Book Description

This book contains everything necessary to gain a working knowledge of the penny stock market.The current status of the OTCBB penny stock market is described along with updates on new rules that are making penny stocks a safer investment.The author investigates and answers the 25 most frequently asked questions by penny stock investors and provides "10 golden rules" to follow when trading penny stocks.Investment strategies unique to penny stocks such as MOMO plays, pump & dumps, and gappers are explained.Other tried and true investment strategies such as long-term holds, swing trades, averaging down, and day-trading are also discussed.The phenomenon of subpenny stocks is revealed and explained in addition to a feature on the message boards that are so important to penny stock investors.A unique feature of this book is a section containing links to over 100 penny stock web sites.Additionally, a list of 350 potentially explosive penny stocks is provide!d for the reader to investigate. By reading this book, new investors will gain the knowledge and confidence to trade penny stocks profitably. ... Read more

Reviews (25)

Dan and his Penny Stock Book
Well first let me say that this is a very short book - easily read in one sitting with 118 real pages. Unfortunatley for this book, it came out in 1999 so as we know this was during the hayday of stock fever. I found that a lot of his referenced website's don't exist anymore and only a fraction of his bulletin board's mentioned still survive. He also talk's about them WAY to much. In the era of technology and pertinent information, this was it's major downfall. Where he recommends bulletin board's for talking to others about stock & recommendations, I've only found the "bashers" and the "pump and dump'ers". No real value there unless you get lucky. I mean he even defines "LOL". I could hardly believe it. Most, if not all his examples make it sounds like he's a zillionaire, yet he's made several thousand. Whoopie. I've only found on average that less that 3-5 stocks a day go up significantly, and finding out when one or two stocks in a 1000 is going to "pop", impossible. Day trading of penny stocks is not recommended but there are several decent strategies shown for several day and on holding/playing the game. Penny stocks are nothing like Nasdaq except the way you buy and sell. Uber-Volility is the name of the game and it's very easy to loose. I read the book and it makes it look it's just to easy.. well in 99', it was hard to loose. In today's economy, it's a whole different ballgame. If you need some strategies, this could potentially be a good book, otherwise it's far outdated with old websites, and potentially incorrect inforation for the well informed. Read's like it was written by a sophmore in high-school, so it maybe an easy to understand, but of questionable value on 2004.

REALLLY GOOD ADVICE BUT NO $5,000 CASH GUARANTEE
I have read this book several times and with each reading I have gotten hints on how to buy and trade very low-priced stocks, even including stocks selling for less than a cent a share.The rapid ups and downs of prices of these tiny stocks can be scary to the new beginner just starting out in investing in these small upstart companies. I just ran across a recently published book on penny stocks that comes with a $5,000 guarantee if the author's system does not make the new or old-time investor a profit.Try getting GUARANTEED PROFITS WITH SMALL STOCKS--THE ONLY STOCK MARKET INVESTMENT SYSTEM THAT COMES WITH A $5,000 GUARANTEE by R. Max Bowser. Believe me, it is so easy to read and understand.He shares his 30 years of investment wisdom. And he backs it with a $5,000 guarantee if the reader does not make a profit.Never before have I heard of any author make such a guarantee on an investment book.Bowser's book will greatly add to what you may learn in Dan's wonderful book.

Oustanding book for starting into pennys
Outstanding book for starting into pennys.Good description of the various ways to trade, and the forces behind the market.I'd highly recommend it to anyone who's considering penny stocks.

Pretty good book on penny stocks
This was a pretty good book on penny stocks. I like how the author mentions that visting message board communities to hunt for ideas and rumors etc, is key while investing in penny stocks. That is very true, and not many people realize it can be a fundamental part of the investment process in penny stocks. The one downfall this book has, is that it was written in 1999 when the market was booming and the economy was robust. Now it is much harder to capitialze on the penny stocks, specifically those involved with some sort of technological advance. I found nearly half to all of the websites mentioned... to be defunct and non-operational. This just shows those penny stock pickers that investing in a bear market in such small securities is hazardous to your wealth, and nearly impossible to capitialize on.

No Substance
I can't believe that any of the other reviewers have experience trading stocks.This book doesn't give you any concrete startegies.Basically stick with the top 100 volume pennies and then scan the online boards for ideas.He says to have a plan for exits, but it is basically take a guess - no rational.In one example he has a 5 stock portfolio, then "adds" up all the gains and says he had a net return of over 1800%.While still impressive, the gain on the portfolio is closer to 400%.

The only decent advice is to use limit orders so you don't whacked by slippage, and to do due diligence (though he admits he doesn't on most picks).This book is pretty much an intro to pennies then fly by the seat of your pants.It doesn't deal with pennies on the NASDAQ or NYSE, just OTCBB and pink sheets. ... Read more

Book Description

GAIN THE WEALTH TO MATCH YOUR DREAMS

trade stocks online

Online trading continues to grow as more and more informed people study different investment strategies for different market conditions. Enhance your trading knowledge and personal income with Mark Larson’s easy-to-understand and informative investment strategies. Treat the stock market like a business and learn why investors should take profits and avoid big windfalls. With the power of both short and long-term options you too can financially benefit in all market conditions. Regardless of your income or financial experience, the accessible strategies you discover in Trade Stocks Online will set you on the path to fulfilling your dreams of financial success. From mix-and-match strategies that provide sizeable returns to money-making opportunities through stock split investing, the techniques and tips discussed will allow you to enter the market with confidence and exit with profits.

Visit our Web site at www.wileyfinance.com ... Read more

Reviews (29)

A ¿paradigm shift¿
At first glance Mark L. Larson's book TRADE STOCKS ONLINE appears to be just another compilation of investment strategies. While Mark does an excellent job in elucidating options, stock splits and bull put spreads, his book is much more than this. In essence his book is an invitation: an invitation to transcend our "learned limitations." Psychologists define "learned limitations" as limiting beliefs that keep us from living our true potential. In his book Mark enthusiastically coaxes us from the false belief that in order to have our financial dreams comes true we must trade our time for a paycheck. He empowers us by having us conceptualize trading and the stock market as a business and helps us by dispelling our fears that trading is hard that it is too complicated, that trading is beyond the abilities and comprehension of us mere mortals. In short, Mark L. Larson is a man on a mission-his mission is to help each of reach our financial dreams so that we in turn can help others reach theirs. After meeting Mark I will go out on the limb and say that Mark gets more satisfaction when his students "score big" in the stock market than when he does. If you are looking for a check list of techniques and strategies or if you are looking for some erudite philosophical treatise on stock market investing, then I suggest you look elsewhere. However, if you are looking for a "paradigm shift" that will allow you to secure your financial future then this book is for you.

