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Introduction Fortune’s Formula is mainly about the Kelly criterion. This book was recommended in Richer, Wiser, Happier. The is my third book from its recommended book list. I would like to see what be can learned from this book to apply in the stock market. Author William Poundstone is an American author and columnist. Contents Fortune’s Formula has a prologue (The Wire Service) and 6 parts. As these 6 parts contain quite a lot of chapters, I am not going to list them here. Part One is Entropy. Part Two is Blackjack. Part Three is Arbitrage. Part Four is St. Petersburg Wager. Part Five is RICO. Part Six is Blowing Up. Part Seven is Signal and Noise. Review Fortune’s Formula is more like a biography, rather than an investment book. It features a lot of people, either directly or indirectly involved in the stock markets, including Claude Shannon, the father of information theory, and Edward O. Thorp. It reveals the backers of Edward O. Thorp in Beat the Dealer which Thorp concealed in his book. The main thing that is discussed in this book is the Kelly formula. According to the author, it is the best strategy for a gambler as…

Introduction Good Money is all about personal finance. This is a book that my wife was reading and I finished it before her. Authors Nathalie Spencer is a behavioural scientist. She leads an in-house team, is a published author, sits on advisory boards, contributes to industry events and publications. Contents Good Money has an introduction, a How to Use This Book section, 5 chapters, and an epilogue. The chapters are: 1. Money and Us 2. Money in the Day to Day 3. Resilience 4. Long-term Planning 5. Better with Money Each chapter contains 4 topics and comes with a toolkit and further learning. Review Good Money defines financial wellbeing as making ends meet day to day, planning for the long term and being prepared for inevitable hiccups along the way. How we spend our money reflects who we are, our expectations and our values. While having more and more money does not make us happier, having insufficient money can make us unhappy. Our point of reference changes when we get used to new circumstances. The new becomes normal. Humans think of the value of products not in absolute terms but in relation to other products, which might be exploited to…

Introduction Five Stars is a book about the art of persuasion. The author claims this book is the solution to the mismatch between human skills and computers. I have read one of the author’s previous book, Talk Like TED, a long time ago and stumbled upon this book in the bookstore. Thus, I would like to refresh my memory and see if there is something new here. Authors Carmine Gallo is a Harvard instructor, keynote speaker, and CEO communication coach for the world’s most admired brands. Contents Five Stars contain an introduction (Rise Up!), 16 chapters and a conclusion (Find the Tune That Makes Your Heart Sings) The chapters are divided into 3 parts. Part 1 is Why Great Communicators Are Irreplaceable and has 4 chapters: 1) Party, Power, and Moonshots 2) Winning the War of Ideas 3) Aristotle Was Right and Neuroscience Proves It 4) The Human Capacity to Dream Big Part 2 is Who’s Earned Five Stars and is made up of 5 chapters: 5) The Scientists 6) The Entrepreneurs 7) The Professionals 8) The Leaders 9) The TED Stars Part 3 is How to Get from Good to Great and contains 7 chapters: 10) The Pathos Principle…

Introduction Beat the Dealer is about the game of blackjack. This book was recommended in Richer, Wiser, Happier. The is my second book from its recommended book list. I would like to see what be can learned from this book to apply in the stock market. Author Edward O. Thorp is an American mathematics professor, author, hedge fund manager, and blackjack player. Content Beat the Dealer has an introduction, 11 chapters, an addendum and an appendix. The chapters are: 1. The Rules of Blackjack 2. The Basic Strategy 3. Winning Strategy 4. My Ideas Are Tested in Nevada 5. The Simple Point-Count System 6. The Complete Point-Count System 7. Winning Strategy Based on Counting Tens 8. Beating the Casino Countermeasures 9. How to Spot Cheating 10. Can the Cheating be Stopped? 11. Science Versus Chance Review In Beat the Dealer, the author has provided several strategies to beat the casinos in the game of blackjack. This game is also known as van-john, pontoon, vingt-et-un, Einund-Zwanzig or Achtzehn-und-Drei and might have slightly different rules depending on the locations. The author is confident that player can gain a consistent advantage by using strategy presented in the book which is based on mathematical…

Introduction When Genius Failed is about the disgraced Long-Term Capital Management. This book was recommended in Richer, Wiser, Happier. Since I decided to read the recommended books in Richer, Wiser, Happier, I start with this book first. Author Roger Lowenstein is an American author, journalist and columnist. He is also a director of Sequoia Fund. Content When Genius Failed has an introduction, 10 chapters, an epilogue, and an afterword. The chapters are divided into 2 parts: The Rise of Long-Term Capital Management (first 6 chapters) and The Fall of Long-Term Capital Management (4 chapters). The chapters are: 1. Meriwether 2. Hedge Fund 3. On the Run 4. Dear Investors 5. Tug-of-War 6. A Nobel Prize 7. Bank of Volatility 8. The Fall 9. The Human Factor 10. At the Fed Review When Genius Failed is about an investment firm known as Long-Term Capital Management. It shows how an investment firm (hedge fund) threatened the whole economy. Nonetheless, this history of Long-Term Capital Management is unauthorised. Long-Term Capital Management is a hedge fund. It opened for business at the end of February 1994 and managed to recruit top traders and scholars including 2 Nobel Laureates in Economic Sciences (Robert Merton and Myron…

Introduction A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century is about the evolution of our species and its future. The authors seek a single, consistent explanation of the observable universe that has no gaps, takes nothing on faith, and rigorously describes every pattern at every scale. Their aim is to introduce the readers to a robust scientific framework for understanding ourselves. I was attracted by the book title and would like to see its contents. Authors Heather Heying is an American evolutionary biologist, former professor, and author. Bret Weinstein is Heather’s husband. He is an American podcaster, author, and former professor of evolutionary biology. Contents A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century contains an introduction, 13 chapters, an epilogue, and an afterword. The chapters are: 1. The Human Niche 2. A Brief History of the Human Lineage 3. Ancient Bodies, Modern World 4. Medicine 5. Food 6. Sleep 7. Sex and Gender 8. Parenthood and Relationship 9. Childhood 10. School 11. Becoming Adults 12. Culture and Consciousness 13. The Fourth Frontier Review A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21st Century is like a text book with lots of definition. Perhaps it is because its authors are two former professors. This book talks about…

Introduction The Making of a Manager is about management. The author hopes this books sheds light on the whys of management. Only by buying into the whys can the readers truly be effective in the hows. Although I am not a manager, I hope to learn from this book what a manager wants, or at least what makes a good manager. Authors Julie Zhuo is a Chinese-American businesswoman and computer scientist. She was the vice president of product design at Facebook and now Co-Founder at Inspirit.  Contents There are an introduction (Great Managers Are Made, Not Born) , 10 chapters and an epilogue (The Journey is 1% Finished) in The Making of a Manager. The chapters are 1) What Is Management? 2) Your First Three Months 3) Leading a Small Team 4) The Art of Feedback 5) Managing Yourself 6) Amazing Meetings 7) Hiring Well 8) Making Things Happen 9) Leading a Growing Team 10) Nurturing Culture Review In The Making of a Manager, the author shares her own personal experience in the management world. For her, management feels like a deeply human endeavour to empower others. However, this might not be a road for everyone, so we should only take up…

Introduction The Lost City of Z is a biography about the British explorer, Percy Harrison Fawcett. I was looking for a biography to read. This book is one of several recommended in a biography blog and since I do not know which one to read, I randomly picked this book. Authors David Grann is an American journalist, a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, and an author.  Contents The Lost City of Z has a preface and 25 chapters. The chapters are 1) We Shall Return, 2) The Vanishing, 3) The Search Begins, 4) Buried Treasure, 5) Blank Spots on the Map, 6) The Disciple, 7) Freeze-Dried Ice Cream and Adrenaline Socks, 8) Into the Amazon, 9) The Secret Papers, 10) The Green Hell, 11) Dead Horse Camp, 12) In the Hands of the Gods, 13) Ransom, 14) The Case for Z, 15) El Dorado, 16) The Locked Box, 17) The Whole World Is Mad, 18) A Scientific Obsession, 19) An Unexpected Clue, 20) Have No Fear, 21) The Last Eyewitness, 22) Dead or Alive, 23) The Colonel’s Bone, 24) The Other World, and 25) Z. Review The Lost City of Z is about the greatest exploration mystery of…

Introduction How Children Fail is the author’s partial record of his not very successful attempt to find out why children fail. This revised edition was published 20 years after the first edition when the author thought he knew much more about why. I would like to learn the reasons children fail and try to avoid them so that I would not fail my child. Authors John Holt was an American author and educator. He wrote a total of 11 books on the subject of schooling, as well as starting the newsletter Growing Without Schooling (GWS). Contents How Children Fail contains a foreword, and 5 chapters. The chapters are Strategy, Fear and Failure, Real Learning, How Schools Fail, and To Summarize. Review How Children Fail first shares some shocking statistics. Close to 40% of high-schoolers drop out while one third of college students fail to finish their courses. The reasons of failure are fear, boredom, and confusion. Above all else, children are afraid of failing, of disappointing or displeasing many anxious adults around them. The sharp line between success and failure appears when pleasing adults become important. The author gives an honest assessment about school. It is a place where they make you…

Introduction Richer, Wiser, Happier discusses the principles, process, insights, habits, and personality traits that enable a tiny minority to beat the market in the long run. The author would like to reverse engineer these investors’ winning ways. This book is recommended by a columnist on Forbes website. I would like to learn the winning ways of these great investors. Author William Green is an author and editor. He has written for many leading publications in the US and Europe. Besides that, he has interviewed a number of most successful investors. Contents Richer, Wiser, Happier is made up of an introduction (Inside the Minds of the Greatest Investors), 8 chapters and an epilogue (Beyond Rich). The 8 chapters are 1) The Man Who Cloned Warren Buffett, 2) The Willingness to Be Lonely, 3) Everything Changes, 4) The Resilient Investor, 5) Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication, 6) Nick & Zak’s Excellent Adventure, 7) High-Performance Habits, and 8) Don’t Be a Fool. Review Richer, Wiser, Happier features a number of investors. The author thinks that by studying these investors, we could learn not only how to become rich, but also to improve our decision making skill. Investing is about calculating the odds, thus…