Profit The Books

This book is a must read for anyone who uses alliances. Segil's methodology is straigtforward and her keen insights are right on the mark. I am eagerly waiting for the release of her new book, "FastAlliances: Power Your E-Business" which is to hit the stories in January, 2001. I know this book will have a great impact on the way we do business in the new economy.

In-depth. Informative. A must-read, especially in light of today's e-economy. She's the expert!

I am responsible for my company's strategic development activity. As such, I recognize that prudent strategic alliances serve as the lifeblood of a successful organization. Looking for advice, I called my colleagues at the Harvard Business School. They recommended Ms. Segil's book on strategic alliances. Her book, Intelligent Business Alliances, became our proverbial "how-to" guide for our strategic development endeavors. I am happy to report the completion of a number of beneficial and synergistic relationships. Ms. Segil's work helped craft, hone and execute my company's strategic vision.

This is a clean-cut no-nonsense approach to forming business alliances that may save you millions. Lorraine Segil is the creator of the Mindshift method of business alliances. 1000 companies went through her training on alliance management at Caltech. A third of these adopted the program and from this real-life sampling came this data. How alliances succeeded and how they failed were analyzed.

She discusses the nine different categories of alliances, their levels of risk and their levels of commitment. In forming an alliance one must be aware of where one's business is on its business cycle, the corporation's management style, and the purpose and goals for establishing an alliance. Once this is done, one uses her method for finding potential alliances and how to weed out the mismatches based on the above criteria. An organization and management team will be found to have a certain mindset that can be characterized.

Also, are you a global corporation or just an exporter? Answers and understandings are here.

Five Stars

As the person who guides my company's business development and strategic initiatives, I have seen first hand the power and utility in Ms. Segil's work - without which, my firm would not have reached its current level of success. There is a profound difference between knowing the value of strategic alliances and actually crafting the proper strategy to realize synergistic relationships. I thank Ms. Segil for providing the requisite tools to build strategic alliances in such a well-written, structured format. For my colleagues and me, Ms. Segil's book has become the proverbial "how-to" when seeking and structuring strategic alliances.

This was a very informative book and discussed an excellent perspective for evaluating value stocks, especially in the current market. I would highly recommend it to the value investor who is willing to roll his/her sleeves up and get into some serious research for a prospective long-term position, with a time horizon of three or more years. What I have learned will help me to avoid the pitfalls of countless stocks that are being eagerly recommended but which pose unacceptable risk for the long-term investor (e.g. Enron and Worldcom type stocks).

Having said that, the book is occasionally (but infrequently) lacking in critical details that would help the reader to understand and replicate the author's analysis models. The preface says the book assumes no prior knowledge of accounting, but I personally feel an accounting background would have helped. It is very dense and occasionally dry reading, only for those truly motivated to profit from risk minimization in a difficult market.

I think every investor should read this book. The book explains how to combine cash income and an adjusted version of accrual income to get an accurate assessment of the quality of the company's earnings and its potential future earnings.

The book also shows how to modify the accrual income by capitalizing certain expenses and by accounting for the cost of equity using the appropriate discount rate. These modifications make the accrual income a much more accurate measure of the real earning power of the company.

The book is written in a very easy and readable way. All the concepts are very well explained. Interesting examples of real companies are used to show the ideas in the book. The book is very concise without any useless stories to fill the pages (like most investing books do).

Calculating the real value of an investment and its potential takes a lot of detective work.

Fortunately for us all Mr. Heiserman has written the gold standard for "The Standard Operating Procedures to Probable Investment Success." Certainly it cannot guarantee it. In most cases it will keep you out of trouble and guide you considerably closer to your goal. Was it Voltaire who once said, "Common Sense is uncommon."

In conjunction with services such as Value Line it offers far better odds at success.

I believe Warren Buffet was once asked, why not do something else and to paraphrase he replied, "Why bother when investing is so simple." If you read the book and apply it you will understand why he said that; simple yes, easy no, hard work yes.