Trade Stocks Online
Mark Larson's book provides real insights into how to make REAL money when the stock market goes up OR down. You often wonder whether the author following the principles outlined would make money. This author is living proof that the principles outlined in the book do make money. It is a complement to the author's other educational endeavors. This book is highly recommended. Thanks Mark.

Break free from the buy and hold strategy.
Trading Stocks Online has great opened my mind to changing my the way I think about investing. It is hard to break free from the buy and hold mentality. Investing should treated like a business. Your in business to make money; if your not making money then why are you in business?

The book starts off by helping the reader develop a dream and then explains the basics on how to protect those dreams by running your business, placing stop losses, and knowing when to get out. This book also has wonderful insight in to strategies that are easy to understand and implement.

Gain valuable knowledge about the market
Mark Larson's book is a down-to-earth treatment of how to be successful in the stock market. His straightforward approach deals with the important issues of timing in the market, knowing when to sell, knowing how to read indicators successfully, but most importantly, how to develop an attitude of treating this as a business and learning how to make wise business decisions when it comes to your day to day decisions regarding your portfolio. I highly recommend this book for anyone serious about gaining the type of knowledge you really need to be successful in the market. Thanks, Mark!

Trade Stocks Online - '101'
Mr Larson has an obvious and clear understanding of how the stock market works. But the true gift he possesses is his incredible ability to communicate his knowledge thoroughly and in a very understandable manner. Mr Larson's book was like a light house in the middle of the fog of confusing and overhelming stock market information currently available. The book opened my mind to the concept of 'Buy and Sell' for a quick, attainable profit rather then 'Buy and Hold' for the long term. It also opened my mind to strategies in a down market which are particularly exciting since stocks fall 4-8 times faster then they go up. I found this book inspiring and hope instilling. Tap into Mr Larson's experience and read this book. ... Read more

Book Description

It takes a special set of trading skills to thrive in today's intensely volatile markets, where point swings of plus or minus 200 points can occur on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis. The Volatility Course arms stock and options traders with those skills. George Fontanills and Tom Gentile provide readers with a deeper understanding of market volatility and the forces that drive it. They develop a comprehensive road map detailing how to identify its ups and downs. And they describe proven strategies and tools for quantifying volatility and confidently developing plans tailored to virtually any given market condition. The companion workbook provides step-by-step exercises to help you master the strategies outlined in The Volatility Course before putting them into action in the markets. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

A Must Book for the Beginning Options Trader
As someone who has been trading options for a couple of years, mainly has a hedge against adverse price moves in stocks, I wanted to try my hand at a more aggressive strategy, using options to make money, and possibly become wealthy. I knew that a thorough understanding of volatility was necessary for options trading. I was drawn to this book because I had previously bought the Options Course from George Fontanills and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Volatility Course has two themes: Understanding volatility and integrating volatility into your options strategies. There isn't a lot of theory to bog the options trader down but good examples to bring home his points. While I may have wanted to see a little more theory for handling the futures market, the book is excellent and would recommend it for the beginning options trader.

Doesn't deliver the goods
Readers would buy this book assuming that they will be able to master the concept of volatility, and use it in their options trading, but this is far from being the case.
One would expect a book that deals with an advanced concept such as volatility, to take it as a given that the readers are already familiar with all the basics such as "an option gives the buyer the RIGHT not the OBLIGATION" etc.Iestimate that about 2/3 of the book deals with such beginner stuff.
On top of that, the authors don't even try to conceal that their primary purpose in writing the book is to deliver traffic to their premium web service.
I did learn a few things about volatility, but I was left with the feeling that I was tricked

Useful information, but mostly regurgitation
The title might suggest that this is an advanced options book; no, it is not. Three quarters of the content is a mix of other G. Fontanills books, and one quarter some updated material on skews, calendar spreads, sentiment measures, etc. The book is a weird mix of information for total newbies to the stock market and intermediate level options traders. There are some errors and typos in the book as well, so be careful when you apply the strategies to your real life trading.

So much practical information in one place!
As an Options Trader I was always overwelmed by all the tools available to me, and by the barrage of financial news. I had information paralisys.

Where do I start? What kind of stock behavior should I be trading in this current market? And once I found a stocks I liked, What kind of strategy needs to be applied? Exactly how do I find the best options for this stock?

This book is the real thing. I am a "follow the checklist" kind of person, and I have always been looking for sensible process to look for trades.Something simple yet able to give me consistent results.

Knowing that Implied volatility is such a factor in option pricing, I now can navigate thru tha maze of option chains and pick exactly what is required for my trades, because now I know what trade needs to be done.

This book is fascinating and it has the "See thru the eyes of the trader" approach I was looking for.

This book has now taken the place of about five other books that I will be auctioning online.

A Masterpiece!!!

Outstanding!
This book is outstanding!
Fix a few editorial errors and I will give it 5 stars.
Great job! ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Traub experienced devastating losses in the stock market before he came upon the straightforward methodology of the NAIC. Once introduced to these principles, he became an instant convert. After several years of in -depth work, Traub developed the NAIC's official software, The Investor's Toolkit, now used by more than 40,000 investors. He teaches the NAIC investing method to standing-room-only audiences around the country and is a regular speaker at NAIC conferences.Take Stock is as important for what it says you don't have to know as for teaching you what you should. Building on the simple concepts taught by NAIC, Mr. Traub strips away the intimidating jargon the pros use to make themselves seem more knowledgeable. Cutting the required financial vocabulary to only ten simple terms, Traub shows you, in a breezy and good-natured style, how to apply those terms to learn the only two things you need to know about investment: if the company is good enough to buy, and, if so, the right price to pay for its stock. "Few people have done as much to help empower individuals to become successful investors as Ellis Traub. His book leaves the chaos and confusion of the investing world behind and puts readers on a simple brick road through Wall Street. His message: Yes, you can. Here's how!" -Donald E. Danko, CFA, Editor, Better Investing ... Read more

Reviews (16)

Buy it; you'll like it
What an excellent book.Well written, clear, and easy that read that gives great insight.Ellis Traub has written a superb text on investing.I thoroughly recommend this book to all those interested in successful investing.

