Following Ed Thorp

Ed Thorp has been beating the "system" for years. He is a professor of mathematics and finance, author, hedge fund manager, blackjack player, and had even made efforts to take the chance out of the game of roulette. He has made his fortune in the stock market by exploiting price anomalies in the securities markets.

Some of his fascinating history is chronicled in The Quants, by Scott Patterson, and Fortune's Formula by William Poundstone. Both are good reads without the need to review your math skills.



If you are more of a Vegas casino type rather than a Wall Street casino type, Bringing
Down the House by Ben Mezrich should keep you entertained. Thorp puts the special skills of several M.I.T students to use by teaching his card counting method and then sending teams out into the casinos for fun and profit...mostly profit.




I haven't seen the movie based on this book but there's a good video series, BBC's Making Millions the Easy Way, on YouTube documenting this exciting ride.

If you still can't get enough, I remember reading a book many years ago called The Eudeamonic Pie, by Thomas Bass. This is a true story about a group struggle to predict where the ball will stop rolling on the roulette wheel. This may have been the first, somewhat successful, use of the shoe computer. Maybe if these guys would have teamed up with Ed Thorp their attempts would have lead to more profit. Of course, Ed had his sights on the bigger prize...Wall Street.



Sort of rekindles the urge to exploit a loophole or two, doesn't it?