A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market

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The author is an extraordinarily talented and successful person. He is a brilliant theoretician who can justifiably lay claim to a handful of good mathematical theories. He is also a good investor. He has led an interesting life, particularly when he was taking on the casinos. The author has a life story that needs to be recorded for the rest of us. Yet, the way he describes it makes it unbearably one-sided and as if coming from a person too much in love with himself. When you begin to think for yourself, the whole world changes and becomes much clearer.” —Edward O. Thorp

A Man for All Markets: Beating the Odds, from Las Vegas to

It is difficult to praise one’s own self and talk about the achievements in witty, interesting and factual ways without appearing arrogant, exaggerating or biased. Ed Thorp may do thousands of other things better than almost anyone else, but certainly not that. Unfortunately, this book had more than this core. The author had many tangential things to say about his childhood that really didn't interest me, nor did a lot of it seem relevant to the story. The final quarter of the book contains a lot of generic investment and savings wisdom that is now wildly accepted by anyone who takes personal finance seriously. Unfortunately this part didn't advance the story of the book either.

The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power. A stranger chatting with my father took the volume I was holding, written at the tenth-grade level, thumbed through it, then told my father, “That kid can’t read this book.” My father replied proudly, “He’s already read it. Ask him a question and you’ll see.” One of those unique minds who combined amazing innate math abilities with a flair for practical implications, Thorpe would enjoy decades of results that even earned the respect of Warren Buffet. Thorpe dives into any number of related topics including his own tale of spotting the Madoff fraud 20 years before it came to light....noone listened to him either. Before this book, I wasn't aware of what a super genius he is. He took a standard IQ test (he didn't know the reason) to determine whether he should skip 6th grade (he was younger and smaller than his classmates, but academically far beyond them). He enjoyed the first part of the test, then decided he had better things to do and drew a line down "true" for the last set of true/false questions. Nevertheless, he got the highest score the principal had ever seen in many years of educating bright students. Thereafter, Thorp shifted his sights to "the biggest casino in the world" Wall Street. Devising and then deploying mathematical formulas to beat the market, Thorp ushered in the era of quantitative finance we live in today. Along the way, the so-called godfather of the quants played bridge with Warren Buffett, crossed swords with a young Rudy Giuliani, detected the Bernie Madoff scheme, and, to beat the game of roulette, invented, with Claude Shannon, the world's first wearable computer.

A Man for All Markets : From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I A Man for All Markets : From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the sphere of suffering shared, and in this case extended to the death march itself, there is no spiritual or emotional legacy here to offset any reader reluctance.Dustin Moskovitz, Co-Founder of Asana and Facebook — Energy Management, Coaching for Endurance, No Meeting Wednesdays, Understanding the Real Risks of AI, Embracing Frictionless Work with AI, The Value of Holding Stories Loosely, and More (#686) There is gambling, and then there is the sure thing. Somewhere in between lurks probability, chance, and risk. For Thorp (Beat the Dealer), identifying the probability of beating the house became a lifelong challenge. Here, he gives a biographical summation (think Richard Feynman's Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!) of his quest to prove the aphorism "the house always wins" is flawed. While some rules (physics) are immutable, almost anything that is devised by humans has a weak point, be it gambling, insurance, or finance. The problem for Thorp, and everyone else, is that, once discovered, the rules can and will be altered. This may require changing strategy or finding new opportunity. For Thorp, this meant moving from card counting to hedge funds. As the author describes his efforts, it is easy to oversimplify. There is a lot of brain power at work and the application of high-level math skills. The lesson is that intelligence with diligence can overcome a disadvantage. VERDICT A mixed message—illuminating for the mathematically inclined, and cautionary for would-be gamblers and day traders.—Steven Silkunas, Fernandina Beach, FL Library Journal I've come to believe very strongly that any knowledge that cannot be used in the real world is useless. Application of knowledge to solve real world problems - for individualistic gain or otherwise - satiates our desire to exist. As Munger says, we have a high moral responsibility to understand human systems and act rationally. In this regard, Thorp's autobiography is an illustrative guide to finding meaning in life - not through spirituality, but through curiosity and application of the inquisitive mind to understand the world around it.