Fortune's Formula

[joe_bradley]

I picked up the book Fortune's Formula by William Poundstone due to an Amazon recommendation. I found it quite enjoyable. I'd recommend it for "light" reading, even though it isn't directly about quantitative finance (at least anything taught here).

The formula referred to in the book title is the Kelly criterion, a money management system for betting/finance that is still apparently an item of controversy in economics. The formula is easy enough to explain, but Poundstone's book discusses all the sorts of personalities involved in its development, from organized crime figures to Claude Shannon. A fun read.

Joe

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[alain]

Joe, I loved that book. The history of Claude Shannon is quite enjoyable... more so if you have an EE background.

 

[dstefan]

very interesting book, indeed!