Sir Isaac Newton’s South Sea Bubble Experience

Once upon a time, the world’s greatest investor Warren Buffett said about investing, “You don’t need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with a 130 IQ. Rationality is essential.” In his 2016 year-end letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett reiterated this point with an example: “Long ago, Sir Isaac Newton gave us three laws of motion, which were the work of genius… But Sir Isaac’s talents didn’t extend to investing: He lost a bundle in the South Sea Bubble, explaining later, “I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men.”

[klarman]