Last book I'll need.
This book gives a simple, yet time honored approach to selectiong stocks. It uses fundamental analysis to select quality growth companies. So don't look here for technical analysis. Look here to find good stocks for the long term.

With the included Take Stock software you can now access online data (subscription required) and have the forms all filled out for you. You can manually fill them out also at no other charges. The program applies conservative judgments and gives you a analysis of the company's quality and the risk reward benefits of buying the stock from the current price. What could be simplier.

Also included is a demo copy copy of Mr. Traub's other software he writes for the NAIC called Investor's Toolkit which is a full blown stock evaluation, stock selection, and portfolio management tool. It requires more understanding than the Take Stock program does, but the online help screens do a good job of explaining its purpose.

My only complaint is that many of the stocks I've romanticized about are not quality companies. At least they are not companies I'd invest my money in for retirement.

I've read this book several times and learn more each time.

Mr Traub has mentioned the NAIC & AAII investment organizations and I recommend both of them to further your investing education.

Last book I'll need.
This book gives a simple, yet time honored approach to selectiong stocks. It uses fundamental analysis to select quality growth companies. So don't look here for technical analysis. Look here to find good stocks for the long term.

With the included software you can now access online data (subscription required) and have the forms all filled out for you. The program applies conservative judgments and gives you a analysis of the company's quality and the risk reward benefits of buying the stock from the current price. What could be simplier.

My only complaint is that many of the stocks I've romanticized about are not quality companies. At least they are not companies I'd invest my money in for retirement.

I've read this book several times and learn more each time.

Mr Traub has mentioned the NAIC & AAII investment organizations and I recommend both of them to further your investing education.

There are better books.Avoid this one.
The book does not really go into any investment process and is confusing.I prefer Value Investing Today or Ben Graham's books.Avoid this one.

Take Stock: A Roadmap to Profiting from Your First Walk Down
Benjamin Graham is a classic on investment. Years from now folks will be buy "Take Stock" as another one of those "must have" timeless classics.Ellis's book is the best I have read that explains things in plain (non-technical) English with examples most people can easily grasp. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Serious international investors able to choose their own stocks will find a useful reference in The Top 100 International Growth Stocks. Coauthor Peggy Edersheim Kalb is a financial journalist and former Smith Barney money manager. Scott E. Kalb manages the Smith Barney International Equity Fund. From a universe of 10,000 non-U.S. companies, the authors selected 100 relatively large ones (minimum market capitalization $500 million) that have long demonstrated "an exceptional ability to grow their businesses at superior rates in all kinds of conditions, climates, and political environments." The book offers a three-page report on each of the 100 companies, most of which trade on U.S. markets. Among the top 100 are many household names, from Heineken to Sony. But the list also includes dozens of companies that U.S. investors should know but probably don't, such as Cifra, Mexico's largest food retailer; Astra of Sweden, one of the world's largest drug companies; and Hutchison Whampoa, Hong Kong's preeminent conglomerate. Aside from providing investment leads, the book is a fascinating tour of companies that are shaping the world's economic future. --Barry Mitzman ... Read more

Book Description

'Shareholder Value' presents a powerful and useful toolkit of market-based perspectives, analytic approaches, valuation techniques, and specific financial metrics for use in everyday business life.

The author helps a broad spectrum of professionals understand the salient points and real world implications of a 'value management' movement which has taken hold in many corporations in the United States and around the world. This movement is being supported by some of the major institutional investors who influence financial markets.

The main goal of 'Shareholder Value' is to help working professionals grasp the concept of value 'creators' and 'destroyers', along with the implications. He also provides tools to measure the success (or failure) of major strategic and operational initiatives and enables corporate managers to understand how shareholder value is created, and then directs behaviour toward 'value-based' planning and action.

Although mainly aimed at the professional market, 'Shareholder Value' will also be of use to students of business and finance as it is intended to provide a comprehensive foundation for important elements of business strategy and acquisition valuation, corporate financial analysis, capital investments, corporate financing and economic value based metrics.

AUTHOR'S REVIEW:

When developing this book, I strived to achieve the following:

* Provide the finance professional and student of finance with a comprehensive template of shareholder value concepts and techniques - geared toward use in a corporate setting.
* Give the non-financial professional an understanding of the underpinnings and behavioural aspects of economic value management.
* Outline and provide details of an effective process for implementing a value-based financial performance system within a corporation.
* ...And, combine learning with enjoyable reading by presenting technical material through a story.

The "story" and "characters" are unique features of Shareholder Value - A Business Experience.The reader can get an appreciation of the environment surrounding value-based management, along with challenges that arise when transitioning from traditional "accounting" performance (where earnings and earnings per share reign supreme) to "economic" performance (where cash flow and return on investment are emphasized).Characters occupying operating and staff roles have been created to represent people that those working inside companies (large, medium and small) may encounter and, also, to invoke some humour.Insights into how to function in different corporate roles can be gained by following the characters through the story.

Presents a combination of analysis and case study in which a strong technical treatment is blended with a fictional case study to offer clarity and explanation
A practical and effective implementation process for a comprehensive financial performance system
Offers a perspective of the role of different corporate and business unit functions in the implementation of value-based financial performance within a company ... Read more

Book Description

From the world's most respected financial information service, a powerhouse of critical financial information

McGraw-Hill proudly introduces the Standard & Poor's Stock Sector Guides, a new series of guides offering investors comprehensive coverage of all major stocks in today's hottest industry sectors, including:

• Finance
• Technology
• Health Care, Pharmaceutical, and Biotechnology
• Energy
• Communication and Telecom

These new guides offer investors instant access to the high-quality information and analysis previously available only to S&P subscribers. Each guide includes exclusive stock reports for the 150 top-rated companies in each industry in a sector. Each report features:

• S&P's ratings and recommendations
• A summary of business activities
• A report on sales history and recent developments
• Three-year price charts
• Key income and balance sheet statistics
• And more

Guides also include analyses of each sector as a whole and exclusive advice on how to evaluate stocks for the various industries in each sector.

