Character oddness is a recurring idea in the story. The author points out in his book that the three main groups of investors who saw the mortgage crisis coming and made money from it were odd. One man was unkind and often had trouble filtering his thoughts and opinions, often offending people who were much more powerful than himself. However, this honesty often won him the knowledge he needed to succeed in his career.
Another of the investors was a man who had had cancer as a child and was missing an eye, something he blamed for his trouble relating to people and succeeding in social situations. However, this man would later realize that he suffered from Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism.