Stock-market

One of the things that Joel Kurtzman does very well in this pithy little book is demonstrate why the capitalist market system is superior to the old Soviet system of centralized control, why the decisions made by a decentralized economy work so much better than any top down system. However Kurtzman's enthusiasm for the market is eventually revealed as similar to E. M. Forster's for democracy. One recalls that Forster allowed himself just "Two cheers for democracy...there is no occasion to give it three."

Kurtzman writes on page 148 that "Markets may move to the beat of their dumbest members." He adds, "In my view...markets are not rational." To back up his claims he reports that at the height of the Internet bubble in 1999, Yahoo! with sales of $456 million (that's million with an "m") had a market capitalization of $93-billion which he compares to GM, which at the same time with revenues of $177-billion (billion with a "b"), had a market cap about half that of Yahoo! (p. 147) This observation caused Kurtzman to ask, "Yo, Mr. Market, is anybody home?"

Well, it depends on when you knock on the door. In October of 2002 Yahoo's market capitalization was down around $5-billion or so. The real truth is Mr. Market may be irrational for some period of time--indeed for some EXTENDED period of time, especially when you're holding the bag--but eventually a correction occurs, and for a brief shining moment (not the same moment) every stock is priced at what it's worth. (Of course it could also be pointed out that a stopped clock is exactly right twice a day.)

I very much liked Kurtzman's conversation tone and his obvious acumen and the way he explains the underpinnings of the capital markets with an emphasis on understanding rather than mechanical details. (Although an explanation on how the weekend or overnight buy and sell orders received from Internet traders are reconciled at the New York Stock Exchange and at NASDAQ into an opening price would have been nice.) His championing of Michael Milken as one of the great financial geniuses of our times was tolerable, but did Milken really (as Kurtzman insists on page 144) take "an often bloating and ailing American economy" and make it "lean, mean and resilient"? And, although one does not doubt the genius of Warren Buffet, might Kurtzman have pointed out during his several fawning references to the man, that when you have as much economic clout as he has you might well be able to influence the markets to your advantage and to get information that others cannot, and in a nutshell prove beyond a shadow of doubt that money makes money and big money makes even bigger money? He might even have (to be topical and timely) pointed out that Shari'a law, which does not allow interest to be charged on credit, is not in keeping with the realities of the effect time has on capital.

But Kurtzman is an ambassadorially polite man who saved his barbs for the failed communist system and the recent irrational exuberance in dot com land.

Perhaps the highlight of the book, and maybe the most important part, is Kurtzman's explanation of what money is (not obvious) and how it is created and how it can be made to dissipate. For anyone wanting a kind of Reality Economics 101, Kurtzman's book is an eye-opener. He has a gift for explaining things in a succinct and clear manner that other writers on economics might well emulate.

I found Mr. Dines book to be big on price and small on continuity and meaning. The text moves in and out of ideas so quickly that it is difficult to decipher any point to his many colorful stories. His personal philosophies don't really teach you much in the end. I would not recommend the book to anyone hoping to learn more about investing.

Although this book is full of cool stuff about mass psychology, with lots of examples to prove the points, it got a little dry and repetitive after awhile. Also, the price makes me want to puke. The cartoons added all over the place helped put a bit of life into the reading though.

This book is not really about investing. Although it's teachings about human herd mentally can help you in the stock market this book is about much more. It is more a philosphical journey. The chapters on Paradox and Low and High states can allow you to look at the own occurances in your life to see why you maybe or may not be struggling.

In addition, the Dines Girls are total babes.

As an older book for making money in the stock market, it is worth reading today for a few reasons. First, it reinforces the point that it is more important to avoid losses than to strive for gains. Darvas includes his rules for limiting losses. Second, this investing theory is oriented toward active, moving, growth stocks. With increasing volatility in the market, most stocks go through cycles, taking even many of the former value plays into a "growth cycle" arena for part of the year. Third, many people shy away from buying on margin, and maybe they should, but here is one philosophy for buying on margin that takes some of the risk out. This book would have been better if there were more details on what, how and when to do what is described. Other books since then have addressed these issues. One of the real problems that investors face is The Disbelief Stall: The idea that they won't really make money in the stock market. That leads to behaviors and bad decisions that reinforce that idea. Then based on those few experiences, they fall in to The Misconceptions Stall: That they may lose on each trade. That leads to The Procrastination Stall: Not getting out in time and incurring more losses. To learn more about these stalls that get in the way of being successful, you should also read THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION. Books like HOW I MADE $2,000,000 IN THE STOCK MARKET, HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN STOCKS, and the new books on E-trading help to break The Communications Stall and explain what to do, how to do it, and which investing style is comfortable for you based on each individual's objectives. With the right information, you will find your 2,000 percent or $2,000,000 solutions!

I shunned this book 10 years ago because of its title and its use of margin. Following the recommendation of Investors Business Daily I bought the book and started reading it. The author's experience of trading stocks echoed with mine sentence by sentence and I was totally absorbed. I admired his relentless pursuit of how the stock market actually worked and he finally figured it all out to make two million dollars. To create tremendous wealth you must concentrate on the best acting stocks in the market and use trailing stop loss orders. I am glad the author, a dancer, was willing to share a secret that Wall Street pros will trash but who made $2 millions? The book has already doubled my net worth and whoever follow these words of wisdom will become the millionaire next door!

I DON'T NEED TO GO ON AND ON ABOUT HOW GREAT THIS BOOK IS, BUT JUST ONE THING SUMS IT UP...I HAVE READ DOZENS OF STOCK MARKET BOOKS, BUT NONE AS GREAT AS THIS AND IT TOOK ME FROM LOSING IN THE MARKET TO WINNING...ITS THAT SIMPLE.

As a work in the year 1962, the author with his good writing skill and his lavish but clever use of charts and figures, deserves a salute from all who appreciate the power of TA.
However, though market psychology doesnt change, technology and the speed and means of information distribution do, leading to shorter business cycles and thus trends that confirmation of which through "visual only" chart patterns almost always come too late. The situation is even worse in that "traps" in trend following are so frequent in today's highly competitive market when power traders with the help of deteriatives fully exploit the stop loss orders of mass investors.

I dont mean to undermine the value of this book. I just wanna say that there are many alternatives that cover TA wider and deeper. This book can be a low cost reference book in chart patterns. It just cannot provide a compeat course on TA without the introduction of other tools like Fibonacci, Moving Average, MACD, Stochastics etc. Afterall, TA is just a tool for money making. There's no point not to take a more productive route to achieve the goal.

I can't believe this book was written over 40 years ago, even before the Beatles first appeared on Ed Sullivan! I guess it only goes to show that technical analysis is valid and does work. Many of the patterns shown in today's books also appear in this book. Trends, moving averages, support and resistance, head and shoulders, double tops and bottoms were all known concepts back then. Candlestick charting wasn't known (in North America) back then and seems to be the only thing missing from the book.

This book is a great introduction to technical analysis, well written, and a very good value for the cost. The book is still being printed and read four decades later is proof that the concepts are valid and worth reading.

If the current round of corporate accounting fraud hasn't awakened you up to the usefulness of charting, maybe this book will. After having tried a pure fundamental analysis approach in my investing for years, someone finally convinced me to look at charts, which I considered to be the same level as reading tea leaves -- au contraire. After spening the past two years studying technical analysis, I am happy to report that this is one of the better books on the subject, and inexpensive, too. This book, along with websites like TradingMarkets.com, will give you a fantastic basis in technical analysis.