What I do every day is about a feeling, unfortunately not love, it's the feeling you get when you are about to make a big decision, that feeling in your stomach when you can't really think straight you just feel a little off colour (or maybe extremely ill if it's a humungous decision).
The bigger the decision the bigger the stakes the more stomach churning the quandry.
Here's an example of a not so risky proposition and something rather more risky (albeit slightly artificial).
Heads I give you a Snickers bar, tails I give you nothing (and you give me nothing either). Good deal eh? (if you are allergic to nuts you can eat around them!) Half the time you will end up with a nice Snickers, half the time nothing happens.
That's a no brainer, not stomach churning at all.
Well what about this for size? Heads I give you a Snickers plus ten thousand bucks; tails you give me ten thousand bucks!
The stakes are waaaaay higher now and if you happened to agree to partake in the game, your palms will probably feel a little sweaty, heart pumping.
Chances are you wouldn't take part in the game, even though it's slightly biased in your favour. In fact it's biased exactly the same way as the first game - that delicious snickers bar - however a chance of losing the 10,000 bucks wouldn't make you sleep well at night.
And that feeling my pals is the nervousness, stomach churningness that is risk. That's what I think about most days and that's what I help describe for hedge funds, pension funds and their investors.
If only I was paid to write poetry and sing songs about risk to said investors instead of spreadsheets and reports.
