Ed Thorp and I were recently interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air:
Archive for February, 2010
The Quants Are Here
The Quants arrived in bookstores today. Now begins the process of getting the word out. Monday, Fresh Air ran an interview with Ed Thorp and me. Ed is one of the main characters in the book, the scientist who invented a mathematical method to count cards in blackjack, which he wrote about in Beat the Dealer. He later went on to found the first quant hedge fund in 1969, which was eventually called Princeton Newport Partners. He also wrote about a new method to price stock warrants in a 1967 book called Beat the Market. I spoke with Ed at length as I wrote the book and his views about the market and quantitative strategies informed the perspective I took a great deal. Ed has grown extremely disappointed with how quants have misused math and models as an excuse, a sleight of hand, to make huge bets.