Happily most people will not wish to do the hard work and will continue to purchase investment advisory services hoping that they, with little effort, will be blessed with magnificent returns.

So read the book, work at applying it and you will be amazed; I was. I have a library full of investment books and this is the only one on investments I would take to a desert island.

I am surprised that more investors have not read this book.


This book sets forth an excellent, step-by-step methodology to analyzing stocks that should be of interest to most fundamental investors. The author is a professional writer, and consequently the book is well-written and relatively easy to read even though it also covers some fairly complicated topics. The methods he describes are well thought-out and explained, and I honestly believe they can be of tremendous use to fundamental investors seeking to make investment decisions with respect to particular companies.

Heiserman's main point is that GAAP accounting means that the accrual income statement may not properly reflect the position of a particular company. In this way, he is similar to Marty Whitman (see "Value Investing" and "The Aggressive Conservative Investor") although he is certainly not a traditional value investor. Instead of focusing on book value like Whitman, Heiserman has created a means to adjust the income statement to overcome shortcomings in GAAP to identify companies that are financially sound with strong growth prospects.

His method is to create two new income statements for each potential investment - a "defensive" income statement that will reveal the company's need for outside capital and determine what the company's risk of going bankrupt is, and an "enterprising" income statement that will analyze how effective the company is at earning a return on its capital investment. In this way, Heiserman details a step-by-step methodology to find financially stable companies with strong growth prospects.

Heiserman eschews formulaic investing, meaning that applying his methods takes some time and effort. However, he also sets forth a helpful "five minute test" to enable investors to quickly assess whether it is worthwhile to dig deeper into a company's financials. He also provides good information regarding how to conduct competitive analysis and assess management (although some of the latter information may be dated due to recent SEC disclosure developments). Lastly, because the methods Heiserman has created rely on past financial statements, his methods minimize the possibility that an investor will make overly optimistic assumptions about a company's future prospects.

In all, I would highly recommend this book to intermediate-level investors who are willing to work to uncover individual stocks with sound growth prospects at reasonable prices.

The concept taught in this book (of the methods used to evaluate a company) is very good.
It's an extra tool to use in evaluating a company - a very sensible tool. The only reason I gave this book 3 stars is because a lot of the figures in the examples are wrong. They refer to the Financial Statements of Wriggley at the beginning of the book, but then they transpose the wrong amounts in the examples.

Just skimmed this detailed book and its focus is profitability for a construction company. Includes a CD with helpful forms and checklists.

This book has a world of information that is extremely helpful for any aspect of the construction field from start to finish. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone that wants to know how to lower their overhead and still give out quality service with a greater profit or to someone that is looking for inexpensive ideas on marketing their business to increase activity.

it is a very good book that help new contractors and even old ones to price properly and not to lose also it gives alot ot tips

I'm not sure about all of the reviews but I didn't get that much from this book.

Most of my life has been done studying marketing and I've done really well with the information that I've learned from Dan Kennedy and other marketing gurus. I got this book because I thought that this would have some info on contractor marketing specific to this type of business and I was wrong.

He starts talking about market in Chapter 4 and the first thing he labors on is business cards. Great. However, that doesn't get the phone ringing. Then he talks about job signs to use at the job site. Great. But you use those AFTER you get a job. Again, that doesn't get the initial leads in. Then he mentions a brief summary about using door hangers, the yellow pages, and direct mail.

AND THAT'S IT!

Yes, I understand that this book is called "Mark Up & Profit" and not "Market & Profit." Don't get me wrong; this is a great book on maximizing the leads and jobs you do have. It's great in the aspect of marking up your jobs and profiting, using the right forms, what to do and what NOT to do in your contracting business. If that's what you're looking for then you'll get that from this book.

I think the reason that I gave this 3 stars is because I believe the guy is a little old fashioned. He states that it's more difficult for women to sell construction jobs which I disagree with adamantly. That pissed me off. I close more jobs than my male counterparts so that's completely untrue.

He also talks about wearing a suit and tie when estimating jobs. How stupid is that? This is the construction business...we're not selling insurance!! We've always used very clean and pressed button shirts or polo shirts with our logo on it and nice slacks. Never a suit and tie. And we've always done very well getting jobs.

Then he doesn't talk about getting the phone ringing, although he claims that he does with his half-baked marketing section. There are no other suggestions to get construction jobs like using the AOA magazine and other apartment manager/owner magazines, or getting on thebluebook.com.

I recommend this book if you're interested in the numbers and the bottom line of your business. He helps you find your break even point and other number equations that can help you stop losing money and start making more money.

Just skip his "marketing" section...

While the book has some great advice and positive inspiration. I thought it was a bit dated for 2007. The forms on the CD were old and lacking. I had made a batch of forms before I read the book that were much better. I would like to see someone do a book like this focusing on a specific trade.

This source is a wonderful collection of information for non profit companies who want to expand to the Internet. It has real world suggestions, as well as IRS guidelines important to keep the tax status of the non profit. Recommend to all.

This is a very complete guide to using the Internet for marketing and fundraising. It could almost be a text book for a college course - if colleges offered marketing for non-profits as a course. Great reference material.

Those of us who manage nonprofit organizations have learned to use the Internet as a powerful communications medium. We invite the public to learn about us via our web sites and even to donate to us from a web browser. We've learned that this is just the beginning of the cultivation process, not the end. We've learned how to keep them coming back to the site. More importantly, we've learned to move them into our traditional cultivation processes once they make contact.

Our development officers have become accustomed to following up with those who've knocked on the door of our web site. We know that a donor who makes an on-line donation is often open to going deeper with the organization, and of increasing support -- if asked. We've learned to take these new-found supporters into our fold, and how to encourage more significant contributions from them.

Here's what else we've learned. We've learned to manage information in complex, server-based relational databases -- ours or those provided by firms who do this for us on their hardware. We share information internally via local networks and Intranets, and tie discrete offices together via virtual private network secure tunneling. We use extranets to facilitate strategic alliances with other organizations. To save money, we use voice over IP to replace traditional telephone circuits. We've even gone wireless.

Throughout all this, we gather information on our supporters and prospective supporters. We do so at Internet speeds, and with the organizing and retrieval efficiency of computers. We've learned to treat the information we gather with great care. The public support, we know, is a fragile thing.

Yes, we've learned a lot. If we haven't yet put all of what we've learned into place, we suspect that would if we had a clear, sensible roadmap to doing so within the confines of our budgets.

The simple truth is that the use of technology is one of the more challenging aspects facing those who manage nonprofit organizations. First, it's complicated. (Virtual private WHAT?!) Second, it's hard to have a clear idea of how to think about technology in the unique context of running a nonprofit organization. Third, it's hard to determine the best way to implement technological solutions when there are so many being thrown at us. Lastly, how can we be sure we're following best practices?

We need help to sort all of this out -- even those of us who are not exactly new to all of this. As it happens, I've been deeply immersed in technology in the nonprofit context for years, having designed and lead the team that created one the first on-line systems utilzing the donor-advised fund gift methodology as the means to enable the public to donate to any 501(c)(3) public charity from a single web site donation portal. I designed and built some of the first on-line charitable donation systems for nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. I am a programmer and a web site developer. I am a computer science student; one of my hobbies is exploring the theory of utilizing quantum mechanics to construct a computing device. I am a lawyer. I have administered large and small fund development programs, and advised them. I even co-founded a couple of nonprofit organizations -- a pre-K through 8th grade school and a charity that feeds and clothse the poor. I have read just about every posting to every CharityChannel forum since inception, and read every article on the topic that I can get my hands on. I've written some articles, too.

Yet I am the first to admit that the Internet, even the Internet in the nonprofit context, is too big and complex to try to make sense out of it without turning to those who have specialized in a particular aspect of it. It's no different in law. My field is tax-exempt organization law. I wouldn't be the one to advise you on your automobile accident.

