'Lecturing Birds on Flying' was included in Financial News' recent list of the top 10 books to help you understand the turmoil in the markets and went on sale this week. Here, its author Pablo Triana talks about the models banks use to calculate risk and the role these have played in bringing some of the largest financial institutions to their knees since the crisis began.

Triana, intellectual ally of fellow derivative trader-turned-author Nassim Nicholas Taleb, agreed to take questions about the book via email, and Financial News presents his answers in two parts. In this first installment, he answers questions about the impact of mathematical models on financial crises, and explains his specific critiques of the widely used Value at Risk model.