A New York Times bestseller

In a remarkable career, Edward O. Thorp rose up from nothing to become a professor at MIT, invented card counting and the world's first wearable computer, beat the casinos of Las Vegas at blackjack and roulette, then became a bestselling author and a hedge fund heavyweight, ushering in a revolution on Wall Street. Now he shares his incredible life story for the first time, revealing how he made his fortune and giving advice to the next generation of investors. An intellectual thrill ride, replete with practical wisdom, A Man for All Markets is a scarcely imaginable tale of ludicrous success.

Run Time: 51.08 minutes Quant legend Ed Thorp shares several unifying concepts that have helped his thinking over the last five decades in finance: The map is not the territory highlights the repeatedly and sometimes disastrous overlooked limitations of quantitative financial models. The related randomness, even folly, of much expert opinion and the difference between hedgehogs and foxes tells us that if it's important, verify the facts and then think for yourself in forming your own opinion. When the invisible hand becomes a visible foot in the mouth, the tragedy of the commons, and the proper pricing of externalities are repeatedly overlooked. Critical for long term investors: The secular pricing of securities, even the fate of empire, is largely determined by the aggregate behavior of the politically connected rich, those among the 0.01% who use government to extract excess wealth (rents) from everyone else. This video, one of six from the Wiley WILMOTT Summit on Risk and Quantitative Modeling in Finance, held on the 11th December 2012 at Columbia University, New York feature the presentations from thought leaders and industry experts aiming to draw together some of the lessons of the last decade in order to restate the discipline's fundamental role in driving the future success of the global market economy. This is the time to define what quantitative finance really means beyond the fallout of the global financial crisis and to identify the technology and techniques that will power innovation and growth. Videos in this series include: Paul Wilmott - Recent Advances in Stupid Ideas in Quant Finance Kent Osband - Fooled by Rational Turbulence Aaron Brown - And The Cows That Were Ugly and Gaunt Ate Up The Seven Sleek, Fat Cows Patrick S. Hagan - On Beyond Black: Volatility Surfaces and Dark Noise Edward O. Thorp - What Finance Has Taught Me Chaired by Jack Schwager - Wiley Wilmott Summit Debate, Is Finance the sickness or the cure? Joined by Paul Wilmott, Kent Osband, Aaron Brown and Patrick S. Hagan

This volume provides the definitive treatment of fortune's formula or the Kelly capital growth criterion as it is often called. The strategy is to maximize long run wealth of the investor by maximizing the period by period expected utility of wealth with a logarithmic utility function. Mathematical theorems show that only the log utility function maximizes asymptotic long run wealth and minimizes the expected time to arbitrary large goals. In general, the strategy is risky in the short term but as the number of bets increase, the Kelly bettor's wealth tends to be much larger than those with essentially different strategies. So most of the time, the Kelly bettor will have much more wealth than these other bettors but the Kelly strategy can lead to considerable losses a small percent of the time. There are ways to reduce this risk at the cost of lower expected final wealth using fractional Kelly strategies that blend the Kelly suggested wager with cash. The various classic reprinted papers and the new ones written specifically for this volume cover various aspects of the theory and practice of dynamic investing. Good and bad properties are discussed, as are fixed-mix and volatility induced growth strategies. The relationships with utility theory and the use of these ideas by great investors are featured.

A winning strategy for the game of 21. The essentials, consolidated in simple charts, can be understood and memorized by the average player.

This volume provides the definitive treatment of fortune's formula or the Kelly capital growth criterion as it is often called. The strategy is to maximize long run wealth of the investor by maximizing the period by period expected utility of wealth with a logarithmic utility function. Mathematical theorems show that only the log utility function maximizes asymptotic long run wealth and minimizes the expected time to arbitrary large goals. In general, the strategy is risky in the short term but as the number of bets increase, the Kelly bettor's wealth tends to be much larger than those with essentially different strategies. So most of the time, the Kelly bettor will have much more wealth than these other bettors but the Kelly strategy can lead to considerable losses a small percent of the time. There are ways to reduce this risk at the cost of lower expected final wealth using fractional Kelly strategies that blend the Kelly suggested wager with cash. The various classic reprinted papers and the new ones written specifically for this volume cover various aspects of the theory and practice of dynamic investing. Good and bad properties are discussed, as are fixed-mix and volatility induced growth strategies. The relationships with utility theory and the use of these ideas by great investors are featured.