; and (3) to contribute to a peaceful future, by renouncing violence and the sacrifice of innocent people in response to the conflicts with which humanity is regularly confronted (cf. R. Girard).

Once identified, this opportunity remained to be exploited while respecting our personal experience and convictions. We decided to express ourselves completely independently, in restricted and equivalent half-pages, on some of the most important questions related to the market’s unique system for producing and sharing wealth. Being sure of holding only part of the truth, we had enough sincerity and respect not to seek to influence each other. It is, therefore, up to you to make the best of things and extract from our observations the information most useful to your discovery of this exceptional technology.

In the fog of present times, the truth is that human history is not coming to an end anytime soon. The progress of knowledge and science suggests rather that it has barely begun. Its most salient pages remain to be written. Chance (random mutations) and necessity (natural selection) constitute a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition for life and economic progress. It is up to us to use our intellect and our sense of responsibility, through our free investments, to mitigate their deleterious effects (cf. I. Prigogine). But, do men really want what they declare to desire? Our Short answers are testimony to what we have observed and to our many failures and few successes. Veni, vidi, vici. As a man learns to walk while falling, it’s natural that he learns to invest by losing! Our purpose here is to help you limit your losses while guiding you in your discovery of what financial markets might hold for you.

Investing on financial markets

New book for investing financial on markets by Prof. Jean-Marie Choffray and Charles Pahud de Mortanges: “Ever invested. Ever Failed. No matter. Invest again. Invest better”

Sharing thoughts, facts and rules about investing

Welcome to the “desert of the markets”, where businesses are playthings for bigger forces! The goal of this book is to share what we observed on the markets over the last twenty years, and what we believe to have learned as to their behavior. As any scientist would do, we started by reading some of the most respected books in the world of investing; always keeping in mind that many of them generated more money to their authors than the real-life application of the theories, the models and/or the principles for investment that they presented and, sometimes, aggressively promoted.

We carefully noted the idiosyncratic elements of knowledge on which they were organized that truthfully paralleled our own observations and reflections. As a result, the end-product is a set of several hundred “experience-filtered” thoughts, facts and rules whose any subset could provide a reasonable basis on which to build your own theory of investing. Painful and solitary work. But, your survival on the markets is at that price.

Outilne of the book

In its current 2017 edition, Ever invested. Ever Failed. No matter. Invest again. Invest better is organized into seven chapters: The Great Recession of 2008; Businesses, Assets and liabilities; Assessing market response; Financial engineering tricks and traps; Investors, Swindlers and thieves; Rules for asset protection; Investing under non-parametric uncertainty. It concludes with a discussion of A few common myths and some Final thoughts on the art and science of investing. Each chapter comprises a short introduction, followed by an extensive, and unordered, list of thoughts, facts and rules that should help you articulate your information, decision and reward systems.

Investing financial markets: preliminary end

As all writers learn the hard way: one never finishes a book. One abandons it! This is particularly true of Ever invested. Ever Failed. No matter. Invest again. Invest better. Hence, that’s why it should rather be considered as a first step in the right direction, than as a definitive piece of work. Our goal will be reached if, in the years to come, we both enjoy updating it based on our new observations and our readers reactions. At least, while the market provides us with unexpected conditions and opportunities.

Learning by investing

“As university professors and part-time writers, we are used – privileged? – to being politely ignored. Indifference happens to be a protection. Even, a rational response, for those who “don’t know that they don’t know”. And, it’s probably how it should be! Henry Clews once noted that in the field of investing: “People as a rule will not learn either by precept or example. They must go through the rough experience themselves.” We entirely agree… Learning by investing!”