Xiaotong
(Vivian) Wang
Ph.D. Candidate in Financial Economics
The idiosyncratic part of me, by definition, refers to
those things that are valuable to me, wheras both the finance academic
and the practitioners may put zero price on. Even though my research
shows betting on idiosyncratic risk generates profitable returns,
i.e., 1.49% risk adjusted return (Fama-French three factor alpha)
per month, with 1.80 annualized Sharpe ratio, the idiosyncratic
part of me will not!
 The
King of Card Game--Bridge:
Bridge is the coolest game for testing people's ability in handling
uncertainty and asymmetric information. Starting from bidding,
you, as a player, after seeing 13 cards out of 52, have to guess the
holdings of your partner's and two opponents'. After this first-round
news release, here comes the blind leading which is the hardest
part of this game. After seeing the dummy's hand, the declarer
has to figure out how to make the contract. At the same time, the defenders
are facing the second hardest part of the game, i.e., defending.
As 13 rounds of cards have been played sequentially, information
is released accordingly. Figuring out the lay-outs of the cards ex ante is the gist of the game.
Bridge partnership means obeying the binding bidding rules (else
you drive your partner crazy); forgiving every mistake partner
makes, smart or stupid, (because we all make all kinds of mistakes
all the time); being tolerable for opponents' mistakes (since
it is much easier to see how good players play and figure out
the card lay-outs accordingly. However, it is extremely tough to figure
out how bad players got screwed up). Do not envy strong opponents
and wish one of them were your partner (since they may not
be good any more if sitting opposite to you).
After all, patience is the secrete to success in this game. You
have to be patient enough to wait until the Law of Large Numbers rules
out the randomness, after which skill is the dominating factor.
Like everything else, luck always helps. According to the survivalship
story, all the top players are lucky players!
Interesting Bridge websites: Play Bridge for Free; Play Bridge (not free);
interesting bridge links.
History:
"以铜为镜，可以正衣冠；以人为镜，可以知得失；以史为镜，可以知兴衰"
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