Anyone here been reading Nassim Taleb? He writes mostly about the consequences of highly improbable events. Since we're in here for investment growth we all want to think that we manage our risk better than the average investor.

But looking at what's been happening with Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Meryll Lynch - who's to say that they weren't being managed by the best professional investing minds money can buy? Wouldn't they supposed to be the best at managing risk?

What I'm saying that all three companies falling so hard in a short amount of time is a highly improbable event. And Nassim Taleb discusses this phenomenon in two of his books: Fooled by Randomness, and The Black Swan.

Here's a wikipedia link on the Black Swan Theory. I think it is very interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory