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Probability

July 16, 2021

Can money buy a winning baseball team?

Put me in coach, I'm ready to play, today.

Look at me, I can be, centre field.

Ever wonder if money can buy a winning team in Major League Baseball (MLB)?

Well, BMO's Moneyball All-Star Break Report examines the relationship between payroll and performance in Major League Baseball.

The annual report provides a financial analysis of MLB winners and losers at the unofficial halfway mark of the 2013 season.

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April 12, 2021

Save or buy a lottery ticket?

What are the odds?

No, really. What are the odds of actually winning the biggest Lotto 6/49 jackpot in Canadian history?

Well, I wouldn't quit your day job.

According to statistics, chances are one in almost 14 million -- well, one in 13,983,816 to be exact.

Up for grabs is an estimated $55 million jackpot which is continuing to grow.

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April 05, 2021

More choices lead to bigger gambles: study

People make riskier decisions when they're given more choice, according to a study into how we behave when faced with large amounts of information.

What’s more, while our choices about risk invariably feel right when we make them, many of these decisions end up hurting us in the end.

The researchers set up a gambling game where players were rated on their decision-making when faced with a large number of potential wagers. The result was that people took riskier gambles when they mistakenly felt that there was a higher probability of winning big.

The problem is that most of us don’t sample any given choice enough to understand the consequences associated with it, the study suggests. This leads to taking riskier choices more often.

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Gordon PowersGordon Powers

A long-time fund company executive, Gordon Powers now heads up the Affinity Group, a financial services consulting firm. Gordon was a personal finance columnist for the Globe & Mail for many years, has taught retirement planning...