Let’s say you violated all of the basic tenets of physics (and common sense) and invented yourself a time machine. And being a typical human you wanted to cash in by going back in time and investing in something that will be worth beaucoup des bucks when you get back - IBM stock in 1932 or a Jaguar XKSS (or three!) or the land under Cecil’s future home, or whatever.
The big question: Is there any viable way to take the required funds back with you? Short of going around to coin and collectables dealers and buying up greenbacks from the correct era (which has it’s own problems, not the least of which is paying for big investments in cash) I can’t come up with any way to make this work.
Jewelry? Too dicey. Bullion? Too illegal. Selling modern technology to the rubes? Um … maybe?
All you need to do is collect $2 worth of currency for the era you’re going back with. Take that and a list of winners for a horse track to where you’re going back to. After a few days of winning trifectas you should have more than enough currency from that era to invest with.
Jewellery would be acceptable but seems a shame not to capitalise on the effect of inflation and make yourself rich. At the risk of hijacking the thread, how could you keep $1000 that you have now, go back and have that $1000 in the past?
I suppose a common metal might have been much rarer in the past and therefore more valuable but I can’t think of many other ways.
Oooo! See, now, THAT shows some awesome deviousness AND practicality. Damn! You are my HERO.
I like that. Spend a few hours with the microfilm and make a couple of months worth of notes, get some 1920-era dollar bills and off you go.
In fact, given the exponential nature of re-investing your wins, you could probably destroy the parimutuel biz single-handedly. You would need to exercise some circumspection, methinks
Coke, Marihuana, Demerol,
LSD’d probably cause quite the sensation among the ‘jet set’ of Edwardian London. With a monopoly on supply, you could charge a pretty pence for the experience.
Before you go, make sure to check the newspaper from the day after those races. See if there’s a headline saying, “Stranger wins big at track, found beaten and robbed.”
You could probably buy currency from 1932 at rates way, way below the rate of inflation.
Collectors obviously do pay far more for old currency than its face value, but they like to buy currency in good - preferably near-perfect - condition. Ratty (or what are called “fair” by collectors) $20 bills from 1932 won’t cost you nearly as much. Just spend some time taking crappy specimens off the hands of collectors and shops. Even if you pay twice face value, your bills will be worth approximately fifteen times as much in 1932 as the same number of dollars today.
You are going to run into some serious problems with chaos theory really fast with any gambling scenario. There is no way to tell how fast it will happen but your very existence will start to influence the outcomes of complex systems especially ones that you directly interact with. You could win the first horse race based on your old newspaper (or maybe not even that) but when you start dropping some serious coin on more races over time, it will start to influence the outcome of the races themselves in ways that you can’t predict and it will just steamroll from there so much that your newspapers results won’t be valid anymore after a short time. Even saying ‘hi’ to a jockey in a minor race could change the results of the Kentucky Derby weeks or months later so you wouldn’t have any more idea who to debt on than the average person and you could return home flat-broke.
Memorize the location the Dead Sea Scrolls were found at. Go back in time prior to their discovery, recover them and then sell them to archaeologists and the like.
I’m trying to think of other valuable treasure troves that have been discovered semi-recently that would be recoverable by one person.
Interacting with the jockeys might affect something. But how would the bets themselves influence the outcome of the race unless something crooked was involved? The only thing it should affect in a legit race are the odds/payouts.
The OP needs to forget about an investment or invention angle (unless they’re a glory hound) and just concentrate on the money:
Go back to 1920 with $2 you got at an antique store and make a few bets at a track. Then travel forward a few months and make bets at a different track. Then travel forward a few months and make bets at a different track, and so on and so on. Keep doing this until you’ve traveled to the point in history you want to be and live it up with your zillions.