Immersive Business 07

Episodes

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  Edward Thorp, Claude Shannon and MIT - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 2 - Part 01 09.10.2026 3h 39m

  Cambridge, Winchester and Las Vegas, 1959 to 1969. A young mathematics instructor who has already shown in print that one casino game can be beaten takes the next problem to the one man in the building equipped to help him with it. Edward Thorp and Claude Shannon spend eight months in the basement of Shannon's house building a machine to predict roulette: a regulation wheel bought from Reno, twelve transistors in a package the size of a cigarette pack, switches worked by the toes of both shoes, and a speaker wire the thickness of a hair. In June 1961 they carry it into a Nevada casino, where the calculation works and the wire does not. Neither man publishes for five years, and by then the point has been made elsewhere. Covers Edward Thorp, Claude Shannon, MIT, and Bell Labs. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  Edward Thorp, Claude Shannon and MIT - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 2 - Part 02 09.10.2026 3h 45m

  Cambridge, Winchester and Las Vegas, 1959 to 1969. A young mathematics instructor who has already shown in print that one casino game can be beaten takes the next problem to the one man in the building equipped to help him with it. Edward Thorp and Claude Shannon spend eight months in the basement of Shannon's house building a machine to predict roulette: a regulation wheel bought from Reno, twelve transistors in a package the size of a cigarette pack, switches worked by the toes of both shoes, and a speaker wire the thickness of a hair. In June 1961 they carry it into a Nevada casino, where the calculation works and the wire does not. Neither man publishes for five years, and by then the point has been made elsewhere. Covers Edward Thorp, Claude Shannon, MIT, and Bell Labs. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  Edward Thorp, Claude Shannon and MIT - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 2 - Part 03 09.10.2026 3h 16m

  Cambridge, Winchester and Las Vegas, 1959 to 1969. A young mathematics instructor who has already shown in print that one casino game can be beaten takes the next problem to the one man in the building equipped to help him with it. Edward Thorp and Claude Shannon spend eight months in the basement of Shannon's house building a machine to predict roulette: a regulation wheel bought from Reno, twelve transistors in a package the size of a cigarette pack, switches worked by the toes of both shoes, and a speaker wire the thickness of a hair. In June 1961 they carry it into a Nevada casino, where the calculation works and the wire does not. Neither man publishes for five years, and by then the point has been made elsewhere. Covers Edward Thorp, Claude Shannon, MIT, and Bell Labs. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  Edward Thorp, Claude Shannon and MIT - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 2 - Part 04 09.10.2026 4h 10m

  Cambridge, Winchester and Las Vegas, 1959 to 1969. A young mathematics instructor who has already shown in print that one casino game can be beaten takes the next problem to the one man in the building equipped to help him with it. Edward Thorp and Claude Shannon spend eight months in the basement of Shannon's house building a machine to predict roulette: a regulation wheel bought from Reno, twelve transistors in a package the size of a cigarette pack, switches worked by the toes of both shoes, and a speaker wire the thickness of a hair. In June 1961 they carry it into a Nevada casino, where the calculation works and the wire does not. Neither man publishes for five years, and by then the point has been made elsewhere. Covers Edward Thorp, Claude Shannon, MIT, and Bell Labs. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  Edward O. Thorp and James Sutton Regan - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 3 - Part 01 10.10.2026 3h 10m

  Newport Beach and Princeton, 1964 to 1992. A mathematics professor who had already proved a casino game beatable turns the same apparatus on convertible bonds and warrants, and finds a way to hold two positions against each other so that the direction of the market stops mattering. The partnership he builds with a New Jersey trader runs for nineteen years without a losing one. Then, on a December afternoon in 1987, federal officers arrive at the Princeton office with a warrant and carry the files out in boxes. The convictions that follow are vacated on appeal in 1991 and the charges dismissed. By then the firm has been gone for two and a half years, and the strategy still works. Covers Edward O. Thorp, James Sutton Regan, Convertible Hedge Associates, and Princeton/Newport Partners. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  Edward O. Thorp and James Sutton Regan - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 3 - Part 02 10.10.2026 3h 48m

