Bernstein Books

I read this when it came out and thought it was pretty good. The first half, about how people figured out how probability worked, was really entertaining. The end, about how the geniuses on Wall St. conquered risk, is so wrong it's hilarious. Bernstein is a victim of what Taleb calls the ludic fallacy -- mistaking well-defined games like craps for the truly unpredictable.

So go read "The Black Swan" or "Fooled by Randomness" instead.

Against The Gods is a popular account of the history of financial risk management. The author takes us through a journey of discovery spanning almost a thousand years, from the introduction of Arabic numerals and the concept of zero, to the most sophisticated derivative instruments of modern finance. At each point in history when a great leap forward was made, the personalities involved are introduced, and the advances they are credited with are explained. All throughout, mankind's age-old struggle to measure and control uncertainty is seen to stumble time and again against the same, seemingly insurmountable problem: There is no guarantee that what happened in the past will continue to happen in the future.

The book is highly recommended for anyone seeking to understand the origins of modern risk management and what the concept of risk really means.

Risk Management has always been interesting to me, and learning about the history of it through this book has increased my understanding tremendously. The book is written very well, and it reads very easily for the material being discussed. I was pleasantly surprised as I delved further and further into the book.

My friends and colleagues have a hard time believing that one of the most entertaining books I have ever read is about risk management and probability. Yet, Peter Bernstein's masterpiece bestseller is just that. By tracing the development of risk through the ages, he sets the personalities of the key innovators against the background of the times, and shows the practicality of what they did and how it changed the way we look at the world.

Most of my favorite mathematicians are profiled here, in witty and digestible bites of prose that often read more like a novel than a business book. The chapter titles themselves bear witness to the delightful style of the author: The Man with the Sprained Brain, The Measure of Our Ignorance and The Fantastic System of Side Bets are just a few examples. The segues between chapters and sections are also very well-done - creating a bit of suspense and making this quite a page-turner.

With apologies for seeming trite, there is a high probability, at little risk, of reaping a great reward from the story told by Mr. Berstein.

There are two things that I really liked about this book, and one thing that I didn't. The good things:

1) The author's vast knowledge of the financial markets, from most of a century of experience.
2) His extensive and entertaining history of risk analysis.

The bad thing:

His attempts to explain math concepts that he apparently doesn't understand very well.

His history of risk analysis was a pleasure to read -- from Fibonacci and Cardano, to Markowitz and Sharpe. My favorite, was his coverage of Francis Galton, the man who measured everything.

Above all, the greatest value in this book is that it's packed with the author's knowledge of finance, from 63 years of experience. He's 89 years old now, and appears to still be going strong.

This book is well worth reading.

My favorite quote from the book:
Today's hero is often tomorrow's blockhead.(pg 297)

Her US presidential campaign for the 2008 election turned out to be a disaster for her, simply because a dark-horse (Barack Obama) ran much faster than she could. However, she will not give up her life dream. I am sure she is now gearing-up for the 2016 election where this "dark horse" would no longer run after the presumed successful two terms of his US presidency at White House. She could greatly contribute to his cabinet, serving as his VP (vice-president) or Secretary of State or Health with her great expertise. So I trust this 2008 book would be very useful for readers who would follow her foot steps beyond the 2008 election.

I found this book to be one of the best written about Hillary Clinton. Carl Bernstein gives a fair and unbiased view of the Senator of New York. It has helped me decide who I will voting for in the presidential election.

Hillary is hard to hate. She is also hard to take. We owe this author and now Mr. Obama for exposing Hillary more fully than we ever thought possible. By golly, she can't hide now. The primary season seems so prolonged and such a waste of money but in some weird way, it works. It shakes the candidates down, shakes them up, and shows them for who they really are. I have never been a fan, but I know that many admirers finally saw her for what she is. I happen to have some compassion and a little sympathy for her, but I can well see that our nation has been very lucky indeed to escape her projected presidency. Much is due to this biography, all well-known facts, but as collected here by an admirer, we see how clumsy and arrogant this woman really is. What an incompetent woman. Isn't it hilarious that she has tried to run as an experienced professional; here we see her as the ham-fisted bully she is.

Hillary Rodham Clinton's story is both fascinating and impressive. The fact that the renown journalist Carl Bernstein chose to write it, is telling. It's obvious in reading it that Bernstein is no fan of Hillary's, though he begrudgingly tries to portray her fairly. At times he is schizophrenic in his accusations and modest bits of back-handed praise.

