Thinking in Bets
Poker can make players better active investors. An array of experts interviewed for this special section on thinking in bets say they apply the game’s discipline, strategies and mindsets to their market research and investment decisions.
They’ve achieved so much success that gambling-related, bet-sizing skills have become highly valued in the financial community. Wall Street has even made a practice of hiring card sharks as hedge fund managers.
But successful gambling and profitable investing aren’t just a matter of developing logical thought processes. Often, the thinking that improves outcomes requires some math, too.
That’s where the Kelly criterion comes in. It’s a formula that calculates the biggest long-term return by betting or investing exactly the right portion of a bankroll.
Some investment billionaires swear by the criterion, but skeptics maintain that the formula can fall prey to subjectivity. Meanwhile, contrarians can simply find the criterion too restrictive—sometimes it’s more fun to place
a big bet than a prudent one.
Besides exploring Kelly and its discontents in this section, Luckbox weighs in on New Jersey’s bid to overtake Nevada as a gambling mecca and what that can mean for
the future of wagering.
Last but not least, this section bears witness to the emergence of a new investment sector: gambling-focused media. It’s an opportunity of the magnitude that investors have experienced lately with legalized cannabis.
