1. What is the appeal of the stock market,
and should anyone who has any hesitation to investing in it
partake?
2. Pg 117, Samuelson was worried about being passed
over for tenure, as he was Jewish and from Indiana. Would
such discreet discrimination be able to occur today? Why
or Why not?
3. "Ever hear of this guy?" is a very relatable sentence. This
sentence is about Bachelier and how his theory/him as a person
was forgotten and not even known about until a decade after
his death. He was certainly a very lowkey person but his work
almost went unrecognized/unknown. How do you feel about
situations like this? Imagine the number of people who's
work/life is still to know day unknown but probably super
valuable in one way or another.
4. In today's world, where do the 100 dollar bills lie
untouched/undiscovered?
5. The text says, "Ironically, the unpredictability of stock
prices makes them somewhat predictable --in a statistical
sense" (120). Does this make sense?
6. Many of Ed Thorp's discoveries were used
by him to gain an upper hand in monetary interactions. Could
his talents have been better used?
7. Is personal gain an ethical motivator for scientific
discovery?
8. If both gambling and investing exhibit similar
unpredictable tendencies, why is one more heavily regulated
than the other?
9. On page 166 a mutual fund manager was quoted as saying
"the real investment world is too complicated to be reduced
to a model." How accurately can computer models predict
seemingly irrational human behavior? Could future
technological breakthroughs change this?
10. Do you think that the stock market
is efficient, in the sense that it is discussed on page 125?
11. Do you think there is a way
to completely eliminate arbitrage from the market?
12. Is it more of a gamble to go to a
casino or invest in the stock market?