That is what interested me in the new book Nonprofit Internet Strategies: Best Practices for Marketing, Communications, and Fundraising. It taps the experts in each subject to write a chapter. This approach makes great sense to me.

The book sets out to show us how to leverage the Internet to:

--Advance our organization's or institution's cause.

--Raise more money both on-line and off by establishing relationships with new donors, and deepen the commitment of existing donors.

--Inform the public and our stakeholders.

--Raise public confidence and trust through better communication and transparency.

It succeeds. Each of its chapters is contributed by a leading expert in the topic discussed. The editors -- Ted Hart, James M. Greenfield, and Michael Johnston -- also contributed chapters of their own. Some of the writers will already be familiar to many of my CharityChannel colleagues because they've taught a Summit session, or a distance class. Some have penned articles for CharityChannel, or posted to one of the professional forums.

I recommend the book for anyone who is serious about doing a better job harnessing the Internet for their organization or institution. You can read it cover to cover as I did. It is also suited to picking and choosing particular chapters of interest.

The book is for busy nonprofit managers who must work within real-world budgets and who are pulled in a thousand directions by the demands of their jobs. It is for those who want to have a clear roadmap of how to proceed. The book is not for techno-geeks, as such. Even if you barely know how to turn on a computer, you can read this book without difficulty. Of course, if you happen to be technologically savvy, so much the better.

This book is for large organizations with big budgets and complex needs. It shows how to think about technology, and how to approach it even if the organization is well down the road with technology.

It is also for small organizations with limited budgets and big dreams. That is because technology in our sector has matured to the point where there are strategically-powerful solutions that do not require large expenditures. What is required, rather, is a clear understanding of where and how to proceed.

Of course, no book can do it all when it comes to the Internet and the nonprofit world. But this book is one of the few must-reads for any nonprofit organization manager responsible Internet strategy.

Frankly, I was feeling a bit out of touch. The most frequently asked questions in my workshops were about Internet fundraising, and I didn't have good answers. My quick fix: reading this book and coming away amazed, astounded, and shocked. First, by all the profitable Internet strategies out there (the book is packed with examples of stuff that works). Second, by the thoroughness of this book. Another reviewer said it was like a textbook. Don't think academic, though; think "everything you need to know between two covers" comprehensive. And practical as soup on a cold day. If I had to limit my library to just six books about fundraising communications, this title would be among them. I haven't had the privilege of hearing co-author Michael Johnston speak, but I have heard both Ted Hart and Jim Greenfield present at conferences. Purely useful, well spoken, based on vast experience.

The information in Nonprofit Internet Strategies is sound until about page 100. The information comes from a variety of those working in the field and is an amalgamation of over 15 authors. This book tends to be redundant and far left leaning politically, unfortunately. It is clear to me that these individuals wrote their chapters at the same time and did not coordinate who was to discuss what subject, also.

The book would make a stereotypical (liberal) college textbook. Each individual expert seems to really know their stuff, however, it seems that each submission was not edited to avoid duplication of information. After about Chapter 6, the book information is redundant. This book had the potential to be the go-to-resource for nonprofit internet strategies, but they ruined it with their hidden agendas, lack of chapter/author coordination and poor editing.

A case study example from page 158 lists President Bush and Tony Blair on a deck of cards that Greenpeace sold had the actual letter, as if to brag, to their donors saying the following:

"These limited edition playing cards are hot! Back by popular demand, they're a spoof of the 'Iraq most wanted' deck. The Greenpeace cards name and shame world leaders who are sitting on the true weapons of mass destruction-nuclear weapons."

This book is filled with left-wing examples of cyber-activist companies dubbed "nonprofit companies." Having worked with 3 multi-million nonprofit companies, I think the two are different.

