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Ep. 254: William Poundstone Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

William Poundstone
William Poundstone

My guest today is William Poundstone, an American author, columnist, and skeptic. He has written a number of books including the Big Secrets series and a biography of Carl Sagan.

The topic is his book Fortune’s Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Claude Shannon
  • The connection between Al Capone
  • The Kelly formula, bookmaking, and the telephone industry
  • Bell Labs and information theory
  • Why, when betting, if there’s a small chance of losing everything, you will eventually lose everything
  • Criticisms of the Kelly criterion
  • Ed Thorp, blackjack, and card counting
  • Long-Term Capital Management
  • Martingale vs. Kelly
  • Early development of the Black-Scholes formula

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fortunes formula