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The Poker Face of Wall Street Paperback – July 27, 2007
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length368 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherWiley
- Publication dateJuly 27, 2007
- Dimensions5.57 x 1.02 x 8.66 inches
- ISBN-100470127317
- ISBN-13978-0470127315
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Editorial Reviews
Review
From the Inside Flap
Praise for The Poker Face of Wall Street
"Playing high-level poker, trading options, marketing bonds, and being a professor of financeAaron Brown has done them all."
Edward O. Thorp, author of Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One and Beat the Market: A Scientific Stock Market System
"The first attempt to help individual investors profit from a better understanding of the art of gambling. There may be few individuals better suited to take on such a controversial argument with such authority."
Stephen Schurr, Financial Times
"Brown's model is instantly graspable, but contrary to the conventional wisdom on both economics and gambling."
Publishers Weekly
"The author provides investment professionals an immensely valuable benefit by challenging them to consider familiar issues from new angles. His book is not only entertaining, but also full of provocative ideas that merit lengthy and serious engagement."
Martin Fridson, Financial Analysts Journal
"How to be a poker pro and much more . . . a delightful journey through risk concepts with a Wall Street derivatives trader. A great read and a good manual for understanding risk."
Dr. William T. Ziemba, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
From the Back Cover
Praise for The Poker Face of Wall Street
"Playing high-level poker, trading options, marketing bonds, and being a professor of finance Aaron Brown has done them all."
Edward O. Thorp, author of Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One and Beat the Market: A Scientific Stock Market System
"The first attempt to help individual investors profit from a better understanding of the art of gambling. There may be few individuals better suited to take on such a controversial argument with such authority."
Stephen Schurr, Financial Times
"Brown's model is instantly graspable, but contrary to the conventional wisdom on both economics and gambling."
Publishers Weekly
"The author provides investment professionals an immensely valuable benefit by challenging them to consider familiar issues from new angles. His book is not only entertaining, but also full of provocative ideas that merit lengthy and serious engagement."
Martin Fridson, Financial Analysts Journal
"How to be a poker pro and much more . . . a delightful journey through risk concepts with a Wall Street derivatives trader. A great read and a good manual for understanding risk."
Dr. William T. Ziemba, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
About the Author
Aaron Brown is an executive director at the investment bank Morgan Stanley and a serious lifelong poker player who has played with Wall Street tycoons and world champion poker pros. He holds degrees in applied mathematics from Harvard and finance from the University of Chicago. He has been a finance professor and a trader as well as a portfolio manager and risk manager for Prudential Insurance, JPMorgan, Rabobank, and Citigroup.
Product details
- Publisher : Wiley; 1st edition (July 27, 2007)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 368 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0470127317
- ISBN-13 : 978-0470127315
- Item Weight : 14.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.57 x 1.02 x 8.66 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,193,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #531 in Poker (Books)
- #1,614 in Stock Market Investing (Books)
- #5,026 in Finance (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

I'm the author of "Red-Blooded Risk" and "The Poker Face of Wall Street," and a co-author of "A World of Chance." My day job is working for AQR Capital Management. I also am a columnist for Wilmott and Quantum magazines, and write for a lot of finance and poker periodicals; as well as teach classes and speak at conferences. I serve on the Editorial Board of the Global Association of Risk Professionals and am a member of the National Book Critics Circle. In past lives I've been a professional poker player, trader, finance professor, portfolio manager and head of mortgage securities.
I live on the upper west side of New York City with my wife. I have a son who is an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, and a daughter in high school.
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For my entire career, I've shied away from making comparisons between options trading and gambling. Instead, I've relied on the old standby "well, they both use statistics to determine probable outcomes, but that's where the similarity begins and ends". Meh.... not really. There are other useful comparisons between gambling and options trading and Mr. Brown speaks to these similarities, to make a point useful or to drive home an underlying assumption about risk.
Risk: risk management is the #1 component in any trading strategy. He explains incalculable risks. But goes on to say, even when risks seem incalculable, there are components that can be measured and should be measured. Especially if we plan to take on that risk. His point is don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Just because measuring a certain risk seems difficult, doesn't mean it's impossible. And with that, he invites us into his world to discuss this topic in greater depth.
Anyone looking for a book about trading the market, as you peruse Alexander Elder's "trading for a living" or Nassim Taleb's "Fooled by Randomness" add "The Poker Face of Wall Street" by Aaron Brown to your cart. You won't be disappointed. N.B.: Mr. Taleb wrote the introduction to this book. When I've finished the book, I'll edit this review. But with September coming up and people looking for good books that are "classroom adjacent" - I wanted to post this brief review so those that can use it will buy it in time.
It's an easy and pleasant read, and I love the personal stories and opinions about gambling and trading. I especially like how he gives a counter point to the "gambling is evil" mentality which is common, but after reading this book I feel much less guilty about my participation in the financial markets. It's a good read and the memorable parts of this book for me are the ones that have nothing to do with modern wall street. I look forward to read some more of Aaron Brown's books.
Brown assumes a deep knowledge of the intricacies of poker in his reader. (which I do not have)
He also assumes that "wall street" means Trading futures and options.
He is insightful about both, trading and poker, though perhaps most insightful about Psychology and deception.
I never knew how deep of a game poker was.
Brown's Idea of a community poker game as an early frontier community bank and a venue for establishing trust in a community was eye opening for me.
As to whichever Financial Times journalist prompted me to buy this book based on a rave Review about its valuable insight into Wall Street and investing, Shame on you.
What I learned could have been put into a two page article, and what I could not learn could have been remedied with a glossary of obscure poker terms.
Traders and poker players, Enjoy.
If wall street to you is a place to look for value and cash flows, as opposed to poker games and technical charts, steer clear of this book.