I have in the past raised tractor chickens & beef and after a slow down in our main income source have decided to do some of this again.
Although this book has some good pointers for the very new farmer, the info for marketing is outdated and written before this writer had any knowlege of the best marketing tool of our time.... the internet.
Frankly, that is what I expected to find here and there was nothing but folksy "sell off the farm marketing", which certainly has its place but is antiquated and the author has a touch of old fashioned farmer arrogance, which is too common in this field and certainly not helpful. I found this for the most part to be too simple, boring and a waste of money.

OK - there's no doubt Joel is a very successful businessman - his Polyface Farms has been written up by Business Week (amongst others). This book gives you a great deal of insight into the pastured poultry "enterprise" part of his business and does a pretty good job introducing you to the concepts surrounding raising meat birds.
Pros
* easy read
* generally stays on topic in each section and the book is arranged logically
* offers lots of experiential stories to help the newcomer learn from his mistakes
* sprinkled with his own viewpoint of the world
Cons
* no "exacting" plans for building the pasture coops - rater verbal descriptions and poor black and white photos.
* lots of "factual opinions" with no references to source data (when he starts on the "big industry" for example) some of the science is sketch at best - again no references cited
* sprinkled with his own viewpoint of the world

The last item as both a pro and a con is what seems to polarize folks regarding Joel's books and techniques. The fact is - he's made a truly sustainable model out of farming - from both a land/resource management perspective, a "save the planet" perspective, and frankly - from a dollars and cents perspective.

Take it or leave it - his opinions about a lot of things shine through. If you can not agree with everything someone says - but take the meat of their points and work with them to learn - this is a fairly solid book (but expect to do some extra research if this is your first brush with poultry). If you are someone who is easily put off by strong opinions that may differ from your own - you should avoid this book - and go buy a book on self-esteem and negotiation.

Very detailed book for agricultural entrepreneurs. Gives specifics for everything from your first purchase of chicks and their housing to slaughter and marketing.

All in all, a completely comprehensive view of pasturing poultry from the man who in essence started it all, Joel Salatin. The only problem I have with it is that he needs to go through and update it, as it was written in the '90s and the birds have evolved, giving us a new set of nutritional challenges. WELL WORTH THE MONEY for the beginner interested in getting into the business!!!!!!!!!!

This book is essential for anyone considering poultry production as a business. Following this book will save time, stress, money and more. Nothing is smooth or perfect, but when using the experience the Salatin's have under their belt will greatly reduce the number of disasters. They took most of the oops's out of the equation.

This book covers in detail everything from why you should go this route, to what the "big hats" do and why that isnt the route to go. He explains in so much detail that I feel after reading this book you can safely gauge whether this business would work for you.

This book contains everything you need to begin today. It discusses the equipment, the government certification requirements, or more accurately what sort of operation doesn't have to deal with those restrictions. He discusses the chicken tractors, how to make them, how to not make them. Discusses seasonal processing, the actual nitty gritty about the processing and more, oh so much more.

I learned a great deal from this book, I was so impressed that I have his Salad Bar Beef on order. I believe this book represents a turn key business. A person purchases the rights to open a fast food chain, you spend 1 mil to have the right to use a clown to advertise your hamburger's and get to tap the experience of everyone that has opened that type of company... this book is no different. The purchase price of the book is a great value when you consider this is experience talking, this shows all of the details, this shows everything including the day to day life and how to find customers.

Sounds to me like the 1 million dollar turn key franchise. Except this is anything but a franchise, he points out family business and not empires are the way to go... and I have to agree with him. He shares this information because he would like to see a lot more operations like the one him and his family (and sometimes even customers) run. He notes that 100 operations in Virginia using the model he shares with us, would be about enough to support the state... yet he is the only one there (at the time of writing this book).

He would like to see these everywhere... people eating healthier, animals that are healthier, people being connected to where their food comes from. I can not say enough good about this book, personally I would like to go work for the author and his family for a couple weeks to learn hands on. I think this is a wealth of information and I await eagerly my Salad Bar Beef book hoping it opens my eyes to a better way to raise my beefalo.

