Trading Bases - Joe Peta (Book Review)

[gazuty]

Trading Bases - A story about Wall Street, Gambling and Baseball by Joe Peta

http://www.amazon.com/Trading-Bases-For ... 0451415175

http://tradingbases.squarespace.com/

Just finished reading this book (in less than 24 hours - not a boast but rather an indication of my interest level in the book and Australian summer holidays - I did skim read some of the pages that were not relevant to sports betting).

For any sports trader this book should be interesting reading.

For any newbie, this book is an absolute must read. It will shortcut so many questions for you. Pretty much everything you need to know is contained in this book. (Of course, whether the reader recognizes all these lessons is another matter, although the book sets out the lessons in plain speak). Building models takes time, tweaking models takes time. Having a hunch about how to tweak a model, that is the experimental genius. Peta shows in the book, he used and learned from what was already out there. You can too.

Much like the actor Jimmy Stewart in the film Rear Window, Peta begins the book with a broken leg and has time on his hands. What to do with that time?

The book covers how Peta builds his model (including that the model needs an edge greater than the overround set by the bookies), staking methodology (or capital preservation methodology), psychology and most other facets relevant to sports betting. So many times there is criticism in these forums and other fora that "no-one tells you how to do it". Well, in this case Joe Peta lets it all hang out, so to speak. Everything you need to know about his model is contained in the book. The reader would need to engage in some serious hard work, spread sheet analysis etc, but that's life - there is no silver bullet or short cut.

Interwoven into the story is his experience working at Lehman Brothers on Wall Street and then working for the Japanese bank Nomura. He also has quite a few observations on the managed funds industry.

All in all a very enjoyable read with lots and lots of information about his edge. (I'm guessing he takes the view baseball markets are so liquid, his edge can't be eroded by others following what he does). There is enough data in this book to exactly replicate his model if you have the skill and the time!!!! Newbies, if you want to be successful, you need time and patience, you need to be able to build models and tweak them.

Gazuty

[PeterLe]

Hi Gaz
I downloaded this onto my kindle a few weeks ago with the intention of reading it on a long flight back from the US (i ended up watching a few films instead, and I might have nodded off! )
I only got to the bit when he had had the accident..right at the outset
Im off on holiday the week after next, so will give this another look, now that you have recommended it
regards
Peter

[markjacks]

Thanks for the Book. Downloaded this already and I still have to check it too.