O.K.,I'm pro-Hillary and Bernstein is not. This is no paen to the Senator-and-former-first-lady-who-would-be-President, but it is a worthwhile book because of its scope and because of the author's credentials.

Overall, A Woman in Charge is a good, if harsh biography of an amazing woman. The facts speak for themselves, and Hillary's intelligence, integrity, productivity and fortitude shine through.

I bought this book because, as a former strong supporter of the Clintons through all of their thicks and all of their thins, I was alarmed at how angry I am becoming now at their current behavior in the primaries.

It was described as "sympathetic," and I was hoping to find things there to admire in order to take a more moderate view of her and what seemed to me to be an almost pyschopathic campaign designed (at worst) to bring down the Party and or (even at best) to position herself to be the candidate in 2012 by destroying the man who might win in 2008.

That didn't happen. I became more frightened than I was before of what might occur if she is elected president.

There is instance after instance of REALLY bad judgment on her part (for example, when the 1994 loss of congress (considered to be partly due to the highhanded way she treated members of congress and others) forced her to back off from her role as Bill's main advisor, she turned the job over to (guess who?) DICK MORRIS.

And she threatened Bill Bradley and Pat Moynihan with dire consequences if they even dared to question her healthcare plan. Then, she refused promising-looking compromises with Republicans that might have given us at least some kind of viable plan. And we have gone almost a decade and a half now with NO PLAN. Bernstein makes a strong point about her refusals to compromise and her arrogance about her own positions being above criticism. Can we really afford 8 years of that.

The scariest part for me was the account of how she took charge of the "bimbo erruptions" by trying to paint Bill's mistresses as "stalkers" so as to dilute the possible effects of eye-witness accounts from people who had seen them together. It is hard for me to believe that feminists aren't disturbed by this bit of doberman-like behavior.

The book is very interesting as a case study of an ambitious flawed woman who has expoxied herself to the fortunes of an equally ambitious, equally flawed man.

But there was NOTHING in it that made me want to live throught 8 more years of wondering when the next shoe was going to drop and questioning how many of my doubts I would have to repress in order to defend them. Again.

The mystery of deep throat has been a persistent part of American political mythos for thirty years. That is exactly how long Bob Woodward held onto the secret of who helped guide him towards the downfall of the Nixon administration. Personally I was never swept up in this mystery so the who's who just didn't matter. What came across as meaningful was the concept of journalistic standards, an idea that has ceased to exist in recent years. Bob Woodward set the standard for keeping the identity of a deep cover informant but no one has lived up to it since.

Although the story has been retold and rehashed a thousand times, Woodward managed to put the tale in some sort of order and finally disclose the informant. I feel that the book brought some closure to the whole mess, and I'm happy to see it, not only in perspective but at last placed in the history books and not on the front page of the newspapers every day. The informant did a service to the country, not completely altruistic, and exposed Nixon and his band of bandits in his inner circle. Nixon did a lot of good things for our country, but it was eclipsed by his lies and corruption. Woodward continues to be a good writer and keeps the reader focused in his review of the events and then the climatic involvement/disclosure with "Deep Throat." A continuing good job by Woodward and his sidekick.

i just bought a new hard cover edition of the secret man at my local 99 cent store!
there were about 6 copies in stock when i left the store!
just sharing! lol!


5 stars for the price alone!

The good parts of the story are already in All the President's Men. The new material is Oprah-ready filler about a young man and his source. Woodward has not (dares not?) thought very deeply about Mark Felt, his motives, or his trustworthiness. This is the same incomplete Watergate story that his the papers in 1973.

I know journalists can only write the first draft of history. But Woodward is still selling that same first rough draft three decades after the events took place.

Bob Woodward's inability to push Felt before old age rendered Felt unable to answer the questions about why Felt chose to provide information about Watergate.

Woodward's excuse about honoring Felt's brushoffs during the late 70s and early 80s ring hollow coming from a reporter who pursued Felt during the Watergate scandal. Woodward knew that the day would arrive when Felt would be exposed as Deep Throat and American's would want a detailed answer to why Felt decided to become the inside source that helped Woodward and Bernstein expose Nixon's involvement in the cover-up.

Woodward should have pushed Felt to record his reasons with the promise they would not be revealed until Felt's death or he decided to go public.