After reading a lot of trading books, this one made me come back to this essential truth I forget : any stocks can always be classified in one phase, the position of price related to 50 and 200 moving average is a fundamental information. Chuck Dukas give us the synthetic view about trend and phases, his book is the natural continuation of the book of Stan Weinstein, these two are foundation for trading knowledge.
Thank yu chuck.

Wow, this book is great!!!...I read it in two days because it was very helpful in explaining the boom and bust cycles of financial instruments...I have read 200 to 300 books on the stock market and this one is definately one of the best.

This is an interesting book. This book gives definitions of bull and bear markets and their phasis in exchanges, and suggests certain trading methods in each phase. You may take it or leave it, but in any case, this book is an anjoyable read.

It's a sign of a novice trader when they bash books that present core concepts of trading/investing rather than fluff such as "revolutionary" indicators, or "new concepts in trading." Yes, this book is short and simple, but it presents a concept that most wannabe traders totally miss. Dukas shows you an elegant but simple strategy of providing a framework to price action (similar to Stan Weinstein) that, if anything, serves as a guide post for your trading decisions. This was what I have been missing. Does Dukas illustrate specific trading setups in the book? No. He provides the framework and then leaves it up to you to design a approach that fits you. If you don't want to do the work to design your own strategy then you shouldn't be in this game. The more years that I get behind my belt, the more I realize that 99% of the trading books out there are useless. Sure, they are packed full of pretty graphs or trading setups, but they don't get you to think for yourself and help you truly understand what drives price movement. In summary, if you're looking for a framework to guide your trading decisions, then this is the book for you. Highly recommended!

I'm a day trader and trade stocks, ETF's, and options. I always looking for new ideas to help me screen for "buy candidates." I thought this book might have some new twist on technical indicators. When I opened it up, I was disappointed. I literally read the book, cover to cover in 10 minutes. I went though it quickly because the material was so simple. Basically the theory in the book is as follows: 6 phases of a stock. Recovery Phase (50SMA < 200SMA, Close > 50SMA), Accumulation phase (Close > 50SMA, Close > 200SMA, 50SMA < 200 SMA),etc.... same simple concept for the other four phases. Then for the grand finale,the last chapter "Putting it all together"...drum roll.... Was a review of the previous six chapters.. happy holidays.

This book has everything needed for those who are just getting into candles. Witch are:

A great list of candle suppliers(wax,wicks,jars,ect.)

Trouble shooting

Projects

Business how-to

Fragance information

Color dyes information

Wicking help and tips

Plus multiple tips on everything

This book has helped me in the little things I didn't know about candle making,,very easy to understand and well written.
thanks! good choice!

This book is vague at best. There is not alot of specific info on making candles or running a business. This is an OK book if you find it used and cheap, but your money is better spent on a different book if you want specific technical info on how to make candles.

This book explains so much. Just what I will need to get my candle business off the ground! I highly recommend this book!

This book was extremly helpful. It tells you how to make candles along with suggestions on how to make a business out of it. It tells you the step by step procedure for making everyday candles and tells you how to make some of the more exotic one. A+

This book is an excellent addition to a collection of a small investor who wants to learn about the benefits of international investing. However, it is also a great reading for somebody who is just starting in the field of Finance. It explains basic concepts very carefully, so that a good base is established for further explanations. Yes, to a certain point it concentrates more on non-U.S. markets, but I believe this is only because U.S. market information is readily available to us every day. The book is very well written and deserves a full five-star rating.

A recent amazon.com reviewer states incorrectly that Barbara Rockefeller's 24/7 Trading fails to note that the increasingly wired world raises volatility and affects the correlations among global stocks because this is one of the main points in the book. To wit: "...the developed world is so wired together these days that a drop in the Dow and the Nasdaq is often followed by an equivalent drop in the Nikkei (225 (Japan), DAX (Germany), CAC (France), DTSE 100 (UK) and other major indices." (p.187) She continues, saying that the benefits of international diversification may be exaggerated because a bear market in the United States contaminates other markets, at least in developed countries.

