Friday, February 8, 2013

The Fear Index by Robert Harris

The Fear Index by Robert Harris

Dr. Alex Hoffman once worked for CERN, creating an AI, but his project was ended.  Wanting to keep working on his project in some way he creates an AI which can predict movements in the financial markets.  His hedge fund, run by VIXAL his AI/algorithm, has made his clients, and himself and his employees, billions.  The fourth version of VIXAL has just gone online and it seems to be working better than ever, but something isn’t right.  It seems to be doing things out of the ordinary, could it be thinking on its own?

If you have any knowledge of how the stock market works you will really appreciate the research behind this novel and probably be more frightened of the plot than someone (like myself) with only cursory knowledge of hedge funds and the VIX.  (For those who don’t know, the VIX is also known as the Fear Index.)