Ep. 161: Michael Konik Interview with Michael Covel on Trend Following Radio

My guest today is Michael Konik, the author of many books of fiction, non-fiction, and essays. Konik has had a fantastic experience in the world of sports betting, and the parallels between his world and the trend following world are off the charts. 

The topic is his book The Smart Money: How the World's Best Sports Bettors Beat the Bookies Out of Millions.

In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss:

  • Similarities between Konik's world and the Turtle story
  • Konik's background and how he came into this world of rule-based betting
  • Some of the stories about "Big Daddy" Rick Matthews (fake name for a very high profile individual featured on 60 Minutes), the main character in Konik's book and the most successful sports wagerer in the world
  • Position limits
  • Konik's theater background and how it tied in to the experiment
  • Sports betting technique, the line, the Kelly Criteria, and "Big Daddy's" own line
  • The "brain trust" and how "Big Daddy" led his operation
  • Point spreads
  • Looking for value rather than a favorite home team
  • The importance of a dispassionate outlook
  • The importance of knowing why you place a bet or trade
  • How the brain trust came up with a line better than the other lines out there
  • The importance of injuries in sports betting

Jump in!

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I’m MICHAEL COVEL, the host of TREND FOLLOWING RADIO, and I’m proud to have delivered 10+ million podcast listens since 2012. Investments, economics, psychology, politics, decision-making, human behavior, entrepreneurship and trend following are all passionately explored and debated on my show.

To start? I’d like to give you a great piece of advice you can use in your life and trading journey… cut your losses! You will find much more about that philosophy here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/trend/

You can watch a free video here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/video/

Can’t get enough of this episode? You can choose from my thousand plus episodes here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/podcast

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Hope you enjoy my never-ending podcast conversation!