Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The incredible real-life story of the card-counting mathematics professor who taught the world how to beat the dealer and helped start a revolution on Wall Street
Synopsis
An intellectual thrill ride for the highest stakes, replete with practical wisdom that can guide us all in uncertain financial waters, A Man for All Marketswill be an instant classic a book that challenges its readers to think logically about a seemingly irrational world.
Edward O. Thorp had a knack for stacking the cards in his favor. By applying the science of information technology the basis of computers and the Internet to gambling, the adventuresome mathematician invented card counting and successfully employed it at the Las Vegas blackjack tables.
In A Man for All Markets, Thorp reveals the secret of how he defied the odds at the gaming tables and beyond. His remarkable run of success caused such an uproar that the casinos changed the rules of the game to thwart him and the legions he launched. They barred him from their premises, instituted new rules against card counting, and put his life in jeopardy. Though someone drugged him and may even have sabotaged his car, he wouldn t back down.
When Thorp focused on investing his new wealth, he found an even larger treasure chest: Wall Street. Applying his almost superhuman understanding of numbers, chance, and risk, he created the first successful quantitatively based hedge fund. Along the way, he played bridge with Warren Buffett, crossed swords with a young Rudolph Giuliani, and invented the world s first wearable computer.
Here, for the first time, Thorp tells the story of his life and explains in a detailed but readily understandable way how his investing approaches and methods work. Illuminating the amazing things that can happen when creative genius and mathematical brilliance come together, A Man for All Markets is an enlightening and often funny look at the predictability of chance and how risky choices are sometimes our best bets."
Synopsis
The incredible true story of the card-counting mathematics professor who taught the world how to beat the dealer and, as the first of the great quantitative investors, ushered in a revolution on Wall Street.
A child of the Great Depression, legendary mathematician Edward O. Thorp invented card counting, proving that you could do the seemingly impossible beat the dealer at the blackjack table and in doing so launched a gambling renaissance. His remarkable success and mathematically unassailable method caused such an uproar that the casinos altered the rules of the game to thwart him and the legions he inspired. They barred him from their premises, instituted new rules, and put his life in jeopardy. Nonetheless gambling was forever changed.
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 that we live in today. Along the way, the so-called godfather of the quants played bridge with Warren Buffett, crossed swords with a young Rudolph Giuliani, detected the Bernie Madoff scheme, and invented, with Claude Shannon, the world s first wearable computer to successfully beat the game of roulette.
Here, for the first time, Thorp tells the story of what he did, how he did it, his passions and motivations, and the curiosity that has always driven him to disregard conventional wisdom and devise game-changing solutions to seemingly insoluble problems. An intellectual thrill ride, replete with practical wisdom that can guide us all in uncertain financial waters, A Man for All Markets is an instant classic a book that challenges its readers to think logically about a seemingly irrational world."