Since Woodward had kept Felt's identity secret long after Watergate had faded into history, Felt should have felt comfortable enough to provide such information. However, for his own reasons, Woodward did not pursue Felt and it leaves the Watergate scandal an unfinished product.

This book clearly illustrates the need to be disciplined as an investor. Unfortunately, as many Americans do not exercise this discipline they will never achieve the potential returns that can be had in the market. This book should be mandatory for all students to read and study probably at the high school level.

Jeremy Siegel is the Russell E. Palmer Professor of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He appears regularly on networks like CNN, CNBC and NPR, and is a frequent contributor to financial periodicals.

"Stocks for the Long Run" is the best known book by Siegel, and widely cited. There are more than 100 books that cite "Stocks for the Long Run".

Most of the book takes a long-term view of the financial markets. Siegel takes an empirical perspective to answer some major investing questions. Even though the book has been termed "the buy and hold Bible", the author occasionally concedes that there can be some market inefficiencies that can be exploited. The book is very easy to comprehend and is targeted to wide audience.

If you like the idea of scrutinizing major investing questions, popular beliefs and conventional wisdoms, I would recommend "The Only Three Questions That Count" by Kenneth L. Fisher, which is much deeper than "Stocks for the Long Run".

When you are done with this book, DO NOT LOAN IT TO ANYBODY. I lost my first copy when an intern did not return it. I lost the next copy when a friend gave it to his mom.

Reading this book will give you a better understanding of the financial markets than 99% of the people around you. If you do not understand any part of the book, skip it and go back later. For a first book, there is none better.

If you are already knowledgeable, it is still a great read.
-Enjoy

Stocks for the Long Run: The Definitive Guide to Financial Market Returns and Long-Term Investment Strategies Jeremy J. Siegel

Stocks for the Long Run makes the most convincing case for long-term stock market investing. Part history book and part finance book, it is brilliant. I want to give this book to my clients who want to put all or most of their money in CDs, bonds and other debt instruments. Siegel uses historical records to prove that well allocated, diversified stock investments truly are the best way to steadily accumulate wealth over time. His historical narrative also turns what could be just another hard-to-read investment book into a compelling story -- there really is a great deal of drama in the retelling.

If you read this book you will be armed with information to make educated choices about how to invest your hard earned money. Weathering the stock markets ups and downs can be a profound challenge to the uninformed investor. This book provides a perspective that allays some fears and offers cautions as well. Stocks for the Long Run will help you make good investment decisions, and give you confidence in the decisions you make.

James Lange, CPA/Attorney and author of Retire Secure! Pay Taxes Later: The Key to Making Your Money Last as Long as You Do

I agree with the other reviewers that this book is an outstanding essay for those who want to learn how to select stocks for a value portfolio. Where we differ is that for the typical investor he does not have the resources to build a properly diversified portfolio- either financial or mental resources. Value stocks do provide returns in excess of broad market returns but in order to have adequate diversification you must assemble several hundred issues well beyond the resources of the average investor. Further one must have the time and skill to evaluate several thousand issues.

I can offer a solution to this problem. I want to recommend for you a book titled How to Make Money in the Stock Market-Buy 2,500 different stocks for $1000 - Pay no Commission This book is a must for those wanting to find out about indexing (passive investing) and why it is the superior method for the small investor (and big one too). This book is an outstanding guide to personal investing. It will be useful to all investors from novices to highly the highly experienced. This book prepares the reader to approach investing from the standpoint of the underlying science. It is the antithesis of a 'get rich quick scheme'.

All aspects of Modern Portfolio Theory and passive (index) investing are explained in a through and easily understood manner. The aspect I like most is that as well as a solid theoretical foundation the book is very practical and shows the reader how to create (and more importantly) and manage over time a successful portfolio. This is a great book- for the beginning investor, it's a great place to start and for the experienced investor there are many valuable suggestions.

It's a shame to think of how much money investors have lost "investing" in the stock market over the years. I wish I had read this little book years ago. The chapter on automatic investing recommends a number of portfolios that follow modern portfolio theory and adjust risk as you age without any effort on the part of the reader at all. Had this book been written years ago and had I followed its directions I would be rich today of that I am certain. Nevertheless I will pursue one of the portfolios recommended and stick to my chosen asset plan.
How to Make Money in the Stock Market-Buy 2,500 Different Stocks-Pay no Commission

Save your money. Never, never waste your funds on the drivel this author produces!!

