Three posts in three weeks. Batting 1.000%! Pun intended. You see, this book is about baseball, gambling, and wall street. Baseball, 1.000% batting average. Get it?
Corny jokes aside, let me explain how I found this book. I've been doing a lot of studying for my next actuarial exam at Barnes and Noble. Each night on my walk out, I pick up a few books and read the back cover to see if I can find any interesting books. Trading Bases is one that caught my eye. So much so that I started reading it in the store.
The beginning of the book is captivating. Joe Peta was a stock trader with a seven-figure job when an ambulance ran him over one January morning. Confined to a wheelchair with a broken leg and other injuries, he began watching baseball, something that reminded him of his childhood. Soon he was laid off from his job and found he had a ton of time to kill. He decided to start reading some of the analysis on the upcoming baseball season. Then an idea spawned.
Why not apply his skills from the trading desk to a model to predict baseball games? He would use various sabermetrics in an attempt to beat the Vegas betting lines. He bet most of the games every day, varying the amount of the wager depending on the confidence of the model. Long story short, he ended up with a return of 41% in 2011 and 14% in 2012.
Trading Bases is not for everyone. If you don't like sports, don't even pick this up. You don't have to be a baseball fan, but it probably helps to be familiar with the sport given all of the terminology he uses. The author goes into detail about his methods and some of his calculations (there are some formulas and a lot of tables). If you enjoy math and statistics, you'll really like these parts of the book. Joe Peta shares a lot of stories about his days as a trader and his personal life. Some of the trading stuff was pretty cool, but I skimmed over all the family stuff. I should also say that the author shares a bunch of personal stories in footnotes, most of which are pretty funny.
If you're into the subject matter, you'll fly through the book. Personally I found the book entertaining and have recommended it or discussed it with a bunch of friends.
My rating for Trading Bases: 4 stars out of 5. Get it here!
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