Note please some additional points on this topic. One is that the author advises that many portfolio diversification exercises use only classes of securities, rather than the securities themselves, which she describes as a sub-optimal practice because the same class of securities can contain a highly volatile security as well as a `placid' security.

The second point is that the author could have gone a lot farther in criticizing financial planners who create "optimal" portfolios for customers that are nothing of the sort. She perhaps should have warned much more strongly about paying an advisor to create an optimal portfolio. You will not always get what you think you paid for.

Finally, Rockefeller says clearly that no website today will give you the correlation of any two securities easily. You have to do it yourself, if you can get the data. Data on foreign stocks is hard to get, and, often, is not free; and, useful websites come and go, all of which the author acknowledges.

Why should US investors care are about non-US stocks? Because the new US administration is western states-oriented, investors should be prepared for future US dollar weakness that will presumably favor western states' exporters of commodities - grain, oil, beef and timber. With US dollar weakness, non-US stock will presumably appreciate in price versus US stocks. This means that savvy investors should be taking far closer looks at non-US stocks in the next four years than they have been taking in the last four. For serious investors, 24/7 Trading could not have come at a better time. Reading it is fair warning for the future.

Desmond MacRae New York City

Whereas this book definitely has its good points, the title is quite misleading. As a matter of fact its focus is quite limited mostly to foriegn markets and evaluating these investments combined with trends within the many international markets. On a general level this is discussed fairly well but the details are explained in a matter where it is assumed that you have taken a good number of economics classes. In addition, the different chapters seem to touch back to the same point that when investing overseas you have to look at not only the stock market but the state of affairs within the country both ethically and economically. You must be a good follower of the currency markets as well. This is not easy for most investors to understand on an in depth basis which is needed to trade overseas.

What is also annoying besides the constant redundancy of this book, is the matter in which the author sites references and website addresses for more information. The author must have included at least fifty if not a hundred sites that support each single example. What would have helped the overall presentation of this book, if the author included a list of helpful web sites to locate key information at the end of the book rather than interspersed within his blah blah blah commentary.

There is some useful information in this book and one who likes to explore new web sites might find more value here. However CNBC could have made this book reach a wider audience by organizing this book in a more easy to read manner. Therefore a 2 1/2 star rating fits the bill.

Barbara's book is a much needed addition to the trader's library. As currency, bonds, and stock index futures are now traded around the clock, the need for more information on how to deal with this fast-paced environment is much needed. Barbara's real expertise is in the currency sector and the information in the currency chapter alone is well worth the price of the book. As a CTA and investment advisor, I find Barbara's information highly useful and would highly recommend this book.

Although Barbara Rockefeller's attention to detail and obvious knowledge of the inside world of the life of a stock trader are quite phenomenal, I found the story lacking direction, and the climax weak. The characters of George Soros and Abby Joseph Cohen, for example, are minimally developed at best, and unnecessarily verbose at times. But Rockefeller has most certainly done her homework in terms of setting the stage for her story, an example that more contemporary writers should heed. All in all, however, this was a quite satisfying read!

This is a great book for people starting in the foreclosure business. It gives the basics and then gives Foreclosures.com's spin on how they do business. I would have liked to see more on how you can use the website to start your business, but I guess that is covered when you join. Good starter book.

It is a good book for novice investors to review their basic knowledge on forclosures.
It looks like this book was written a while back and then briefly updated. Or maybe it is good in the midwest and lower priced housing markets.
Here in California almost all of the defaults have higher loan balances than equity.
also homes are on the market so long that the length of time to resell might wipe out the $20,000-$30,000 projected profit.

The book is excellent, and provides some powerful insight to Pre-foreclosure investing. Alexis is straight forward and to the point on this subject. Alexis is also extremely passionate about what she does, and very motivational. I anticipate reaping great rewards from the techniques she has provided in her book, and I don't plan on "selling my soul" doing so. Thanks Alexis!

