Ultimately, though, what divided Thorp from Black, Scholes, and Merton was not empirical. Black's, Scholes's, and Merton's practical actions are evidence that they too accepted that mispricings that offered opportunities for profit did sometimes exist. While looking for ways of testing their model empirically, Black and Scholes identified apparently unduly cheap warrants issued by a corporation called National General. "Scholes, Merton, and I and others jumped right in and bought a bunch of these warrants" (Black, 1989, p. 7), just as Thorp might have done.

Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, loc. 1109