Practical Issue #3: John Titor and you.

[ProfessorFaustus]

John Titor and You or how can I be John Titor.


Let's ask you guys on how to solve these problems.

1. Where can a person obtain a summary record of all horse racing results for the past decade? Does not matter which state or tournament provided that the horse racing occurs within the United States and the racing happens more than monthly.

2. Pre-Internet, what is or are the best sport on which to gamble? A easy sport on which to gamble and can be done pre-Internet.
Where can I obtain a sports almanac of this particular sport?

3. How can I pretend to be a psychic or a John Titor predicting future events, when all I am really doing is recounting historical happenings while profiting and remaining anonymous?
I do not want any one knowing who I am and following me to learn my secret for predicting the future.
Yet I want to make money from making predictions on events but not on the stock market, sports, nor by playing the lottery (wherever).
For example, if I went back to August 2001, how can I make money predicting that there will be a major terrorist attack next month without (a) stock market gambling and (b) letting any one know who I am and how I was able to predict the 9-11 attack?


John Titor and You or how can I be John Titor.

 

[tt137]

There was nothing psychic about it. Do you watch the news and read a lot? Well, everything that "Titor" said was in the news at the time he said it. The CIA report for 2015, the 2000 election struggle, etc... were all going on at the time. Couple this with an imagination and the time travel stories of Terminator and Back to the Future. Add in some popular knowledge of physics then keep everything else vague using the desire not to alter the timeline as your excuse. The longer you stay around and talk though the more complicated the story gets.

John Titor

 

[Darby]

Sheldon,

1. Where can a person obtain a summary record of all horse racing results for the past decade? Does not matter which state or tournament provided that the horse racing occurs within the United States and the racing happens more than monthly.

2. Pre-Internet, what is or are the best sport on which to gamble? A easy sport on which to gamble and can be done pre-Internet.
Where can I obtain a sports almanac of this particular sport?

1. Your best "bet" is to find back issues of the Daily Racing Form. It reports the prior day's results for all US tracks. Where to find them might be a problem. Try the DRF home page (www.drf.com).

2. The Sports Almanac is one source. But an Internet search for daily results is also possible.

Your character has to be ccareful here. S/he can only gamble legally in Las Vegas or Atlantic City (depending on the exact year). They keep stats on "oddly lucky" winners and can ban any gambler if they even suspect that they are cheating. They share such information worldwide with other casinos. They know the chances of success, they know when a gambler is too lucky and they act quickly. There is no appeal, they can't be successfully sued and they don't have to prove that the person who is Black Balled cheated.

Using illegal book makers is no place to cheat. They don't Black Ball. They black eye (nose, ears, etc.) or break legs. They can also give a whole new meaning to "banned for life".

3. As to the "psychic" bit I say avoid it completely. What's to be gained (that you can't accomplish via #1 and/or #2 above) if making money is the object?

If the object is to affect some sort of change it seems more appropriate to go about the task quitely given the information that your character would have available. Fewer embarrassing questions are likely to come up. Answering the questions requires fabricating answers and that ends up snowballing on you. KISS - keep it simple ......

BTW: You don't have to totally avoid the stock market. If your character gos to 1990 s/he can buy 100 shares of Cisco Systems at $18.00 in February and let it ride until December of 2000.

With (6) 2-1 and (2) 3-2 stock splits during that time s/he'll have 25,200 shares at $72.00 upon the sale: $1,890,000 less tax and brokerage fees.

S/he can even go 500 shares and let it ride. One trade won't raise any questions ten years later when the sale is transacted. /ttiforum/images/graemlins/smile.gif

This is one reason for the character to be quiet - no "psychic" activity. Too many "believers" changes the market dynamic from "uncertain future" which is what allows the market to rise, to a "certain future" which kills the market...and points a finger at the person who appears to have insider information.

Which points to the law. The use of time travel to make market trades would be a strictly constructed illegal use of insider information. Insider information is any financial information that can be used to complete a trade when that information is not generally available to all investors.

Even though the person might actually be a time traveler and such a "tall tale" from the SEC's POV might be preposterous and impossible to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" in a criminal court, they can always opt to a civil trial where they only have to prove "by a preponderance of the evidence" that the trader used insider information to exact a multi-million dollar award. Too many "lucky" trades would convince a jury. The government doesn't have to allude to time travel...they can let the defendant look silly if s/he brings up the issue (which the jury won't buy but which can be used against the defendant as proof of criminal intent to defraud by whatever means). The government could thereafter file a criminal pleading - which is not double jeopardy.

Use of time travel to make money is a very sticky wicket.