Trading Bases

A Story About Wall Street, Gambling, and Baseball (Not Necessarily in That Order)

By: Joe Peta

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

An ex–Wall Street trader improved on Moneyball’s famed sabermetrics to place bets that would beat the Vegas odds on Major League Baseball games—with a 41 percent return in his first year. Trading Bases explains how he did it.

After the fall of Lehman Brothers, Joe Peta was out of a job. He found a new one but lost that, too, when an ambulance mowed him down. In search of a way to cheer himself up while he recuperated in a wheelchair, Peta started watching baseball again, as he had growing up. That’s when inspiration hit: Why not apply his outstanding risk-analysis skills to improve on sabermetrics, the method made famous by Moneyball—and beat the only market in town, the Vegas betting line? Why not treat MLB like the S&P 500?

In Trading Bases, Peta shows how to subtract luck—in particular “cluster luck,” as he puts it—from a team’s statistics to best predict how it will perform in the next game and over the whole season. His baseball “hedge fund” returned an astounding 41 percent in 2011—and has never been down more than 5 percent. Peta takes listeners to the ballpark in San Francisco, trading floors and baseball bars in New York, and sports books in Vegas, all while tracing the progress of his wagers. Often humorous, occasionally touching, and with a wink toward the sheer implausibility of the whole project, Trading Bases is all about the love of critical reasoning, trading cultures, risk management, and baseball. And not necessarily in that order.

Critic reviews

"You don’t have to be a baseball analyst or former stock trader to connect with Trading Bases...Trading Bases will help you to be that fan." - Dallas Morning News

"A funny and stimulating account of a former stock trader who applies his Wall Street philosophy and knowledge of baseball statistics to try to beat the betting line." - The Chicago Tribune

"His swaggering story, from frantic stock trader to professional sports bettor, is the basis of Trading Bases, an entertaining book about how to turn your passions into profits. Even casual baseball fans could learn from it. Serious fans should slurp it up like ballpark beer." - The Los Angeles Times

Interesting baseball book for fans and gamblers

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I have recommended it to my brothers and family. Every stock broker can learn something from this book.

What did you like best about this story?

The casual baseball stories Joe Peta tells.

Which scene was your favorite?

His daughters first baseball game.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Some moments made me laugh and other made me sad. Baseball has that effect on people. This guy knows baseball and transmits it clearly.

Excellent ideas!

This book had some very unique and excellent ideas! As someone who is a fan of baseball as well as an advantage player when betting on it, it was one of my favorite books I've read so far!

Interesting system and approach

Any additional comments?

Abridging the book for audio would have worked better, as just trying to read tables of information doesn't work too well in an audio book. Just summarising the important information would have worked better. The other content is good though.

A fascinating book, but buy the print version.

With lively energy and a passion for the material, Joe Peta guides the reader through his journey from investment banker to investment better. His prose style is compelling, and he holds just the right mix of anecdote and analysis from cover to cover. The issue is that he does so with a myriad of statistics which, when read one by one, become incredibly tedious and difficult to interpret. Strongly recommend this book, but only in its print form.

interesting parts but overall a bit boring and technical

I like math, but this was a bit too much. Large portions of chapters were him reading off tables of numbers. The parts about his experience at Lehman while it was failing were surprising and interesting. It made me reflect on how sports betting and the stock market have much in common.