A profitable trader would never have time enough to write even one tenth the quantity of words this person produces.

Find traders that actually make money to learn from. There are a few that have written good books.

As starting points:
For equities traders try: Professional Stock Trading
For futures traders try: Trading Day by Day

These are simply starting points, but are written by REAL traders, not worthless-book producers.

I feel that Day Tader II is really a rip-off as it basically just reguritates most of the material found in volume one. THIS is typical Bernstein -- the goal is dollars from book sales, not educating the reader. Mr. Bernstein does not respect his readers, and this is the sad part because he obviously is a highly intelligent man who probably could contribute a lot to the field of daytrading education if he weren't so needy and greedy. I wouldn't go so far as to call him "Jake the Snake", but I do think he should put more care into the content of his books.

Having read many books on Day Trading and attended courses and seminars, this book added "confidence". It gives you simple systems to work with, 30MBO, InsideDays, Gaps, etc.. It also tells you what the indicators lack and what most traders lack to succeed, discipline. Use the 30MBO but don't change the method. Stick to it. Be disciplined. Aimed at the futures and commodities traders, these methods also work with fast high volume, high votility stocks. I emailed Jake with a question on the 30MBO and got a reply in hours, that's value. I have ordered his next book, "The Complete Guide to Day Trading Stock". Can't wait. I cannot see how anyone (who is not a beginner) would not benefit from this book.

Reading this book is purely a watse of your time. Buying it is absolutely waste of your money.

The only thing you can learn from it is that the author probably makes more money by selling hot topic books than from trading.

Mr. Bernstein writes a book almost every month. He certainly is a prolific writer--my question is when does he have time to trade??

The Power of Gold is the best history book I have ever read. The book traces the history of gold as currency from 500 B.C. through the 20th Century. It is full of fascinating vingettes. Did you know that Sir Isaac Newton was the last of the magicians? An academic recluse until the age of 58 he emerged from his chrysilis to become head of the English mint and a social dandy. Did you know that salt was as valuable as gold in Africa; or that the camel was introduced into Africa to replace the oxen for hauling gold across the Sahara desert; or that the Saharan gold traders never saw each other, but engaged in "blind barter" to conceal the source of the gold from the Europeans? The chapters on the demise of the Gold Standard and the Great Deprtession are a must read for anyone wanting to understand our present fiscal crisis. Simply a Materpiece!

Peter Bernstein's "The Power of Gold" is an interesting read. It begins with a series of anecdotes on the history of hold - from the Israelites to King Midas to Crassus to Pizarro and everything in between.

Suddenly, the anecdotes stop and instead the reader faces down some pretty hard core history of the gold standard and the economics therein. The change in tone was startling. Eric Conger, the reader on the abridged audio cassette handles it in stride and does his best to keep the tone and material light.

Bernstein sets gold up as a villain in the lives of men and men's quest for gold does not usually turn out the way they plan. Bernstein details the evolution and subsequent gold standard and in so doing, uses the images of the anecdotes told previously. One of the more powerful and useful images was that of the merchant who was on a ship when it began to sink. Carrying all of his gold, the merchant jumped overboard and promptly sank - which poses the question, did the merchant possess the gold or did the gold possess the merchant?

Once the nations of the world were off the gold standard, the market fluctuated wildly. It reached its zenith when it peaked at $850 an ounce in 1980. When Bernstein published the audio edition in 2000, gold had promptly gone downhill precipitously with a price below $300 an ounce. Bernstein all but closes the door on gold pronouncing that its time in the monetary system come and gone and its uses as a hedge non-existant.

But just before Bernstein hammers in the last nail of gold's coffin, he quotes economist Robert Mundell who stated that gold would make a comeback in the 21st century. Sure enough, on January 14, 2008 (or 3 days before this review), gold was trading at a record $914 an ounce showing that gold's use as an enduring hedge seems as durable as gold itself.

Recently, I have noticed a decline in the value of the dollar in the market and great increase of gold. Even the gold went over one thousand dollar at one point. Then, I came to thinking: what if we might be heading to some kind of economy collapse in our near future where our dollars in the banks will disappear overnight and we will be left penniless and head into a great debt without much a warning. Then, it would be likely that gold and silver might return to being as values/standards of money for survival purposes in the event of economy collapse. At least, that is my understanding of using gold.

