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Pft, that's nothing. ;) MIT's Edward O. Thorp wrote the book on blackjack card-counting, then he and MIT's Claude Shannon created the first wearable computer to help them beat Vegas at roulette back in 1961.

http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/graphics/courses/mobwear/resourc... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_counting#History_of_blackj...

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And after that they started a hedge fund and have been playing in the real big markets..ever since.

That (hedge funds) and all such things seem to be basically about one thing : Know of a statistical advantage that others don't know and then play mechanically with zero emotions as possible. Play for the long term, play for sensible gains/expectations and put risk-management above everything else.

[Edit] As I am thinking about this : Startups are probably a similar kind of game as well.

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