A Man For All Markets

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Edward Thorpe is one of those rare and special birds, like Richard Feynman, Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham and I dare say, Nassim Nicholas Taleb who have singular intelligence, a peculiar worldview, an insatiable appetite to learn, a reluctance to take anything at face value and an innate ability — compulsion, probably — to nut things out for themselves. These traits are rare enough when separate, but in those in whom they converge achieve in one lifetime what ordinary genius would take several.

This is Thorp’s fascinating autobiography, made all the more colourful on his own narration.