Before this year, I rarely take notice of gold and often thought of it as just piece of metal. And, I often wondered why gold would be such a big deal or why would gold became a driving motivation behind every nation's growth. Again, I thought, "they are pieces of metals, nothing more...geez, it sounds like everyone is obsessed with such illusion. Why do we even bother?" Then, I was recommended to this book by Peter Bernstein.

"The Power of Gold: The History of Obsession" is very intriguing and easy to read, with only twenty chapters and roughly four hundred pages. It is certainly a book that I could not put down because it answered some of my questions on the subject, or at least to my understanding. I really liked reading about the histories of gold from the ancient times to present, including the stories of Lydian and Greek as well of Johann Sutter in the time of California gold rush. Also, it was interesting to acquire an understanding about the attitude of the people towards gold in the aftermath of The Black Death during the mid-fourteenth century.

I most certainly agreed with the author when he said the following:
"Those who believed that gold was a hedge against the uncertainties of life failed to understand that the pursuit of eternity is not to be satisfied by gold, or by anything else we choose to replace gold - dollars, euros, whatever. Gold and its surrogates make sense only as a means to an end: to beautify, to adorn, to exchange for what we need and really want." (p. 372)

After reading this book, I have gained a better understanding about gold itself: how it was viewed, how it was and is being used, and why were/are people obsessed with gold. Gold may be a piece of metal, but it seems to serve mult-purposes.

I am no economist or trader, but I found this book to be an enlightening read and very informative about the gold's nature, its history, and its relationship with humanity.

The older edition (Aug 30, 2000) has more pages (448 instead of 304) but costs more ($39.00). Comparing the table of contents between the 2 editions, it appears that the first 14 chapters and 207 pages are identical between the two editions but the new 2004 illustrated edition may have discarded or condensed some of the later chapters. The older 2000 edition is still available from Amazon if you look further down in search results for this title.

The Power of Gold was lent to me by a colleague at work, a fellow market analyst. He and I talk monetary policy on a fairly regular basis, so he thought I'd like to give this book a read. Indeed, he was correct.

In brief, this is a book which tracks the use of gold from a monetary perspective through most of human civilization. If you're at all interested in history, then this book is definitely right up your alley. It takes a look at world events from a perspective that you won't find in many other sources. Primarily that means focusing on how gold was (or was not) the main focal point of money and trade. I personally didn't care for the author's occassional forays into discussions of the decor of various palaces and whatnot, but they weren't too distracting. Beyond that, it was a very well written book, and a pleasant read.

The really interesting stuff from a my perspective as a trader and analyst, of course, is the latter part of the book where it gets to modern times. I personally found the whole discussion of the 20th century, which was probably the last third or more of the book, to be the most meaningful. The author really presents an excellent discussion of various perspectives and efforts related to different countries being on or off the gold standard and how that all played out in both domestic and global economies.

One of the things which has come up in modern political, social, and economic discussions is the idea of going back on the gold standard. There have been some very prominent proponents. If you want to get an idea of what that might look like, how that might play out in the global trade and economic modern environment, you'll definitely want to give The Power of Gold a read. It will really have you thinking about the complexity of it all, and the implications.

This book is hard to follow, and written as a suspense book. I really thought this was going to be more of a history type book. I got it to read after I read Jefferson by David McCullough. David is a much better writer.

I read this book after David McCullough's John Adams and Walter Isaacson's Ben Franklin, both of which were fairly lengthy and detailed, although very good and worth the time to read. However, I was ready for a shorter biography as I did not need all the background of the period. I tried to read Joseph Ellis' "American Sphinx" biography and found it way too analytical. It spent 10 pages discussing the influences on the Declaration. For me it is sufficient to know that the Declaration was not a wholly original piece of work without knowing all the details of Thomas Locke's writings. This book does a good job of telling the story of Jefferson. It seemed to provide a balanced view of the man. The great: his contribution of the Declaration and his achievements as President (Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark expedition), and founding of University of Virginia. The not so great: owner of slaves, not great tenure as governor of Virginia and personal finances. It discusses the Sally Hemings issue, but draws no conclusion. I found it very interesting that Jefferson held what I would could Libertarian ideals of limited government, but expanded government power in expanding the country through the Louisiana purchase and Lewis and Clark expedition. I would recommend this biography for anyone looking for a shorter biography of this important in American History.