Book Description

Today's active investors enjoy spotting, tracking, and paying bottom dollar on undiscovered gems. In The Superstock Investor, stock-picking icon Charles LaLoggia provides the tools and insights sharp investors need to uncover ready-to-perform stocks--and walks the reader step-by-step through the process of identifying and selecting these stocks before they break out to become true Superstocks. Whether sniffing out prime consolidation candidates or spotting takeover candidatesin multiple-bidder situations, The Superstock Investor provides every clue active investors need to find the best in undervalued stocks. Readers can follow Charles LaLoggia's systems and guidelines for:
• Spotting the Top 9 Takeover Clues
• Ways the media reveal Superstocks
• Using charts to find and analyzeundervalued companies ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Highly Recommended!
At first glance, this book may look like just another tediously detailed behind-the-scenes guide to picking stocks. But the delightful surprise concocted by authors Charles M. LaLoggia and Cherrie Mahon is the book's page-turner narrative and laugh-out-loud wit, which they often use effectively to nail critical points. The authors focus on how to spot and invest in undervalued companies. We from getAbstract recommend this book to investment professionals (hey, the way things are going, a few fresh insights can't hurt) as well as to anyone, including Sunday speculators in need of a good laugh.

A Humorous Look at Spotting Takeovers and Special Situations
The Superstock Investor is the best resource I have seen for legal and ethical instruction on how to spot companies that will be taken over or whose stocks will soon soar due to temporary, special circumstances.These methods can help you make money in up and down markets, but they require a lot of learning and focus.Even if you don't plan to use these investment methods, you will learn a lot of how Wall Street works from this fine book.

A Superstock is a "stock that has the potential to rise significantly in price regardless of what the general stock market is doing."This will be due to a "specific potential event, or 'catalyst,' usually a takeover bid . . . ."These stocks are selling well below their on-going value as a business but no one cares because they are small and either cyclical or slow-growing.

The book is filled with actual stocks that the authors have picked and followed in their newsletter.The case histories go back over 25 years of special situations, including cumulative preferred stocks suddenly making their payments after having been in arears.

The basic method involves watching factors like takeover activity in an industry, the ownership of 5+ percent institutions through 13D filings with the SEC, insider buying and selling, company share repurchases, and technical trading patterns discerned from charts.

The opening section points out the weaknesses of how most people try to pick stocks.The examples are quite humorous, and will provide entertainment value even to people who do not buy and sell stocks.

The authors are also cautious about making claims.They are trying to give you an additional set of tools, rather than replacing whatever tools you use now.The examples of how to pay attention differently to financial news are very well done.

On the other hand, do be aware that few people are going to have the interest and discipline to learn to use this investing method.

After you finish profiting from this book, I suggest that you think about where else the consensus is usually wrong.What about forecasts of what will happen next politically?. . . with fashion?. . . with the economy?. . . with entertainment celebrities?

Learn to take the conventional wisdom as wishful thinking or the latest, best guess . . . rather than as fact!

The Superstock Investor
This book provides a unique insight into investing in the stock market. For most "get rich quick" investment books, onlythe author gets rich. This is not that kind of book. Mr. LaLoggia provides a wry and witty review of what's wrong with most investment "news" and "research" available to the public today. The book sets forth a proven system to search out and identify undervalued stocks that have been overlooked by Wall Street and the main-stream press. To Mr. LaLoggia's credit, he acknowledges that his approach is not easy and requires research and analysis by the investor. The fact that it is not easy and requires work may be the book's main virtue to the intelligent investor who realizes that there is no "get rich quick" formula.

A Fun Read
This book was really fun to read.It sort of swings back and forth between a light-hearted view of how the stock market really works, and then gets very serious and detailed when it comes to LaLoggia's methods for picking takeover stocks.To get the most out of this book I think you have to take the market seriously and accept that picking stocks takes effort and hard work.Most of the book deals with things you should look for when reading the financial news.What I like most about the book is that it is so different from any other stock market book I've read.It's also quite humorous in parts.All in all, I highly recommend it.

A Worthwhile Read
There are some well thought out insights in this book, especially in regards to potential takeovers. It is clear that Ms. Mahon has thoroughly researched her subject and offers numerous real life examples of what to look for in spotting takeover opportunities, most of which is conveyed in a clear and concise manor... A fast, easy, worthwhile read. ... Read more

Book Description

Two pioneers and innovators in the money management field present their choice of groundbreaking, peer-reviewed articles on subjects including portfolio engineering and long-short investment strategy. More than just a collection of classic review pieces, however, Equity Management provides new material to introduce, interpret, and integrate the pieces, with an introduction that provides an authoritative overview of the chapters. Important and innovative, it is destined to become the "Graham and Dodd" of quantitative equity investing. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

One good chapter, but slightly repetitive & not much new
Jacobs and Levy have assembled a body of work here centering on their stock picking techniques as well as their long-short portfolio construction techniques. Most of the chapters have their origins in various finance journals, though the articles themselves are not very heavy on mathematics. Overall, the book was interesting, though somewhat repititious. In retrospect I'd suggest that those familiar with long-short portfolios and the various market anomolies should just read chapter 2 about "Disentangling Equity Return Regularities" since that is where Jacobs & Levy's original work is outlined.

Chapter 2 focuses on the use of regression analysis to "disentangle" various stock market anomalies. The authors claim that simple rules such as "Buy low-P/E stocks" are appealing, but oversimplify the true source of stock returns. For example, low P/E stocks tend to have higher rates of return, as do small-capitalization stocks. But if a small capitalization stocks also tend to have low P/E's, then how much of their return is due to the low-P/E effect by itself, and how much is due to the small-capitalization effect by itself? Jacobs & Levy have done the analyses, and show which effects are genuine, and which effects are merely proxies for other effects. The effects that turn out to be the strongest when "disentangled" include low P/E, Earnings trend, Earnings Surprise, Residual Reversal, and Relative Strength.

The introductory chapters in the book make some interesting points. They argue that the stock market is not random, but then again it is also not simple. Although simple rules are appealing to humans, they oversimplify the complexity of the market. To gain an edge, one must use sophisticated, objective, multi-factor statistical computer models that capture the complex interactions in the market. Of course the authors are saying this to advocate the techniques they use, but nevertheless, they have some good points.