  Newport Beach and Princeton, 1964 to 1992. A mathematics professor who had already proved a casino game beatable turns the same apparatus on convertible bonds and warrants, and finds a way to hold two positions against each other so that the direction of the market stops mattering. The partnership he builds with a New Jersey trader runs for nineteen years without a losing one. Then, on a December afternoon in 1987, federal officers arrive at the Princeton office with a warrant and carry the files out in boxes. The convictions that follow are vacated on appeal in 1991 and the charges dismissed. By then the firm has been gone for two and a half years, and the strategy still works. Covers Edward O. Thorp, James Sutton Regan, Convertible Hedge Associates, and Princeton/Newport Partners. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  Edward O. Thorp and James Sutton Regan - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 3 - Part 03 10.10.2026 3h 32m

  Newport Beach and Princeton, 1964 to 1992. A mathematics professor who had already proved a casino game beatable turns the same apparatus on convertible bonds and warrants, and finds a way to hold two positions against each other so that the direction of the market stops mattering. The partnership he builds with a New Jersey trader runs for nineteen years without a losing one. Then, on a December afternoon in 1987, federal officers arrive at the Princeton office with a warrant and carry the files out in boxes. The convictions that follow are vacated on appeal in 1991 and the charges dismissed. By then the firm has been gone for two and a half years, and the strategy still works. Covers Edward O. Thorp, James Sutton Regan, Convertible Hedge Associates, and Princeton/Newport Partners. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  Edward O. Thorp and James Sutton Regan - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 3 - Part 04 10.10.2026 3h 32m

  Newport Beach and Princeton, 1964 to 1992. A mathematics professor who had already proved a casino game beatable turns the same apparatus on convertible bonds and warrants, and finds a way to hold two positions against each other so that the direction of the market stops mattering. The partnership he builds with a New Jersey trader runs for nineteen years without a losing one. Then, on a December afternoon in 1987, federal officers arrive at the Princeton office with a warrant and carry the files out in boxes. The convictions that follow are vacated on appeal in 1991 and the charges dismissed. By then the firm has been gone for two and a half years, and the strategy still works. Covers Edward O. Thorp, James Sutton Regan, Convertible Hedge Associates, and Princeton/Newport Partners. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  James Simons, Leonard Baum and James Ax - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 4 - Part 01 10.10.2026 3h 9m

  Boston, Princeton and East Setauket, 1938 to 2024. James Simons wins a prize in geometry, builds a mathematics department on Long Island, breaks codes for a defense contractor, is fired for saying in print that he opposes the war, and opens a currency-trading office in a storefront beside a pizzeria. The fund he assembles there, Medallion, returns roughly sixty-six percent a year before fees for three decades and nobody outside the firm can say how. The returns are documented; the method never has been. What the record holds instead is who was hired, what each of them had already published, what a Senate subcommittee found, what the firm paid the Treasury, and where its own people disagreed in public about who deserved the credit. Covers James Simons, Leonard Baum, James Ax, Elwyn Berlekamp, Henry Laufer, Peter Brown, Robert Mercer, Renaissance Technologies, Medallion, Monemetrics, and Axcom. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  James Simons, Leonard Baum and James Ax - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 4 - Part 02 10.10.2026 3h 27m

  Boston, Princeton and East Setauket, 1938 to 2024. James Simons wins a prize in geometry, builds a mathematics department on Long Island, breaks codes for a defense contractor, is fired for saying in print that he opposes the war, and opens a currency-trading office in a storefront beside a pizzeria. The fund he assembles there, Medallion, returns roughly sixty-six percent a year before fees for three decades and nobody outside the firm can say how. The returns are documented; the method never has been. What the record holds instead is who was hired, what each of them had already published, what a Senate subcommittee found, what the firm paid the Treasury, and where its own people disagreed in public about who deserved the credit. Covers James Simons, Leonard Baum, James Ax, Elwyn Berlekamp, Henry Laufer, Peter Brown, Robert Mercer, Renaissance Technologies, Medallion, Monemetrics, and Axcom. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  James Simons, Leonard Baum and James Ax - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 4 - Part 03 10.10.2026 4h 2m