I've read several books on Jefferson and this is one of the best. It is reasonably concise and doesn't bore you with long explanations, interpretations, and opinions like some others do, as if they are going to be graded and put in every boring detail they can find for the sake of academicia. However, if you are looking for a book that finally explains, and makes you understand, the "mysterious" character of Thomas Jefferson, the only book I can recommend that does that is "Understanding West Point, Thomas Jefferson, and Leadership of Character" by Norman Thomas Remick.

Very well written. It is interesting and to the point. A good read.

Bernstein creates a wonderful launching portal, into the life of Thomas Jefferson, in his short but excellent biography. This is a great starting point for scholars who want to learn more about one of the most influential Founding Fathers. With this biography as foundation, Jefferson's writing, ideas, thoughts and ambiguities can be more deeply explored. Bernstein does the wise biographer approach of allowing Jefferson to emerge from the mystical past without trying to mold him to fit some preconceived notion or ideal. I think every major point that has been written about Jefferson is in this book. Jefferson is such a great symbol of the revolution that changed America and still influences us to this day. Well worth the read and addition to the history shelf.

Dr. Bernstein has performed an amazing public service in the compilation of this book. His odyssey dates back many decades when he realized the advice given by his doctors to control his Type I diabetes was wrong and causing his health to deteriorate. (Type I is the more serious one, where the body produces no insulin at all.) This was a time when home insulin testing became available, and he launched an incredible personal voyage of discovery to determine just which foods were raising his blood sugar levels and which were safer to consume. It involved testing these levels every half hour at times. Applying this knowledge to his own diet, his health began improving as he got his diabetes under control. In reading this account, one begins to wonder just what this poor man can consume, as it seemed most foods were problematical. Another amazing aspect of this investigation is that, despite the fact nothing like this had ever been done, he could not get his findings published as a layman. Incredibly, he then entered medical school, and with an MD after his name was able to interest a publisher. Subsequently, he opened a private practice as a diabetes specialist. I feel Dr. Bernstein's findings would benefit everyone, diabetic or not, as you learn which foods need to be decreased or eliminated in our diets and which should be emphasized.

A very good (and brief) revision of the Bernstein's theory about diabetes and carb. Puntual diet. For all who follow his career. Very useful

I commend the author for faithfully following the diet he prescribes in this book- but for the vast majority of people this diet is impossible to follow. He suggests an extremely low-carbohydrate diet, even more so than the south beach diet or the atkins diet. He says to follow a 12-6-6 diet, 12 grams of carbs for breakfast, and 6 grams for both lunch and dinner. I was hopeful that this book would give me a diet to follow, but his diet was just too strict, he doesn't even allow for milk- instead he has you use a little cream mixed into water! ick! I'm sure his diet of protein and vegetables would make anyone lose weight and be very healthy, but for the average person it is just not realistic to think that you can go through the rest of your life cutting out all carbs.

I am sure that if a person could actually live with this diet plan, not only would he/she lose weight, but blood sugars would be in complete control. There are too few choices in acceptable foods and too many no-nos. It is similar to Phase One of South Beach Diet, which is doable for two weeks but too strict for the long haul.

I bought this book before I learned how off-base Dr. Berstein is in the area of disbetes treatment. His suggestions are ultra low-carb and I believe dangerously low. If you are looking for a good reference on type-2 diabetes and how to treat I would NOT recommend this book. Try a publication from Joslin Diabetes Center.

Another hit from the house of ideas.Again Stan Lee writes about what he knows best---- super-heroes. Along with artists and letterers Marvel
has added one more super-hero to their list of great reading.
Make mine Marvel!

The Iron Man idea is great, and Iron Man has lasted a while as a first tier Marvel hero, though often falling to the fringes of the first tier he would always return with strong story arcs such as Stark's alcoholism. These first stories though are fairly weak for a variety of reasons.

Appearing in Tales of Suspense, the length of these stories runs from 12-18 pages, not the complete 24 of a solo character in his own title. The abbreviated length really does make a difference in regards to plot and character development. For a while, Iron Man took over 18 pages of the comic, before sharing it with Captain America when his page count went back down to 12. Even having 18 pages as opposed to 12 or 13 makes a difference in story quality. The short length makes any one shot story almost a vignette, and requires the stories of substance to be multi-issue.

Villains. A hero is defined by his villains. A hero is made great by having powerful and threatening villains. Unfortunately, again due to space constraints, Iron Man has only second tier villains. The Mandarin, The Black Knight. The only two that really develop into something better are The Black Widow and Hawkeye. That is one of the upsides of this collection, the first appearances of Marvel universe mainstays Black Widow and Hawkeye.