Finally, the second half of the book focuses on the construction of long-short portfolios, though there is not much fresh material here. They point out some of the logistical details of running a long-short portfolio, and give some examples. Also, they introduce the concept of "alpha-transport." That is, one can construct a long-short market neutral portfolio, then by buying buy an index (using SP500 futures, for example) one "transports" the gains from the long-short portfolio onto the gains/losses of the index position. Thus, if the stock picking for the long-short portfolio is done correctly, the total portfolio will beat the index picked. To me, this seemed like an obvious technique; I'm surprised they decided to focus on it and give it a fancy name ("alpha transport")

Overall, I found the book interesting, though somewhat repetitious. I was familiar with much of what was covered, however I did find that Chapter 2 was worth reading, since I wasn't familiar with Jacobs & Levy's work in detail.

Ultimately disappointing
As a critic once said of Henry James, Jacobs and Levy have chewed more than they bit off. There is (as another reviewer points out) no follow-up on how their factors have behaved in the decade or more since they did some of the pioneering work on factor models. Overall, the book has about 10% as much information useful to a practitioner as appears in Grinold & Kahn's authoritative text.

A collection of articles aimed at practitioners
This book is great for people who want an overview of the opportunities available in numerical evaluation of stocks. However to say that this is a book on quantitative techniques is probably not the mest description. There is extensive use of regression analysis but more hard-core 'quant' people will probabliy be disappointed. It is clear that the book is written by investment professionals focusing a lot on traditional evaluations parameters such as P/E, P/B etc. Interesting points include purification of return signals, and an extensive discussion of long-short techniques.

A Potent, Authoritative Guide to Successful Stock Selection
The most important thing that I (an individual mutual fund investor) came away with was an understanding of the reasons why actively managed mutual funds cannot consistently beat their underlying benchmarks if they take a "stock picking" approach. Since this is the approach taken by most mutual fund managers, it is not surprising that more than 50% (often much more than 50%) do not beat their benchmarks. I also found it interesting how with sufficient breath and depth, engineered portfolios offer higher return and lower risk than the S&P 500.

It is easy to see how "alpha transport", when properly used, can also help maximize returns while minimizing risk. However, I imagine there have been, more often than not, improper use of alpha transport which did just the opposite (minimize return and maximize risk). Obviously not included in the text is the "proper usage" or algorithms for "disentangling equity return regularities". I imagine the authors keep such information close to their chest and constantly update them as old algorithms become part of the efficient market.

The work provides a guide to modern methods of equity management, and for those interested in the state-of-the-art, I highly recommend this book.

Still Just a Collection of Journal Articles
The Good: It is a collection of some of the great papers by the authors over the years that have appeared in Journal of Portfolio Mgt., Journal of Investing and the Financial Analysts Journal. If you do any work in quant equity management you should know and have these papers. Buy the book and save time hunting down the papers.

The Bad: It is a collection of some of the great papers by the authors over the years that have appeared in Journal of Portfolio Mgt., Journal of Investing and the Financial Analysts Journal. If you do any work in quant equity management you know and have these papers. The introductions and "new" material that ties it all together is not worth the expense. What sort of got under my skin is that none of the work has been updated or brought current, even by using appendicies. Since some of their most interesting quant work was published 12 years ago we have no updates as to how the factors are doing. This would have been a great value to this reader.

Overall its a great body of work but nothing new. ... Read more

Book Description

A critical look at over 80 years of conflict, collusion, and corruption between financiers and politicians
Undue Influence paints a vivid portrait of the dealings between "the few", in this case members of Congress, the banking community, and the Fed, and sheds light on how radical new deregulatory measures could be introduced by unelected officials and then foisted upon Congress in the name of progress. In the process, the background of the new financial elite is examined-because they are markedly different than their predecessors of the 1920s and 1930s. Undue Influence also brings readers up to speed on other important issues, including how the financial elite has been able to perpetuate itself, how the markets lend themselves to these special interest groups, and how it is possible that after 80 years of financial regulation and regulatory bodies the same problems of financial malfeasance and fraud still plague the markets.
Charles R. Geisst (Oradell, NJ) is the author of 15 books, including Wheels of Fortune (0-471-47973-X), Deals of the Century (0-471-26397-4) and the bestsellers Wall Street: A History and 100 Years of Wall Street. Geisst has taught both political science and finance, worked in banking and finance on Wall Street and in London, as well as consulted. His articles have been published in the International Herald Tribune, Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Newsday, Wall Street Journal, and Euromoney. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Great background for regulation/deregulation
Professor Geisst has done a great job of making all of the confusion about the regulation and deregulation of Wall Street and the banks clearer. His account of the trend toward freeing the banks from the 1930's laws is very valuable because it shows the behind the secenes working of the different interested parties. The whole debate is part of the larger movement toward reinterpreting the past in a more conservative fashion and I found the book interesting for that reason alone. Reading this, I get the impression that conservatives reacted toward deregulation in the 1980s as strongly as the radicals did for regulation in the 1930s but the major difference was that the old regulations at least responded to a crisis, trying to fix it. The same cannot be said of the free market movement of the recent period. I found this book very vaulable. ... Read more

Book Description

Investors have too often extrapolated from recent experience. In the 1950s, who but the most rampant optimist would have dreamt that over the next fifty years the real return on equities would be 9% per year?Yet this is what happened in the U.S. stock market. The optimists triumphed. However, as Don Marquis observed, an optimist is someone who never had much experience. The authors of this book extend our experience across regions and across time. They present a comprehensive and consistent analysis of investment returns for equities, bonds, bills, currencies and inflation, spanning sixteen countries, from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first. This is achieved in a clear and simple way, with over 130 color diagrams that make comparison easy.

Crucially, the authors analyze total returns, including reinvested income. They show that some historical indexes overstate long-term performance because they are contaminated by survivorship bias and that long-term stock returns are in most countries seriously overestimated, due to a focus on periods that with hindsight are known to have been successful.

The book also provides the first comprehensive evidence on the long-term equity risk premium--the reward for bearing the risk of common stocks. The authors reveal whether the United States and United Kingdom have had unusually high stock market returns compared to other countries. The book covers the U.S., the U.K., Japan, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Ireland, Denmark, and South Africa.

