Summary of Mark Spitznagel's The Dao of Capital

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Mark Spitznagel's The Dao of Capital in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Nov 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638158462

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Insights on Mark Spitznagel's The Dao of Capital

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

To overcome the paradox of Klipp, we need to change the way we perceive time. We must change the dimensions of our depth of field, from the immediate to the intermediate, from the atemporal to the temporal.

#2

The Laozi, an ancient Chinese text, states that the best path to anything is through its opposite. For example, weakness defeats strength, and victory doesn’t come from fighting one single battle, but from the patient approach of waiting and preparing for a greater victory later.

#3

The Dao of Capital is a combination of the teachings of the Laozi and Confucius, which is meant to give its readers the wisdom to outsmart and outlast their opponents in business.

#4

The Laozi can be interpreted as a manual on gaining advantage through indirection. With false humility, we deliberately become soft and weak now in order to be hard and strong later.

#5

The art of tai chi is a demonstration of the value of softness in a fight. It demonstrates the power of yielding and accepting another’s urgency.

#6

The Song of Push Hands in Chen Village, China, instructs the practitioner to lead [the opponent’s] power into emptiness, then immediately attack. To lead or lure the opponent into emptiness and thus destroy his balance is the main objective, followed by the direct attack.

#7

The second game that needs to be played in time is the game of waiting, which is simply ignoring the present situation in order to direct the course of events in the future.

#8

While the Laozi does not outright reject science, it does not value it above all other forms of knowledge. It promotes understanding and wisdom that stems from contextualizing and applying natural and logical principles.

#9

The author was fascinated by the grain markets as a teenager, and even more so after visiting the Chicago Board of Trade, where he learned about the order flow and discipline required in trading.

#10

The main objective of trading in the bond market is to protect against rising interest rates, as this will affect the value of your portfolio.

#11

The two privileges that a pit trader has are to demand the edge, which means buying at a price lower than the current market price, and selling at a price higher than the current market price. Taking a one-tick loss is another way of saying taking a loss of 1 percent.

#12

According to Klipp, the best way to