Beat the Market: A Scientific Stock Market System

J

JoeBraxton

Beat the Market: A Scientific Stock Market System by Edward O. Thorp
Has anyone ever read this book before? If so is it worth paying $800??..Im not looking for a good rich quik or some cookie cutter way to make it in the market im just trying to soak up as much info as possible so that i will know every angle of the game..Im really debating on getting this book, i already have other books that Im definitely sure i can educate myself with but was just wondering if this is a good add to my collection....
 
"Beat the Market" isn't worth $5 let alone $800. The book is from 1967 and any decent public library used to have the book. Most of the public libraries probably tossed the book because no one took the book out.

Basic idea of the book was to buy a stock that had warrants and short the warrants. Warrants tended to be overpriced before Black-Scholes came along to formalize option pricing and thus the strategy worked for a time after the book was published.

Before Black-Scholes and the CBOE came along in 1973 options and warrants were priced the same way that Russell Sage priced them in the second half of the 1800's. Try and find a member of the old Put and Call Dealers Association and get an explanation of how they priced options and warrants.
 
Recently I hace read How to make $1,000,000 in the stock market automatically by Robert Lichello,

I would appreciate comments about this book. Seems the theory should work.

Thanks
 
Quote from jeb9999:

"Beat the Market" isn't worth $5 let alone $800. The book is from 1967 and any decent public library used to have the book. Most of the public libraries probably tossed the book because no one took the book out.

Basic idea of the book was to buy a stock that had warrants and short the warrants. Warrants tended to be overpriced before Black-Scholes came along to formalize option pricing and thus the strategy worked for a time after the book was published.

Before Black-Scholes and the CBOE came along in 1973 options and warrants were priced the same way that Russell Sage priced them in the second half of the 1800's. Try and find a member of the old Put and Call Dealers Association and get an explanation of how they priced options and warrants.
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so you dont think i could apply anything in this book with todays markets??
 
Quote from JoeBraxton:

so you dont think i could apply anything in this book with todays markets??
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Fortune's Formula by Poundstone will probably tell you everything you need to know regarding Thorp's work from the Beat the Market era -- and a lot of other interesting history/math/etc. as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Fortunes-Formula-Scientific-Betting-Casinos/dp/0809046377

Here's a review by Elwyn Berlekamp, the original manager of Medallion and also a minor figure in Fortune's Formula:

http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/bettor-math
 
Its a great book. Thorpe ran a very successful hedge fund for years.

I have the book but basically as a collectible.

It describes how to short warrants and hedge with the underlying stock, any modern textbook on options will teach you the same, for far less.
The book is so expensive because its a piece of options history.

I would not suggest paying $800 for it, unless you are interested in the history of option pricing.
 
Quote from jeb9999:

Before Black-Scholes and the CBOE came along in 1973 options and warrants were priced the same way that Russell Sage priced them in the second half of the 1800's.
More...

Two reputable writers in the Quant community (Haug and Taleb) don't see Black-Scholes-Merton as such a groundbreaking model at all and that the options markets before BSM were already extremely sophisticated.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1012075
 
Quote from Euler:

Fortune's Formula by Poundstone will probably tell you everything you need to know regarding Thorp's work from the Beat the Market era -- and a lot of other interesting history/math/etc. as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Fortunes-Formula-Scientific-Betting-Casinos/dp/0809046377

Here's a review by Elwyn Berlekamp, the original manager of Medallion and also a minor figure in Fortune's Formula:

http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/bettor-math
More...

Thx Euler you just saved me a bundle..
 
Quote from dont:

Its a great book. Thorpe ran a very successful hedge fund for years.

I have the book but basically as a collectible.

It describes how to short warrants and hedge with the underlying stock, any modern textbook on options will teach you the same, for far less.
The book is so expensive because its a piece of options history.

I would not suggest paying $800 for it, unless you are interested in the history of option pricing.
More...

thx for your feedback bro
 
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