Triumph of the Optimists is required reading for investment professionals, financial economists, and investors. It will be the definitive reference in the field and consulted for years to come. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

The most Important book for any investment professional
Any serious investor or student of the market should own a copy of this book. This book presents and analyzes data from many countries in a simple, easy to understand manner. It examines seasonal movements in stock prices, moves in different sectors, equity and bond risk premiums, size effects, effects of exchange rates, returns of various investment strategies, the list goes on. It presents over 100 years of stock and bond returns, from seventeen different countries, providing an incredible perspective on market movements.

In order to invest successfully, it is important to study the history of price movements, in various economic conditions. This book contains the information you will need, presented in an easy to understand manner.

To have this amount of data and analysis all in one book, is a huge achievement by the authors, and is of immense benefit to the serious investor.

Triumph of the Investigators
"In writing this book," authors Dimson, Marsh, and Staunton conclude, "we set out to answer four big questions: How have stock markets performed over the twentieth century, domestically and internationally? How has this compared with bonds and bills? What has been the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations? And what toll has inflation taken?"

In answering these questions, the authors have achieved perhaps the greatest triumph: assembling a 101 year database from 16 countries that is free from the "easy data" biases that result from utilizing readily available--but skewed--financial information.

In the spirit of their title, the authors find that stocks worldwide provide real risk-adjusted returns above and beyond bills and bonds. Interestingly, their estimates of risk premia are more modest than those offered by traditional sources. They also provide intriguing support for seasonality effects and the favorable returns associated with high dividend yields, value investing, and worldwide diversification.

Quite simply, I know of no other source of information on the "big picture" of investing that is as thorough or as lucidly outlined. This is a rare work of theoretical *and* practical significance.

Priceless
This book, together with a good book on Warren Buffet basics, will provide the private stock market investor with the tools needed for extraordinary investment success. First, a book on Buffet basics will teach the investor how to identify exceptional businesses and how to value them correctly (by calculating the present value of the total cash that can be extracted from the business during its expected life). Next, Triumph of the Optimists will be of tremendous help in selecting the appropriate valuation variables, e.g. equity risk premium, discount rate, etc to be used. By incorporating the statistics provided in this book into your valuations, you will have 101 years of global investment history on your side. As a global investor for more than twenty years, I sometimes had to learn the hard way that "reversion to the mean" is a basic investment truth that dare not be ignored. This book will tell you what that "mean" is. Some may argue that this book is expensive, or that its statistics may be slightly distorted, but in real life this book's practical value makes it priceless.

Very disappointing given the price
This is a very handsome book with lovely graphs etc. However I was after a useful summary of historical market performance.

This book was lacking in several respects:

1. The numbers behind the graphs are not provided and are not available so you cannot do any further analysis yourself. The graphs themselves are also drawn in such a way that it is hard to extract the numbers using a ruler.

2. The problem of survivorship bias. They claim that while the 16 countries analysed are an incomplete list (only 70% of world GDP in 1900), this is not a big problem, they feel. Their message that stocks do well in the long run supposedly remains intact, however they do not provide any solid evidence of this. The countries left out of course suffered terrible performance, with total confiscation of assets in most cases and major losses in others.

The countries left out include: Russia, China, Eastern Europe, Latin America. As an example, Argentina was the wealthiest country 100 years ago but was left out. They claim that their criterion for inclusion was the availability of data, but Switzerland was included even though the data is incomplete.

In my opinion, some attempt should have been made to adjust for this problem.

3. No assessment is made of the issue of capital controls etc as an impedement to implementing the world indexing strategy. It is simply assumed that equal dollar indexing could be implemented without any costs, and with no taxes.

All in all, this book fails to provide a realistic and convincing assessment of global investment returns in the real world.

Victor Niederhoffer uses this book to justify his bullishness on stocks, Sorry Vic, no cigar.

Fun to read in conjunction with Adventure Capitalist
A lot of work went into this book. But it is scarce on the conclusions side. I know this is deliberate and that the purpose of the authors was just to provide a volume of data with some interpretation but there are just too many loose ends.

First, although much is made of the quality of the data much of the data is from other authors and sources and is used blindly. In other words much of what the authors have done is collation.

Second, there are several countries that ostensibly did better than the U.S and Britain during the twentieth century but little is said about this fact and indeed the authors spend some pages justifying the emphasis on the U.S. and Great Britain during the twentieth century. But the reasons they give are hollow. There may have been justification but greater depth was in order.

Third, although there is a great deal of information in the book several graphs are presented in a confusing manner i.e. the same color line is used for several curves on the same graph making interpretation almost impossible.

Fourth, reading the book is in many places a lot like taking the SAT or GRE graph interpretation section. There is much here but it would have been much more impressive if the authors had drawn some deeper conclusions than was the case. Probably many will attempt to justify this deficiency by stating that the purpose of the book was the assembly of the data in one place and that others will use the data for developing profound interpretations and conclusions. But I don't believe that will happen: the authors understand that the main users of the book will be institutional and personal investors. That is sad for there is much to be interpreted here in a deep and satisfying manner.

Fifth, the authors clearly suscribe to the idea that the data in this book will help readers determine the most likely future returns of the stock markets. But I suspect strongly that William Bernstein is correct and that past returns are best at determining future risks of investing and rather less usefull for determining future returns. The case the authors make for using the data for determining future results is laughable: in essence everybody else does it. The hypothesis may be true but that is hardly a case for it.

Sixth, it would have been fascinating for the authors to have analysed how open some of these societies were during various periods in the twentieth century and related that to investment performance.

Those that believe a CD or soft copy would have been better because of the more detailed access to the data have missed the point entirely.

In the final analysis there is enough data here to keep political economists, sophisticated investors, and many others occupied for many years-if nothing else they can attempt to fill in some of the gaping holes. For instance, many in the U.S. believe that our inflation numbers for several years now are "cooked" to some extent. Certainly this is true for some other countries as well. Yet every bit of the inflation data is presented as the gospel with no challenge or analysis. If the authors did do some analysis here (or even if the primary sources did) and found the "cooking" insignificant or significant then it seems they should have presented their findings in a more complete fashion. Is the data reliable or not? That is the question. This is just one example out of the entire book. Hardly a page goes by without similar questions arising. Too bad the authors could not be bothered to answer any of them

Finally, it is particulary fun to read Triumph of the Optimists in conjunction with Adventure Capitalist. ... Read more

Book Description

What Wall Street pros really say behind closed doors

Investor behavior is driven by well-known "truths" which often have little basis in fact, are usually misapplied and misunderstood by brokers and investors, and can negatively impact long-term investment performance.

