The Better Letter

MARCH 18, 2025

During the 2010 World Cup, Paul the Octopus picked the correct winner of eight-straight matches, including the final (his odds of doing so were one in 256 ). Duke math professor Jonathan Mattingly claimed the average college basketball fan has a far better chance of achieving bracket perfection than one in 9.2 quintillion.

Numbers 75

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The Big Picture

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

And from a public market, that sounds like it’s a compliance and conflict nightmare. And you know, the only thing math works on recognition by peers, and there’s some prizes. And yet, the amount of math that’s been produced over the last, you know, few decades is just mind-blowing extraordinary.

Valuation 305

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The Big Picture

DECEMBER 6, 2022

And I did the math, and I think at that point in time, roughly speaking, assets in ETS were roughly just 10 percent, 12 percent of assets in mutual funds and I was pretty convinced that that number was to increase significantly. I mean, when I was in Chicago, one of my best experiences in Chicago was when Spain won the World Cup in 2010.

Clients 162

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The Big Picture

AUGUST 20, 2024

00:03:14 [Mike Greene] So that was actually an outgrowth from my experience coming out of Wharton and you mentioned the, the, you know, the transition of people who tended to be skilled at math or physics into finance. So any compliance people listening, I’m just spitballing here. You didn’t even have Uber in 2010.

Assets 173

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The Big Picture

AUGUST 15, 2023

SEIDES: But market returns across — RITHOLTZ: The past decade, 2010 to 2020, we were what? Let me say what your compliance wouldn’t allow you to say. So I think that argument is very valid in those couple of years, 2009, 2010 probably, maybe 2011, which was a tough year for hedge funds. SEIDES: It’s lower.

Management 130

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The Big Picture

JUNE 27, 2023

RITHOLTZ: Or the flash crash in 2010 and 2011. And so it’s one of these things that math works. Tell us about Math for America that seeks to improve math education in US public schools. BORISH: So Robinhood Foundation, Math for America, those are the two not-for-profit boards that I sit on. RITHOLTZ: Right.

Math 147

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The Big Picture

JUNE 3, 2024

Jeffrey Sherman : Well, what it was was, so I, as I said, with applications, there’s many applications of math, and the usually obvious one is physics. Barry Ritholtz : It seems that some people are math people and some people are not. The, the math came easier. And I really hated physics, really. It’s so true.

Math 147

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