Sandy…a Blackswan Storm and Mom

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  • on October 31st, 2012

I grew up with a Sandy. My mom. A Blackswan of a mom. I mean look at me and now Max.

I had no warning. She just had me.

I love my mom, but as soon as I could flee, I did.

Sandy is now a Blackswan weather event. A hurricane. Massive destruction. People were warned to flee but it’s almost impossible for so many. Some just need to see it.

It’s been a horrid week for so many New Yorkers. I love New York. I am checking in with friends and the news is just not good. My trip to Manhattan tomorrow for a friends wedding is cancelled. You can’t get in.

Tuesday night I was mad that the NYSE would not be opened. Not because of money or trades or positions, but it seemed dumb to be so reliant on New York now that markets are global, electronic, the 2008 financial crisis, Y2k, Wall Street 2.0, acquisitions being so rampant in the space and executive pay so silly.

Now, it’s opened again. Life goes on for most.

Twenty years from now, hopefully longer before the next tragic weather event, the last two days will be just another data point in financial markets history. Data is cold!

Scott, a great new voice in the Stocktwits community, pointed out the ‘blackswaniness‘ of this weather event for the NYSE:

Today’s weather related closure of the NYSE is an extremely rare event. In fact, in 127 years the market has only been closed for the whole day due to weather 6 times, and three of those times were on Saturdays (the exchanges were open on Saturdays up until 1952). There has only been one time, in 1888, that weather caused a multi-day closure. For reference, there have been roughly 30,000 trading days since 1885, which makes today a black swan of its own–a four sigma event.

The lesson…be careful of anything named Sandy, even if she is your mom (mum in Canadian).

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