Cashing In on Wall Street's Ten Greatest Myths examines the most well-known of these, telling investors which are nonsense while uncovering core concepts that have always provided the safest path to building wealth.

Wall Street veteran Richard Lackey begins each chapter by detailing a particular myth, explains its flaws, and then reveals how investors can use the kernels of truth in the myth to make profitable investment choices. Valuable sections include:

• Secrets of "going short" that pros use every day
• Why diversification can be bad--and how to make it work
• What to look for to consistently find benchmark-beating stocks
• Why mutual funds aren't as safe as everyone thinks
• How to use options to boost income or protect a portfolio

Reviews (1)

Great Book!
So Many Truths, it make you never want to trust a Wall St. firm again! ... Read more

Book Description

Most of us are in the stock market, but few of us understand how it really works. This book explains the hidden dynamics of Wall Street, and its message is urgent and disturbing.

As stock prices and investor confidence have collapsed in the wake of Enron, WorldCom, and the dot-com crash, people want to know how this happened and how to make sense of the uncertain times to come.

Into the breach comes one of Wall Street's legendary investors, Leon Levy, to explain why the market so often confounds us, and why those who ought to understand it tend to get chewed up and spat out. Levy, who pioneered many of the innovations and investment instruments that we now take for granted, has prospered in every market for the past fifty years, particularly in today's bear market. In The Mind of Wall Street he recounts stories of his successes and failures to illustrate how investor psychology and willful self-deception so often play critical roles in the process. Like his peers George Soros and Warren Buffett, Levy takes a long and broad view of the rhythms of the markets and the economy. He also offers a provocative analysis of the spectacular Internet bubble, showing that the market has not yet completely recovered from its bout of "irrational exuberance."

The Mind of Wall Street is essential reading for all of us, whether we are active traders or simply modest contributors to our 401(k) plans, as volatile and unnerving markets come to define so much of our net worth. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

An unsolved puzzle
Having been acquainted with Leon Levy and a personal friend to
many of his partners since the early 1960's, I had eagerly
waited for the book's publication and read it with great
interest.

After reading the book, I have found one unsolved puzzle.
How Mr. Leon Levy, reputed to have a net worth of over US$700
million and has made donations to various interest groups of
over US$100 million, has achieved such mediocre investment
results for his investors in the Oppenheimer group of mutual
funds. Mr. Levy is the founder and chairman of the Oppenheimer
Funds.

Nonetheless, Mr. Leon Levy has provided some great insights to
the inner workings of Wall street, including some of the lesser
known specultaive techniques -- e.g., the Euro call option
market.

A Dealmaker Reminisces
There are few insights or wise pearls about Wall Street provided here. This is a broad brushed overview of Levy's years in the business from the late 40's onward. Taken on that level, it's an enjoyable book.

Things are fairly well sanitized in Levy's history of his world. He says there's no secret formula and hard work and research were his key to success. Well, that might actually be true but after all the recent scandals please forgive me for checking my BS meter. I would have enjoyed some scandalous tattling or a few secrets about all those greedy, egomaniac bastards on Wall Street.

Levy says he never felt rich until recently because he was always in debt or leveraged for his deals. That's the motivator. Sounds like a guy who never felt he had enough. Imagine feeling "not rich" with a net worth of 750 million. If you say so.

Towards the end he does provide his downbeat assessment of the market's near future stating that the indexes are headed back to at least early 1995 levels. Also, this will be the deepest recession since the 1930's. Levy is a numbers and research man and seems to know what he's talking about so take heed.

Levy comes across as a decent guy but I think this would have been a better book if he'd written it himself without an eye on his legacy. Too much juicy stuff is left out or toned down.

Total Waste of TIME
This book is an example of how someone with a decent track record in investing thinks they can be as successful in writing, but then fail miserably at creating anything meaningful. I was able to finish this book in less than 9 hours!

The author actually makes an attempt at explaining the market based on the theories and doctrines of Behavioral Finance, or so he says. Unfortunately, the book is nothing more than a ramble about the "excess of the late 90's", as if we need more literature on that subject. In reality, the book would be thrown out of Behavioral Finance class rooms as a miserable failure.

In one instance, the author refers to Amazon.Com as "nothing more than a mail order house". He also suggests that Amazon's model of selling books is not going to be sufficient to bring this company to profitability. Hmm...Maybe an update is required but this book was published in 2002!!

Throughout the book, the author constantly refers to his and his firm's success, suggesting this to be nothing more than a $15 advertisement. There is no resemblance to work such as "Reminiscence of a Stock Operator", which is the classic book on speculator psychology. Unless you have never ever invested in the market and have nothing more than a basic understanding of what an investment is, don't buy this book. Instead, consider work by Schwager, LeFevre, Bernard Baruch and even classic Technical Analysis work such as "TA of Stock Trends", which goes more into the psychology behind successful investing than this author. I also highly recommend the two books written by Victor Neiderhoffer.

In instances where the author actually begins to discuss anything remotely close to behavioral finance, he immediately drops off into another subject. He continually refers to the subjects of Greed and Fear. However, greed and fear are merely symptoms of the herd mentality. Nothing new there!

On the plus side, Ch. 12 covers EuroDollar Call Options and the benefits of trading these instruments when playing the interest rate curve. Unfortunately, in the middle of this discussion which was no more than a page, he changes the subject abruptly and begins talking about the benefits of archeological digs in present day Syria and why one should make philanthropic donations based on trust. This is literally the next paragraph after EuroDollars!!!

If you have an advanced grasp of markets, read "Alchemy of Finance". This is in fact the greatest work on the subject and quite honestly, the recent implementation of Behavioral Finance as a course of study amongst many universities is based on the work of George Soros, the greatest speculator of all time, and his "Theory of Reflexivity", which was first introduced in Alchemy of Finance.

Psychology and Experience
Leon Levy died in December 2002. He was one of the grand old men of Wall Street. The founder of the Oppenheimer mutual funds, he built himself a truly substantial fortune in the market (Forbes 400 list). This book is not a compendium of investment techniques but the history of an astute trader and a glimpse of how he saw the market. His outlook is largely a combination of basic economics and psychology which appear to have about equal weight. Just before Levy died he wrote an interesting but pessimistic essay on the future of America's economy. He pointed out that there is more than a sniff of deflation in the air. He may still be right. The deflation may be masked by government sponsored financial inflation. On balance, a very interesting book.