The science. It's a comic book, so the less said about the science the better. But it is hard to have a willing suspension of disbelief when the science is so laughable. I'm not sure Stan Lee had any idea of what a transistor was when he wrote these.

After all that you probably wonder why it gets three stars. Iron Man himself does get some development and follows the successful Marvel formula of a flawed hero. We see both Tony Stark evolve, and we see the early evolution of the Iron Man armor. Once Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts are introduced we see his personal growth and anguish, albeit shown through a corny love triangle. The 3-4 issue story arcs are also reasonably good, showing the improvement the series would achieve once Iron Man got his own title.

Not great, but not bad. Just average with bad points and good points.

Just got this book and man am I disappointed! Oh, it's thick enough, lots of content. And the graphics are clear, and its dimensions are nice. But... I expected it to be all in color like the original comic issues, but only the COVER was in color! 600 pages of comic issues in black & white?!! This sucks! What was the stupid publisher thinking?! Reading comic books starring superheroes should be seen in their colorful costumes,. Seeing Ironman not in gold and red, or the hulk not in green but in sepia tones sucks!!!!!!!! I am hugely disappointed.

WOW, what else can be said about this collection of original Iron Man stories. I read all these as a kid, but like most kids of my time my mother threw them all out. Well, even though the originals may be worth many thousands at least you get to read the original stories once more. Too bad they are not in color the only draw back.

This early Iron Man stuff probably needs two reviews to do an honest job. Old-time comic fans will appreciate this collection of these early stories and the introductions of so many classic Iron Man enemies. The 1960s writing is a nice bit of nostalgia, and the art by people like Steve Ditko and Don Heck is very fun to look at.

But to a younger person, perhaps coming to Iron Man from seeing the movie...not so much. The stories and enemies will seem hokey and the "red menace" stuff will lack the meaning it had to people my age who lived through the Cold War.

I love the marvel essentials series, but let's face it...these are pieces of nostalgia. Early marvels were pretty poorly written stuff. Once Stan Lee established the formula of a hero who whined and carped about his personal life all the time, it became formulaic very quickly. These stories fit in that mold, 18 pages of fighting some communist and a few panels of Stark whining about the metal plate on his chest.

If you understand what you are getting this is a great inexpensive way to grab all these early Iron Man comics...but I wouldn't buy it for a kid.

Seeing the other 5-star reviews makes me wonder, eihter those reviewers are clueless or I might have missed something big.
The main idea of the book is that if you can figure out the expectations incorporated in a market price and then evaluate the likelihood that (the more important of) those expectations may be wrong, you may actually find mispriced stocks and thus uncover good investment opportunities. Which I think is a nice idea, but is much easier said than done. The way the authors propose to proceed can be summarized as follows: (i) figure out from publicly available info and analyst reports the main consensus drivers such as sales growth, operating margin, cost of capital, etc., (ii) figure out what forecast period you need for a DCF model based on the consensus assumptions to produce the current market price of the stock, (iii)evaluate if any/which of the assumptions used in the DCF model are likely to be wrong, and based on that, (iv)make a buy/sell/hold decision. The reason this approach doesn't seem to add a lot of value to me is that it essentially consists of evaluating the assumptions used by other analysts (or other "consensus" numbers) to see if they make sense. This is what a lot of investors are already doing, except that it's a notoriously difficult task, and once you've gone through the pain of evaluating the main driving assumptions behind the consensus DCF, you are just a half-step away from building your own DCF anyway.
I'm giving the book 2 stars though for the pretty useful frameworks for thinking about drivers in a DCF model, and for being written in a fairly concise and articulate style.

An interesting read for the serious investor. The central tenet of the book might be stated as "investors do not earn superior rates of return on stocks that are priced fully to reflect future performance - even for the best value-creating companies - which is why great companies are not great stocks." This book posits that investors can read market expectations contained in a stock's price and anticipate revisions in those expectations to achieve superior returns. It book provides a detailed, step-by-step way to accomplish this process.

