A Man for All Markets

by Edward O. Thorpe

The first ~140 pages of this book were pretty interesting. Thorpe was born into a poor family but was extremely smart, which made for an interesting childhood. He bought weather balloons intending to fly (like Lawnchair Larry would years later) but decided it was too risky (p. 27), so he used them for other pranks. He got into ham radio, did pranks involving chemistry, won scholarships and placed highly on tests, etc. Kind of fun to read about.

Then he goes to college (activism, boring). He invented a method of card counting that is still used. And the most interesting part was when he and Claude Shannon invented a computer he could wear in his shoe to predict where a roulette ball would land.

The weirdest thing about that story is, they didn’t really try to make much money at it. As far as I can tell, they spent months building it, then tried it one weekend, betting a dime a bet, and making several dollars. And that was it!

Once he gets into investing, his stories become very boring. They are all along the lines of: Here’s a time I was smarter than everyone else, and here’s how much money I made! He gives some investing advice and some analysis of US financial problems. And then a few final thoughts (spend time with your family).

He has a way of seeming humble while actually bragging like crazy. It was kind of charming at first, but I got tired of it.