Entertaining, but not very informative
I generally agree with Leon Levy's thesis that behavioral finance moves markets and stocks. It took me a while to grasp this idea after 4 years of Wharton where market efficiency and investors' rationality were expounded. Working as a practioner on Wall Street and living through the recent Internet bubble and subsequent collapse has taught me the value of respecting the effect of investors' psychology on stock prices. That said, I found this book disappointing. Some of Levy's economic and finance theories are dubious, and there were few ideas on how to actually make money from shifting investors' sentiment. Still, the book only took me a couple of hours to read (large print, 200 pages), and it did have some interesting anecdotes. All in all, it's pretty light-weight fare, and ok for a quick browse. ... Read more

Book Description

An Accessible and Systematic Stock Screening Method to Improve Profits

Praise for SCREENING the MARKET

"Marc Gerstein turns the chancy art of picking stocks into a screen-based science. Next time someone tells you to do your stock market homework, tell them you read this book."
–Thom Calandra, Editor in Chief, CBS.MarketWatch.com

"Many times on my radio show my listeners ask what they can read to help them with their investing. Marc has hit the nail on the head with his four-step method to find, analyze, buy, and, the hardest part for many investors, when to sell stocks. I will now recommend Screening the Market as a must-read for all investors, beginning to advanced."
–Brent Wilsey, Host of Smart Investing, KFMB AM 760
San Diego, California

"A must-read for investors looking to dissect the stock market and find winning stocks. Gerstein simplifies the seemingly complex process of screening stocks, a key tool of the pros, to make it accessible for all investors."
–Matt Krantz, Reporter, USA Today ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Everything you want to know about Stock Screens
A previous reviewer makes an incorrect statement. All the screens in the book work with the free Multex screener on the Multex web site. The screener is free, powerful,and will probably be my main screener from now on.

As an amateur programmer and someone that's worked on huge databases for a living, I can say I learned quite a few things from this book that I didn't already know.

But,the book goes on way too long. There is a good long chapter on stock screens; all the other chapters are fluff.

If you want to know everything about stock screeners, buy the book and read that one long good chapter, skip the rest of the book. I don't know of any other stock screener books, so I give it 4 stars for being innovative.

Misleading Title: It's a Primer to Premium Screening Program
Let's say you buy a book called "How To Type", and it turns out that the book describes a method that focuses upon how to type ON A PARTICULAR KIND OF KEYBOARD, produced in affiliation with the author--that is, the book's lessons do not pertain to readily available, much cheaper keyboards. Given the book's generic title, wouldn't that irritate you?

If not, you might appreciate this book because it pertains primarily to Multex's premium screening program, a product costing over a thousand dollars. Given that the book focuses upon one particular and very expensive screening program, might it strike you as disingenuous to give the text a generic title like "Screening the Market"?

To be sure, the book's author does describe screening techniques for readily available free screeners. However, the techniques pertaining to the free screening programs offer nothing so much as a pungent contrast to the book's central focus on the superior power of the premium screener described by the author.

My advise concerning this book is to check it out from the local library before purchasing it, because chances are you'll resent learning that you must use the author's premium screening software to make the best use of the book -an issue that would be moot if there was some indication in the title, or even somewhere on the book's jacket, which alluded to the need for readers to employ an expensive screening program (as promoted by the author's firm) to make optimal use of the book. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

10 Years ahead of it's time.
Spirituality is a way of life to the people of my new home here in Thailand. They've been channeling the powers of Buddhism and the supernatural for many centuries, and I find it entertaining that magickalthinking -- with the help of Mr. Goodwin's book -- is only now gettingaround to infiltrating heartland America. Why is this resource such ashocking revelation? That using the psychic powers of the mind, body, andspirit can be used to create wealth via the stock market? Seemed obvious tome. And I was quite pleased that someone finally sat down and put it intowords.

I'm a veteran player in the market. I've been doing it for morethan 6-years now, and it is now my exclusive source of income. I only buystocks at certain times of the year, and I found the information in thisbook was right on the money. I recommend that anyone whom invests in themarkets read it, and, anyone who is considering jumping into the market,sit down and read it too.

Holy Cow!
Reading a book on investing doesn't sound like the most exciting way to spend an afternoon.I bought this book because I wanted to invest some money I've just come across but didn't want to enter that evil world of brokers and end up losing everything.This book was PERFECT because itexplains the fundamentals of investing which beginners like myself need,yet it also goes into very deep and interesting places about psychicabilities that I think even veteran investors and brokers will find useful. And above that, it is even ENTERTAINING!Goodwin's commentary on New YorkCity and the stories he tells are very funny and enlightening.

Whimsical
I wonder if the SEC and NASD know about this book? I sure hope not. Because it's to good to be true.

Gag gift? Hardly.
I wanted to hate this guy, and his book, but I just can't. My girl friend bought it for me as a gift, and I laughed at her. I thought it was just a joke. I said to her, "What the hell is this?" And there it sat onmy desk unopened for about a week before a broker friend asked me the samedamn question," What the hell is this," he said. "I don'tknow" I replied, "but by the way we're getting slammed in themarket this month, I think we should both go read it." And then Istarted reading it first for a laugh and it reminded me of that MichaelLewis book, Liars Poker. Funny stuff. A lot of the Stock market coverage inthis book I found a little elementary, but the psychic stuff is pretty deepand interesting. And who could argue with results? I like what he had tosay about intuition being so critical in the investment game. Very true.

Jackpot!
I've read a lot of big books before by a lot of big psychics, James Van Praagh, Sylvia Browne, and Edgar Cayce. But this one takes the cake. I really didn't know it was ok to use psychic powers to make money. I thoughtit was suppose to be bad karma or something, so I was a little afraid of itat first. But I guess it really works, and those guys on Wall Street seemto be nothing more than a bunch of crooks anyway, so why not take advantageof it? I really didn't know anything about the stock market before I boughtthis book, but now I kinda understand it. I feel like I'm psychic too, andI really enjoyed the stories that Marcus tells about his psychicexperiences as a kid. When I get out of college, I'm really going to make alot of money on Wall Street because of this book. Thank you Mr. Goodwin.And you look very handsome in that suit and tie. ... Read more