Buffett and his managers aren't concerned about the stock price "trend," they're looking at the stock price in relation to the intrinsic value of the equity. With that said, I'd bet Todd Combs made the investment and he does trade more frequently than Buffett and Ted Weschler.
I think you missed the section in Algebra where they teach the time value of money. Nobody is going to give up money today for the same amount at a future date.
It doesn't take long to go through all of the permutations in your head and figure out that it's something really odd, but this line in the second paragraph should have let every reader know that the solution was gimmicky: "If I told you that the solution is a VERY unusual move that is no longer strictly within the bounds of the rules of the game then that might help you a little bit." From then on, I read the story instead of trying to solve the problem.
I think you're just disappointed because you wanted to solve a chess problem. I liked the article because I read it as a story to be enjoyed rather than a problem to be solved.
But from a broader social standpoint, isn't it a good thing that people who can afford to take risks are the ones taking the risks? It sucks on an individual basis if you're living paycheck-to-paycheck and can't risk failure, but it's not such a bad thing that the affluent are taking larger economic risks than the poor.
Go through a list of startups (e.g., http://www.austinstartuplist.com/emerging-startups), cold call/email/show up at every one of them to offer your services. If your sample is sufficiently large, you're bound to land a gig.
Hey HNers -- I run TrepBin and just wanted to get your feedback. Only a handful of people have purchased the deal; I'd like to know why YOU haven't bought it.
Some possibilities:
-it's not a great deal
-I'm not looking for web analytics apps
-your website is too ghetto/I don't trust you
-???