Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street Paperback – Illustrated, 19 September 2006

The book covers subject of scientific betting system developed by great minds like Claude Shannon and Ed Thorp. They used the system to beat casinos to start with and then used same principles to earn handsome returns in stock markets. The author has developed a dry subject into an interesting read with topics covering stories of mafias, casinos and activism of the likes of Rudy Giuliani, LTCM fiasco etc. Every story eventually leads to betting system and betting syndicates. In the process the author has explained the Kelly criterion in great details with ample examples of its practical use by successful investors and portfolio managers. We are also introduced to the genius of Claude Shannon, the father of Information Theory and Digital Revolution.The book is a must read for every serious investor. The book is highly recommended by no less than Charlie Munger.

This book taught me a great deal about risk and return. I learned about how some smart guys make lots of money while other super smart guys lose it all. Verily, this book truly contains the Fortune's Formula (Kelly Method).

Must read for money managers

This book unfolds the story of gambling right from Horse race betting to Stock Market. Its not for people who are looking for strategies to become rich.Along with the Gambling it also includes the history of Crime in America, the Scientific development in 20th Century and Corporate Structure. Interesting read.

The flow is missing. You need a lot of background about gambling and betting and US jury system to have some semblance of the topic.You would be hard pressed to understand the Kelly's Formula if that's the reason you ventured to read this book. You would find a lot of references to hollywood, mafia, and some MIT professors like Claude Shannon and Paul Samuelson. Also talks about Ed Thorp, Lousie Bachlelier et el. However I am not interested in the love life of Claude Shannon or some gangster running a betting racket rather his particular secret sauce of beating the market which I was hard pressed to find.I wished the author stuck to one character and followed him through instead of getting embroiled in all sort of disjointed characters whom you would not remember the moment you kept the book down.I find the book to be drab and just plain vanilla. It could have been a classic if structured well but I would suggest you skip this one and read about Kellys Criteria on the internetAt the end of the day I was hard pressed to understand the Kelly criteria or its application.

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Unfortunately, this book is too formulaic. Its typical who has done what book with a lot of history and trivia. I was expecting how and why Kelly Crriterion and information theory works.