  Boston, Princeton and East Setauket, 1938 to 2024. James Simons wins a prize in geometry, builds a mathematics department on Long Island, breaks codes for a defense contractor, is fired for saying in print that he opposes the war, and opens a currency-trading office in a storefront beside a pizzeria. The fund he assembles there, Medallion, returns roughly sixty-six percent a year before fees for three decades and nobody outside the firm can say how. The returns are documented; the method never has been. What the record holds instead is who was hired, what each of them had already published, what a Senate subcommittee found, what the firm paid the Treasury, and where its own people disagreed in public about who deserved the credit. Covers James Simons, Leonard Baum, James Ax, Elwyn Berlekamp, Henry Laufer, Peter Brown, Robert Mercer, Renaissance Technologies, Medallion, Monemetrics, and Axcom. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  James Simons, Leonard Baum and James Ax - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 4 - Part 04 10.10.2026 4h 4m

  Boston, Princeton and East Setauket, 1938 to 2024. James Simons wins a prize in geometry, builds a mathematics department on Long Island, breaks codes for a defense contractor, is fired for saying in print that he opposes the war, and opens a currency-trading office in a storefront beside a pizzeria. The fund he assembles there, Medallion, returns roughly sixty-six percent a year before fees for three decades and nobody outside the firm can say how. The returns are documented; the method never has been. What the record holds instead is who was hired, what each of them had already published, what a Senate subcommittee found, what the firm paid the Treasury, and where its own people disagreed in public about who deserved the credit. Covers James Simons, Leonard Baum, James Ax, Elwyn Berlekamp, Henry Laufer, Peter Brown, Robert Mercer, Renaissance Technologies, Medallion, Monemetrics, and Axcom. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  Thomas Peterffy, Timber Hill and Interactive Brokers - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 5 - Part 01 11.10.2026 3h 30m

  Budapest, New York and Chicago, 1944 to 2007. A Hungarian emigrant with almost no English learns to program on borrowed machine time, buys a seat on the American Stock Exchange, and begins quoting options out of a model instead of out of a feel for the crowd. The printed sheets in his hand become a computer in his hand, and the exchange orders the computer off the floor. So he builds machines that read screens, press keys and answer quotes without him, and by the time regulators are arguing about what a market even is, the crowd he learned in has gone. The advantage he found was real. He spent thirty years making it unavailable to everybody, himself included. Covers Thomas Peterffy, Timber Hill, and Interactive Brokers. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  Thomas Peterffy, Timber Hill and Interactive Brokers - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 5 - Part 02 11.10.2026 3h 47m

  Budapest, New York and Chicago, 1944 to 2007. A Hungarian emigrant with almost no English learns to program on borrowed machine time, buys a seat on the American Stock Exchange, and begins quoting options out of a model instead of out of a feel for the crowd. The printed sheets in his hand become a computer in his hand, and the exchange orders the computer off the floor. So he builds machines that read screens, press keys and answer quotes without him, and by the time regulators are arguing about what a market even is, the crowd he learned in has gone. The advantage he found was real. He spent thirty years making it unavailable to everybody, himself included. Covers Thomas Peterffy, Timber Hill, and Interactive Brokers. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  Thomas Peterffy, Timber Hill and Interactive Brokers - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 5 - Part 03 11.10.2026 3h 34m

  Budapest, New York and Chicago, 1944 to 2007. A Hungarian emigrant with almost no English learns to program on borrowed machine time, buys a seat on the American Stock Exchange, and begins quoting options out of a model instead of out of a feel for the crowd. The printed sheets in his hand become a computer in his hand, and the exchange orders the computer off the floor. So he builds machines that read screens, press keys and answer quotes without him, and by the time regulators are arguing about what a market even is, the crowd he learned in has gone. The advantage he found was real. He spent thirty years making it unavailable to everybody, himself included. Covers Thomas Peterffy, Timber Hill, and Interactive Brokers. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  Thomas Peterffy, Timber Hill and Interactive Brokers - THE EDGE THAT CLOSES Book 5 - Part 04 11.10.2026 4h

