Money Ball for Investing: Winning in an unfair market

Your family beats Wall Street in the series Billy Beane did the impossible. He knew he could not afford to buy replacements for Damon, Giambi and Isringhousen, so he hired a unknown Yale economist wonk who had a system. Brad Pitt (Moneyball) explains his take on the system to his scouts. To win we need runs, so on-base percentage is critical. Does not matter how they get there-walks are good. He hires new players who have high ratios. Scouts complain the new are not "baseball material" or too old or can't play positions or girl friend is ugly. The "professionals" think he is nuts. One is fired. Since the manager, Art Howe, doesn't buy it, he does not use the new players. Billy trades Art's players away so the manager is forced to use Billy's. Billy actually explains to the team how they can win by using their strengths-just get on base. Belichick's "Do your job" In his book, Michael Lewis tells us how the economics of baseball work and how Billy Beane, as a failed player, made history by NOT following the professionals' 'expert' knowledge. How can your family beat Wall Street 'professionals' over time? We take the Billy Beane approach. First, we acknowledge that we have a small budget for investing. We can't afford the hedge funds, offshore tax shelters, and expensive Wall Street money managers taking 2-3% a year.