Taking us on a richly anecdotal ride through the more popular theories and historic instances of luck, Max Gunther unearths the 5 traits lucky people have in common — and which can change your luck:

• The Spiderweb Structure — The luckiest men and women are those who take the trouble to form a great many friendly contacts with other people.

• The Hunching Skill — Lucky people have the capacity to generate accurate hunches, and then to trust them and act on them.

• Audentes Fortuna Juvat — Boldness seems to create good luck. As a group, lucky people tend to be bold people.

• The Ratchet Effect — Lucky people typically seem to know how to discard bad luck before it becomes worse luck.

• The Pessimism Paradox — Lucky people are generally happy but never assume they are fortune's chosen ones. In fact, lucky people expect to be hit by bad luck — and prepare for it..

This is a most compelling and readable book on the fascinating subject of luck. Come, change yours.

Max Gunther is the author of several books, including The Zurich Axioms, How to Make Your Man More Sensitive and The Very Rich and How They Got That Way. He is very lucky.