  Budapest, New York and Chicago, 1944 to 2007. A Hungarian emigrant with almost no English learns to program on borrowed machine time, buys a seat on the American Stock Exchange, and begins quoting options out of a model instead of out of a feel for the crowd. The printed sheets in his hand become a computer in his hand, and the exchange orders the computer off the floor. So he builds machines that read screens, press keys and answer quotes without him, and by the time regulators are arguing about what a market even is, the crowd he learned in has gone. The advantage he found was real. He spent thirty years making it unavailable to everybody, himself included. Covers Thomas Peterffy, Timber Hill, and Interactive Brokers. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  Henry Flagler, John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil - THE FIRST BARREL Book 2 - Part 01 09.10.2026 3h 31m

  Cleveland and Florida, 1830 to 1913. Henry Flagler went broke in salt at Saginaw, spent nine years paying back what he owed, and arrived at a kerosene refinery on Kingsbury Run as the one man in the building who knew how to write a contract. He drew the papers that built Standard Oil, and the papers that built the South Improvement Company, a corporation that never moved a barrel and detonated anyway. Then, at fifty-five, he left the largest company in America to lay track down a coast that had no towns on it, and spent the rest of his life and most of his fortune building the places the track would run to. The question is what the second man actually does. Covers Henry Flagler, John D. Rockefeller, Standard Oil, South Improvement Company, Flagler and York Salt Company, and Florida East Coast Railway. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  Henry Flagler, John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil - THE FIRST BARREL Book 2 - Part 02 09.10.2026 3h 45m

  Cleveland and Florida, 1830 to 1913. Henry Flagler went broke in salt at Saginaw, spent nine years paying back what he owed, and arrived at a kerosene refinery on Kingsbury Run as the one man in the building who knew how to write a contract. He drew the papers that built Standard Oil, and the papers that built the South Improvement Company, a corporation that never moved a barrel and detonated anyway. Then, at fifty-five, he left the largest company in America to lay track down a coast that had no towns on it, and spent the rest of his life and most of his fortune building the places the track would run to. The question is what the second man actually does. Covers Henry Flagler, John D. Rockefeller, Standard Oil, South Improvement Company, Flagler and York Salt Company, and Florida East Coast Railway. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  Henry Flagler, John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil - THE FIRST BARREL Book 2 - Part 03 09.10.2026 3h 52m

  Cleveland and Florida, 1830 to 1913. Henry Flagler went broke in salt at Saginaw, spent nine years paying back what he owed, and arrived at a kerosene refinery on Kingsbury Run as the one man in the building who knew how to write a contract. He drew the papers that built Standard Oil, and the papers that built the South Improvement Company, a corporation that never moved a barrel and detonated anyway. Then, at fifty-five, he left the largest company in America to lay track down a coast that had no towns on it, and spent the rest of his life and most of his fortune building the places the track would run to. The question is what the second man actually does. Covers Henry Flagler, John D. Rockefeller, Standard Oil, South Improvement Company, Flagler and York Salt Company, and Florida East Coast Railway. Narrated with a synthetic voice.
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  Henry Flagler, John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil - THE FIRST BARREL Book 2 - Part 04 09.10.2026 4h 14m

  Cleveland and Florida, 1830 to 1913. Henry Flagler went broke in salt at Saginaw, spent nine years paying back what he owed, and arrived at a kerosene refinery on Kingsbury Run as the one man in the building who knew how to write a contract. He drew the papers that built Standard Oil, and the papers that built the South Improvement Company, a corporation that never moved a barrel and detonated anyway. Then, at fifty-five, he left the largest company in America to lay track down a coast that had no towns on it, and spent the rest of his life and most of his fortune building the places the track would run to. The question is what the second man actually does. Covers Henry Flagler, John D. Rockefeller, Standard Oil, South Improvement Company, Flagler and York Salt Company, and Florida East Coast Railway. Narrated with a synthetic voice.