Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Real Lessons of Moneyball - Businessweek

Chris Carpenter completes a pitch for the St. ...Image via Wikipedia

The Real Lessons of Moneyball - Businessweek:

They absolutely nail why sports examples are do great for class:

"...baseball possesses two characteristics that in business exist only in the abstract: a level playing field (except for the pitcher’s mound) and truly reliable performance metrics. As a result, cause and effect are clearer. You can isolate successful behaviors and counterproductive ones"

and also why MoneyBall is such a great book for a finance class:

"The concept at the heart of Moneyball is the efficient market hypothesis. ...

In recent years, scholars have poked lots of holes in the belief that real-world financial markets approach this ideal. Emotion and shortsightedness can prevail for long periods. Arbitrageurs who are correct in their assessment of fundamental values can still lose all their money if they get the timing wrong. Goofballs sometimes get rich.

In sports, unlike finance, the fundamentals are there for everyone to see. Earnings per share can be manipulated; earned run average cannot. So you might think it would be harder for inefficiencies to persist. Yet they do."
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