Jan

11

T in 24, from James Goldcamp

January 11, 2010 |

I watched for the third time this weekend one of my favorite documentaries (and admittedly a bit of an infomercial), Truth in 24, which tracks the run up to the 2008 24 hours of Le Mans from the perspective of the Audi racing team. Created by NFL Films in cooperation with Audi this has some of the best production quality I have ever seen in a sports documentary. I also had a chance to witness one of the Audi R10 turbo diesel cars in the same year at an ALMS (American Le Mans Series) race shortly after the events depicted in the film.

This film should strike many a chord with traders. It contains elements of planning and exhaustive preparation, slim margins of error, a highly technical and competitive landscape, gamesmanship, weather, hoodo-ism and the role of luck as characterized by Alan McNish, stamina and survival, improvisation, and hubris (one could write a prologue where the heroes suffer a reversal of fortune the following year). As in speculating the lead engineers must deal with a multitude of variables any of which can determine the final outcome and offers a case study in decision making under uncertainty.

For those who are interested, the documentary can be downloaded via iTunes for free.

Dr. Goldcamp is a managing partner of Rina Systems, a quantitative financial software vendor.


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