Wall Street People: True Stories of today's Masters and Moguls

This is supposed to be a nice book ~~~ A collection of brief profiles featuring 85 Wall Street leaders, must be a nice read especially for traders with little experiences like me… However, I think my expectations were too high in the first place. It is rather silly to expect anything positive from a book with over 300 pages, covering 85 big names. At the end, it is too simplified for newbies; yet too general for experienced traders…

Not only that… the contents seems very familiar!!! I am not sure. But, I do think the author copy and paste from somewhere. The worst part is… nothing is concluded at the end of each briefing. The story just ended suddenly and we are moved into next character with no conclusion at all.

Secondly, the content was not updated at all. For newbies, perhaps they are not aware of this. But, for traders with little experiences like me, I know what is going on for the past 20 years. Since I am not reading historical stuff, I see no sense of reading outdated articles… LOL.

Overall, I am quite disappointed with this book. Hence, I am rating it at 2/10. Why 2 points are given? Well, at least I can still draw out few (very few indeed, LOL) interesting and meaningful quotes as below. Apart from that, like I said above; this book does not help newbies… and experienced players will not benefit much from this book too…

Bernard M. Baruch ~~~ 

1.     “Being so skeptical about the usefulness of advice, I have been reluctant to lay down any “rules” or guidelines on how to invest or speculate wisely.”

2.     “Don’t speculate unless you can make it full time.”

3.     “Beware of barbers, beauticians, waiters – or anyone- bringing gift of ‘inside’ information or ‘tips’.”

4.     “Don’t try to buy at the bottom and sell at the top. This can’t be done – except by liars.”

5.     “Learn how to take your losses quickly and cleanly. Don’t expect to be right all the time.”

6.     “Don’t buy too many different securities. Better have only a few investments which can be watched.”

7.     “Never invest all your funds.”

8.     “Don’t try to be a jack of all investments. Stick to the field you know best.”

Roy Neuberger ~~~

1.     “One of the best ways to be a good investor is to be in good physical condition. And by good physical condition, I also mean good mental condition.”

2.     “In any case, to walk at least one hour a day, either by yourself or with someone else, is a good way to improve your investing ideas. Walking is better than running; you can’t work out an idea running.”

Charles Allen Jr. ~~~

1.     There were losses, but never on a scale remotely comparable to his winnings… By the same realistic reasoning he dislikes a fight, and will rarely engage in one from choice… “A fight takes up too much time. There are so many other ways of making money you don’t have to do it.”

Warren Buffet ~~~

1.     “I have in life all I want right here. I love every day. I mean, I tap dance in here and work with nothing but people I like. I don’t have to work with people I don’t like.”

2.     “Keynes essentially said don’t try and figure out what the market is doing. Figure out business you understand, and concentrate. Diversification is protection against ignorance, but if you don’t feel ignorance, the need for it goes down drastically.”