Comment by tiedemies on New Improved Lottery · 2007-04-17T10:14:51.000Z · LW · GW

Some economist once stated something like, the stock market is like a casino with odds against the "house". It means the expected gain is not zero, but positive.

If the market grows at g, with a little financial engineering, it should be possible to create a portfolio with expected gain somewhere between zero and g, with a very very long tail, i.e., a non-zero chance of huge payoffs.