A mathematician plays the stock market amazon

We like to think not only that mathematicians are smarter than the rest of us but that by dint of their mastery of numbers, they hold the key to understanding the baffling mysteries of the universe.

Alas, Paulos Innumeracy says that's not always the case. As the author relates in this funny, insightful little volume about attempts to bring order and science to the free-for-all that is the stock market, he himself was once a big investor in WorldCom.

A Mathematician Plays The Stock Market by John Allen Paulos — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists

Despite strong evidence to sell, he desperately hung on to his stock as the price plummeted, proving that a head for numbers doesn't always translate to Wall Street know-how. Through most of this book, Paulos discusses various methods for predicting markets and offers thoughts on why people keep trying to perfect them.

A MATHEMATICIAN PLAYS THE STOCK MARKET by John Allen Paulos | Kirkus Reviews

Shocking in their obtuseness are the so-called Elliot Wave followers, who believe stocks operate according to an impossibly arcane series of numerical waves and cycles. The efficient-market theorists—many of whom believe the stock market is so inherently efficient that everything one needs to know about a company is reflected in its stock price—get the most thorough joshing from Paulos: If the light bulb needed changing the market would have already done it.

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