This is the real deal. The best book on pre-foreclosure investing out there. And the free bonus offer included inside is huge. I highly recommend this to anyone interesting in buying pre-foreclosures. Whether just one house, or many, this is your first step in the right direction to successful wholesale buying.

This is very much a beginner's book, so if that's you, you might want to consider buying it. Exceptionally important (to me) is the fact that the author takes the time to discuss the psychology of working with pre-foreclosure sellers and the importance of empathy and ethics in putting deals together.

Ms. McGee goes over all of the basics from locating properties to financing alternatives. One thing that's comforting is the fact that the author is an experinced industry insider with years of knowlege and experience in the field. A person like that is sure to have some valuable nuggets to pass on, which she does in an easy to understand style.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I should say that I am an attorney, real estate broker, investor, trainer, and author of another unique and highly readable book on real estate investing that can also be found here on Amazon -- The WealthLoop Series Beginner's Guide to Building Wealth Buying Houses: The Foolproof Roadmap to Real Estate Riches Without the Risks and Hassles of Landlording. Unlike many real estate investing books, it is written to be a genuine "How To" book that "takes you by the hand" and walks you through a step-by-step process for getting started in real estate investing -- investors across the country are giving it rave reviews. The book also includes sample leases, forms, and checklists, so that you can actually go out and implement the investing strategy it teaches as soon as you're done reading. You might want to check out the companion CD too -- The WealthLoop Series Beginner's Guide to Building Wealth Buying Houses (Combo Audio/Data CD): Author's Audio Commentary Plus Downloadable 32-page Marketing Manual, Checklists, Spreadsheets, and Forms

A related program that's well worth checking out is:

The WealthLoop Series Beginner's Guide to Personal Wealth Creation (Combo Audio/Data CD): Audio Seminar With Downloadable 40-Page Action Manual and Active Link Library.

If you're new to pre-forclosure investing, I don't think you'll go wrong buying Ms. McGee's book.

I've seen both the authors speak at an IOC seminar on equity derivatives. They make a difficult subject understandable. I highly recommend the book, or even better, to see them speak in person.

It's about time that someone writes a well-written book about the greeks. Now I understand the stuff.

This book reads to you like you are a baby. It taught me the greeks in a simple manner.

The authors appear to know their subject well. I would recommend this as a beginner-to-intermediate introduction to fundamentals except for the numerous errors.

Some errors are like "typos" such as 6 instead of 60, some are more serious and subtle such as specifying a call when a put was meant, and some are fundamental structural problems with the book. For example, the Quiz answers don't match the chapters to which they purportedly provide answers, and in some cases only some questions are answered anyway.

The errors are so numerous, and some of a type that they won't be caught by the average beginner, that it might be dangerous for a beginner to rely on this book as a reference or as an only introduction to options.

I'd really like to have a completely "cleaned up" copy, as I think that could make this the best introduction that I'm aware of.

As an instructor in equity options for a major market making firm, I've been looking for an introductory text to supplement the lecture material presented in our training classes. While MacMillan and Natenberg have written great books on the topic, the former is not specific enough to our market making business and the latter is too advanced for the beginner. In looking for something in between these two fine works, someone suggested to me the Williams/Hoffman book. It has been unsatisfactory in several respects. Explanations of some concepts appear out of context with the material being covered, some others are very muddled, and some are just plain wrong. The book also suffers from a trait common to many traders-turned-authors in that while the authors may be very knowledgable about their subject they aren't very good at conveying - at least in book form - that knowledge to others. While students with previous exposure to options concepts may be able to overcome these deficiencies, I wouldn't recommend this book to the beginner. The beginner would be much better served by picking up MacMillan's timeless classic.

Finally, a book about options that is understandable and helpful. The book has been reprinted so the errors that the other readers referred to have been corrected. I loved it!