"Expectations Investing" is divided into three parts. Part I details how to determine the expectations for a stock based upon its current market price. Interestingly, rather than determine a "fair price" based upon a company's free cash flow, the book turns this process upside down, using a company's stock price to determine the market's expectations for free cash flow going forward. Next, the book helps identify "expectations opportunities" - places where revisions in the stock market's expectations are likely to take place. By focusing on key areas where expectations opportunities may take place (so-called "turbo triggers"), the skilled investor can modify their discounted cash flow projections to determine the appropriate price. This section further provides a framework to determine when to apply buy, sell, and hold decisions. Lastly, Part III of the book explains how certain, specific corporate events (mergers, share buybacks, and incentive compensation) may signal that expectations revisions are in order.

Within the book itself, I found the chapter on "Analyzing Competitive Strategy" to be an outstanding, investor-focused distillation of many of the points contained in Porter's "Competitive Strategy." Moreover, the chapters on specific corporate events were interesting insofar as they explain, in greater detail than I had read before, the quantitative analysis that underlies decisions related to mergers, share buybacks, and incentive compensation.

Potential readers should be aware that the authors of this book, like many stock analysts, adhere to the so-called "Capital Asset Pricing Model" school of thought (that the value of a security equals the rate on a risk-free security plus a premium, beta, which is determined based upon the volatility of the security in question). This model is just one of many that investors may use. Moreover, although stock analysts may have access to customers, creditors, competitors, and company insiders, many individual investors will lack those contacts, and thus face some difficulty in determining possible expectations revisions. Even if an investor had access to such information, the developing field of behavioral finance (see Belsky and Gilovich, "Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes" as but one example) would caution that investors seeking to implement the methods set forth in this book need to be careful of confirmation bias (tending to view information in a way that supports their pre-determined preferences) and information cascade (too much information), among others.

Lastly, readers should be aware that modeling out the process described by this book requires some math, and the ability to create spreadsheets of middling-level complexity. This is not a "buy low P/E" book - readers will have to do their homework to use these methods. Anyone who isn't looking to put several hours into investigating each stock they are interested in should look elsewhere.

In all, this is a well-written book that makes a very complicated process relatively simple. It is not designed for the casual reader, and implementing the expectations investing process certainly takes considerable work. However, the book provides valuable insights into how analysts function and how stocks are priced by public markets.

However, if forced to pick a well-written, fairly sophisticated book on investing, I'd recommend a few other books ahead of this one, including "Security Analysis" by Benjamin Graham and either of Martin Whitman's books ("The Aggressive Conservative Investor" or "Value Investing").

I am an individual investor investing primarily in individual companies. "Expectation investing" provides me with an effective process that I can trust, believe and most importantly to follow in my decision makings.

Armed with this process, and the blackjack winning strategy (you bet big when you have favorable odds), it becomes evdient to me that in the long run, small ivestors can achieve excessive returns. "More than you know" is another book you MUST read. The favorable odds likely happen when investors' indenpendence break down as a result of some legitimate big events.

I have read all of the articles written by Michael Mauboussin that can be found on the internet. It is one of the best gifts I give to myself.

This is a good book for those new to investing or those who feel that they need a more fundamental grounding to their trading activity. If you are a regular reader of multiple business news sources and utilize that information to guide your trading activities, then I would pass on this book.

There is no question stock prices climb and fall based on investors' current perceptions of their future performance.

Identify an error in those perceptions; you, as an investor, have uncovered a catapult to superior performance. In Expectations Investing, Alfred Rappaport and Michael J. Mauboussin argue current stock prices express investors' collective expectations. A change in those expectations lies at the heart of investment success.

This is a tall task. Approximately 75 per cent of all active investors deliver returns below those posted by passive index funds. The authors argue poor performance is built on a foundation of poor tool selection, high costs, and short-term vision and style limitations.

They argue investment performance can be improved by following three simple steps:

1. Estimate Price-Implied Expectations. Forget earnings and cash-flow estimates. Long-term discounted cash-flow models market performance.
2. Identify Opportunities. Expectation changes lead to changes in market evaluations. Whether you are looking at innovative technology or value, developed or developing markets, new or old economies, these principles are universal.
3. Develop a Disciplined Buy, Hold or Sell Strategy.

The ramifications of this discipline are they remove three misconceptions from investment thinking:

1. The market is short-term.
2. Earning per share dictate value.
3. Price-earning rations determine value.

This well-written and thought provoking book harnesses the market power of discounted cash flow without requiring difficult and dubious long-term forecasts. It helps the serious investor develop a theory of where he or she is headed, why and more important, the courage to ignore advice that has nothing to do with underlying value.