Skip to content
← Home
Canonical · Paper

The Kelly Criterion & Position Sizing

John L. Kelly / Edward Thorp · 1956

"Kelly derived the fraction of bankroll to bet to maximize long-run logarithmic growth — bet too little and you compound slowly, bet too much and a single bad run wipes out the geometric advantage even with a positive edge."

The idea

Kelly asked Bell Labs' question in 1956: if you have an edge, what fraction should you actually bet? The answer — edge divided by odds — is the fastest sustainable compounding path, and most investors bet far past it.

Why it works
The takeaway — recall it first
Further reading

Read more about the topic

Up NextSuggested: Continues the theme of Finance Theory

The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)

"CAPM isolates the price of systematic risk — expected return rises linearly with beta to the market, so only non-diversifiable risk earns a premium and alpha is excess over that line."

William Sharpe · PaperContinue→
Listen
0 / 2