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Jim Paul's meteoric rise took him from a small town in Northern
Kentucky to governor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, yet he
lost it all -- his fortune, his reputation, and his job -- in one
fatal attack of excessive economic hubris. In this honest, frank
analysis, Paul and Brendan Moynihan revisit the events that led to
Paul's disastrous decision and examine the psychological factors
behind bad financial practices in several economic sectors.
This book -- winner of a 2014 Axiom Business Book award gold
medal -- begins with the unbroken string of successes that helped
Paul achieve a jet-setting lifestyle and land a key spot with the
Chicago Mercantile Exchange. It then describes the circumstances
leading up to Paul's $1.6 million loss and the essential lessons he
learned from it -- primarily that, although there are as many ways
to make money in the markets as there are people participating in
them, all losses come from the same few sources.
Investors lose money in the markets either because of errors in
their analysis or because of psychological barriers preventing the
application of analysis. While all analytical methods have some
validity and make allowances for instances in which they do not
work, psychological factors can keep an investor in a losing
position, causing him to abandon one method for another in order to
rationalize the decisions already made. Paul and Moynihan's
cautionary tale includes strategies for avoiding loss tied to a
simple framework for understanding, accepting, and dodging the
dangers of investing, trading, and speculating.
On her twenty-second birthday, Shannon Maguire spies a leprechaun
in the back yard. Intent on making contact with the leprechaun, she
rushes out the back door. As she steps onto the back porch, she
falls into the Devil's Tomb. With the help of the leprechaun, they
escape and land in the parallel world of Muirnin. In a day filled
with surprises and frightening changes, Shannon learns she is the
Crown Princess of Muirnin. Arriving at the Palace, a throng of
fairies, elves, goblins, dragons, dwarves, and... there are more
than she can name, greet her, cheering her escape from the Devil's
Tomb and proclaiming her their Princess. Not everyone welcomes the
arrival of the Princess. Chief among the dissenters is Prince
Olcan, of the Unseelie race, who believes the tradition of having a
human Queen is wrong. He seeks the crown for himself and is willing
to kill anyone who challenges him. The Wizard Edwulf Magusson
explains to Shannon that she may stay in Muirnin for two weeks. She
must then return to her home world for at least two weeks in order
to maintain the balance of time that exists between the two worlds.
He also tells her the Crown of Muirnin disappeared, probably stolen
by Olcan. Shannon must find the crown when she returns to Muirnin
if she is to become Queen. She learns that the conflict over who
should rule threatens to touch off a war could destroy both Muirnin
and Earth. Shannon meets the handsome Lieutenant Sean Ceallaigh, a
member of the Royal Guard tasked with protecting the Princess. She
is fascinated with the young soldier. At the end of the two weeks,
there is a Royal Reception, complete with a banquet, the
presentation of the Elves' Summons and a ball. The Elves Summons
points them to something referred to as "the last place." No one
knows where that place might be but clues in the Summons suggest
some ideas of places to search. Latter, she dances a waltz with
Lieutenant Ceallaigh and becomes even more charmed by the
attractive officer. Shannon must put aside her personal issues and
her fascination with Lieutenant Ceallaigh to find the crown. Does
she have the courage and strength to defeat Olcan and claim the
Throne? Can she find the crown using the clues in the Elves
Summons? Will a final war destroy both of her worlds? Shannon is
not certain but she knows she must try. She is willing to sacrifice
her life, if necessary, to save the two worlds. She intends to wear
the Crown of Muirnin.
Jim Paul muses on Western philosophy and the medieval mind as he
makes his way through a harried weekend in Los Angeles, yielding a
"delightful...humorous" book (Bloomsbury Review) whose every
"sentence bursts with information, gorgeously put" (New
Yorker).
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