This refers to a betting strategy where a gambler doubles the size of his bet after each losing bet in order to recover his losses from his previous bets and earn a profit on his original stake. The Martingale strategy, which was proposed by French mathematician Paul Pierre Levy in the 18th century, is sure to work as long as there is at least some probability that the bettor will experience a winning bet in the future. It, however, requires that the bettor has deep pockets to prevent running out of capital before experiencing a lucky winning bet. While the strategy has traditionally been used by professional gamblers, it has also been applied to the field of investing.
