Don't be scared by Maths - embrace this intriguing guide
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On finding this book as similar to things that I had previously read- I felt it was right up my street with regard to my interests and the suchlike- combining some of my favourite topics. I was not to be dissapointed, an interesting story, combining personal anecdotes about how even the most clever person cannot second guess the power of the stock market makes this an unmissable read for anyone interested in the world around them.
After the slightly slow start and repetitive moments at times- this book really gets started and moves into full swing. Easy explainations for those with no previous knowledge and references for those with makes it great for all levels. Whilst I felt I may have heard some of this before I could not put it down and it left me wanting to know more about the world around me.
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very misleading blurb
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This is a very poor book. Its not clear who the intended audience was meant to be. Its too basic for any market particpant and the explanation of market statsitics is not clear enough for any lay investors. The rest of the text is a confusing explanation of why the autor invested and then stayed invested in Worldcom and lost money. Its difficult to relate the quotes from the press to this book. If it was meant to be amusing then it missed by a mile.
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Clever and interesting
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This book seems to have dissappointed a few reviewers; I suspect that some expected a conclusion that helped them play the markets and others, a sophisticated algorithim to explain market behaviour. The book offers neither but is interesting and fun to read which is no mean feat when the subject matter is a rather dry topic. There are many books about the stock market but few that I enjoyed as much. I also recommend Richard Thaler on Behavioural Finance, Taleb on Hedging and Dot Con on the Internet bubble. Christopher Fildes is always worth a read too.
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Weak and scattered
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I was lured into this book by the well-written cover blurb, but sadly that was the best thing about the book. It promises to be an examination of the mathematics of markets, but the analysis is absurdly shallow. Paulos devotes pages to such topics as compound interest, which is presumably well understood by most school children - he never gets much deeper.
The book is actually reasonably entertaining, with some interesting little mathematical paradoxes and anecdotes, but overall it is poorly written and unfocused. At one point Paulos essentially admits he wrote the book to try and recoup his losses on the market. The feeling that the author is dashing off the book to make money is hard to shake.
The book might be a good introduction for someone completely new to the stock market, however, the extremely shallow treatment will frustrate anyone looking for more.
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A Mathematician Plays the Market
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A complete waste of my time and money. The best thing about this book are its title and back cover. Those pushed me to buy it, but just about every page in between has nothing to do with what the book is supposed to be about.
The book and the back cover lead you to believe that this is a book about a mathematician that, obviously, uses complicated mathematical models (chaos theory, neural networks, nonlinear differential equations passed through my mind) to invest in the market. No such luck, Joe. This is the story of a guy that bought ONE (yes, one!!!) stock and lost his shirt on it. And wait, he didn't buy it because of the signal provided by any mathematical model. He did it, over and over, for all the same silly reasons that many investors bought technology stocks in the late '90s. The guy makes every possible silly mistake you can imagine. But the mistakes are so silly you can't even learn from them.
And one more thing. Even about that one stock, don't expect to learn anything about. My rough guess is that the book discusses this stock purchase in less than one page out of each 20. The silly story is told at the very beginning, and the stock is mentioned in a paragraph here and another there, but the book is not at all about that. Really, it was very disappointing. This guy discussing things that have to do with finance (and that are probably marginally interesting for completely unaware readers) but not at all about "playing the market," let alone with mathematical models. I didn't buy this book so this guy could explain to me the benefits of diversification, or how to calculate the risk of a two-stock portfolio. And yet, he discusses that and many similar issues, which have nothing to do with the topic of the book.
In short, stay way clear from this book. The issues discussed in it, are much better covered in many other books. And the issues it is supposed to discuss, it simply doesn't.
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