“From Las Vegas to Wall Street. About how I beat the casino and the market "[REVIEW]

This book is read in the same breath. Probably because it is not a classic guidebook on what to pay attention to and what to avoid when investing. Edward O. Thorp's book is an interesting and full of surprising twists a journey through his life, which could certainly be the basis for the scenarios of many films. Anyway ... one - and a sensational one - based on some events in his biography has already been created.

Typically, trading books are fairly predictable. The author - usually an early adopter as a fund manager - presents his own theories about the markets, analyzes his best moves and argues that absolutely anyone could have predicted them, and could predict similar opportunities in the future. As long as he pays attention to ... and here the most important - according to the author - factors that determine whether someone will be able to cope with the financial markets or not are listed. Most often it is a mosaic of several skills or talents that need to be skillfully combined. Edward O. Thorp has no problem choosing them.

Math, you fool!

There is not, because there is actually nothing to choose from. He based his entire success and many years of financial career on one thing: the queen of sciences, that is mathematics. It could not be otherwise, since from an early age he dealt with it brilliantly, surpassing not only his peers by a head. 

We learn this from the book's introduction, which is ... about 200 pages. At some point, the impatient reader may already start wondering "When will there be meat"when he reads about riding bicycles in the suburbs, successful and less successful dates, a marriage to which he brought a suitcase of heavily worn clothes and a bookcase, and the beginnings of a math lecturer.

The specifics do appear, however, and it is immediately shocking. Were it not for the fact that everything really happened and there are witnesses to it, some stories would be hard to believe. Like the fact that you can beat the casino, because with the right card counting and choosing the right stake for which you are playing, you gain an advantage of ... 0,67%. Contrary to appearances, this is enough to earn tens of thousands of dollars playing in blackjack. Well, unless the casino manager comes with a gentleman who has a huge sadness on his face, and dozens of kilos of muscles under his suit, and politely asks you to leave the casino and never visit him again - just like that, for no reason.

After making much more money, especially after publishing a book about it, Edward O. Thorp has already been burned almost everywhere in Las Vegas. So he took up… roulette. In his style: first months of research, numbers, simulations, and then creating the first ever wearable computer that would calculate where the ball would stop based on where it was located. 

So if someone is looking for easy solutions, this book will not find them. He will be praised for knowledge, prudence, tactics and, of course, math. The author is convinced that it is enough to achieve financial success, which he proved on Wall Street after his adventure with gamblingby successfully investing and managing funds. First of all, hedging, because it is there that you can focus on investing in two opposing instruments and ensure an almost certain profit. Almost, because sometimes unexpected things happen, but they are so rare that in the long run you will always be able to get better. Of course, on the condition that the right strategy is chosen, which Edward O. Thorp describes in the smallest detail.

However, it is not simple and requires a lot of commitment, or writing a good program that - devoid of emotions - will implement our tactics. However, it will not do without precise calculations - the author leaves nothing to chance and argues that no investor should do it. However, looking at the results of most individual investors, it is unsuccessful ... 

About the author

Edward O. Thorp is a professor of mathematics from the USA, author of books on investing. However, he started out as a lecturer and… a gambler. Although in his case it is not a very appropriate word - he was playing casinos thanks to mathematical systems, which he created himself on the basis of probability and statistics studies. He proved that thanks to the application of the queen of science, you can win at blackjack, and with the help of the first wearable computer in history, also at roulette. After finishing his gambling adventure, he started investing in financial markets, where he also achieved great success by successfully investing hundreds of millions of dollars in hedge funds he runs. Currently, she enjoys her retirement life. He lives in a house on a hill in Newport Beach, California.

Where to buy

The book is available in Maklerska.pl bookstore at the price of 56,90 PLN. We have a discount of all for our club members -5% to buy this book.