Feb

17

Bacon’s Book, from Jeff Watson

February 17, 2009 |

I first read Robert Bacon's The Secret of Professional Turf Betting when I was a kid who liked to hit the track at every and any opportunity. Although my success at the track was very uneven, Bacon's book made a positive impression on me and taught me many other life and market lessons. When I first read the Chair's first book, I immediately noticed the references to Bacon. When I found this site, I saw the references to Bacon's book, and other nuggets that made me immediately feel at home. While my dog eared copy of Bacon's has become well worn, I still like to revisit it every so often for inspiration and reinforcement. Long out of print, I've noticed that the book traded in a range of $100-300 used, on Amazon, if available. I've told many people about the excellence of Bacon's book, and they have reported back to me that it's extremely hard to find and usually unavailable, except at extremely high prices. Over the past few months, I've been checking Amazon to see if I could get copies to give good friends for the holidays, with poor results. I've seen very few copies, maybe one or two at a time, at prices that exceeded what I was willing to spend. Since I think Bacon's invaluable information should be in the quiver of every speculator who wants knowledge, I decided to offer a download of the entire book to friends and fellow speculators. The number of people who took up my offer exceed my wildest expectations. In other words, the market was flooded with Bacon in a very short time, and an unintended consequence arose. Where there were very few, if any copies available just a few short weeks ago, the past couple of days has shown a marked increase in the number of copies being offered. Although the prices are still high, the increase of supply(positively influenced by the downloads reducing demand for the physical book) should push the market for Bacon's book to move lower to a point where it will trade. Markets will always find that equilibrium point that will allow for them to trade freely, guided by that invisible hand. The micro example of the Bacon Book market can be expanded to all markets and scaled up, indicating that Smith was on to something. It will be an interesting exercise to see how much supply of Bacon's book ends up on the market, and what price it will trade. I will be watching this market with great interest.


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7 Comments so far

  1. Murali on February 17, 2009 11:19 pm

    Hi Jeff,

    I have been searching for a copy of this book (In India) without much success. I am wondering if the offer of downloading a copy of the book is still on the table. If yes, then please do let me know.

    Thanks

  2. 71.97.86.80 on February 18, 2009 9:52 am

    Jeff — Great post as usual. Where can we download a copy? Thanks.

  3. rohit patel on February 18, 2009 9:54 am

    Great Post. Would like to know what types of insights you gained from the book. 

  4. JL on February 18, 2009 11:45 am

    The same download request goes for me. I bought a copy in the 1960s and, regrettably, failed to take it with me when I left home.

  5. Craig Bowles on February 18, 2009 4:17 pm

    Not sure why but Turf races seem incredibly hard to predict. Maybe it’s because so many are over a mile and a quarter. In any case, it’s a lot cheaper tution to learn patience betting ponies than in the stock market. It takes the same discipline to pass on a race when something doesn’t look right. I wish they’d change the betting to allow bets during the race. With computers, it’d be a blast. Odds constantly changing as the race developed… You could still have the standard bets. Also, it might be what the track needs to bring interest back up.

  6. James Livingston on February 18, 2009 7:40 pm

    Jeff,

    I am a young (23yo) speculator in Australia that has just begun my lifelong journey of education in life and the markets. This book sounds like it is an invaluable source of ideas and inspiration and I would be very grateful if you would do me the service of passing on the download. Unfortunately I cannot justify the ebay cost right now but hopefully the markets will be kind as I attempt to tame them by reading seminal works like the above. Cheers.

    James.

  7. Jim Davis on February 18, 2009 9:02 pm

    I am saddened that I sold my slightly less than perfect copy some time ago for the pittance of $140. And in took months to move at that price.

    As for “in race betting”, they already have that at Betfair (no USA accounts) for some big events and yes, it is quite entertaining.

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