Do You Want to Make Money or Would You Rather Fool Around?

Book Description

Are you looking for the next big thing?

In these sixty-plus short pieces, prominent investment advisor and writer John D. Spooner shares an invaluable collection of insights and proven strategies you can use to make-and keep-more money in the market.

In a world overwhelmed with investment advice, Spooner offers something more precious-hard-won investment wisdom. He shares over 30 years of experience-in markets ranging from disastrous to unstoppable-along with savvy lessons that will lead you to a sound and highly profitable investment strategy.

You will also get a vivid behind-the-scenes look at the investment world's volatile and fascinating mix of people, money, cunning, and luck-and a better understanding of how the pro's really make more money on Wall Street.

If you're ready to move beyond chasing the latest high-flying stock or over-hyped IPO, and get serious about making money, this book is a great place to start!

Customer Reviews:

Short, insightful stories from a successful broker.......2001-11-09

Being able to trade or carry out a trade successfully is a talent, the ability to write and catch the readers' attention through 242 pages is a different story. Spooner shows that he has both gifts from God. The stories are really interesing and insightful. A good leisure reading for anyone who has a stake in the investment market.

War Stories from a Full Service Stock Broker.......2000-06-23

"Investing is a psychiatric profession. It deals more with emotion than with balance sheets and income statements." John Spooner shares that insight at the beginning of the book, and his stories certainly bear out that perspective.

The title of the book is explained in the first story about Big Arthur, who really did just want to fool around. It turns out that stock investing is primarily entertainment for most of Spooner's clients. If he tries to provide them with good investments, they get annoyed and leave him. He has to be careful in figuring out what their real objectives are. One woman tells him to invest conservatively for current income, then gets angry when he doesn't beat the S&P 500. She finally quits him.

The stories are done in a style reminiscent of Adam Smith in The Money Game, except these stories aren't quite as funny or illuminating. They certainly resonate with me, however. I've known a lot of people these stories could have been written about.

Spooner's real opinion is shared succinctly in the middle of the book. "People are mostly good at making money but terrible at investing it." "And not one of them . . . was capable of managing his or her own money." As a result, he tells you to hire a broker and to do what the broker says, or fire the broker.

He has three key questions to ask in deciding which full service broker to use. I think you could be misled by these questions, as I was when I hired a talented, well educated man to be my full service broker in 1968. He clearly passed these three tests, and was a nice fellow to boot, yet 80 percent of my money was gone within a year. He put me into three of the worst dogs you can imagine.

For perspective, I suggest that you also read John Bogle's, Common Sense About Mutual Funds. If you seriously want to make money, buy index funds. If you want to fool around, find a full service broker who will amuse you. The choice is yours.

This book provides a valuable perspective on the stalled thinking that affects people's ability to invest. You can either make most of these mistakes yourself in the future, or learn them by reading this book. It's much cheaper to buy and read the book. I suggest that you decide to make money with your money. Save your entertainment for other parts of your life where the cost isn't so high.

Live long and prosper!

Every investor should read it more than once........2000-01-14

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. I found it interesting reading, loved the stories which convey the messages clearly, and believe it is full of common sense. It is a sound approach which has served his clients, (of which I am proud to be one), well over the years.

Helpful and engaging.......1999-12-11

Investing can be as much a matter of comportment and attitude as anything else. Spooner's relaxed, anecdotal style is a welcome departure from the "sure-thing", exclamatory type of trash that's been on the bookstore shelves (and in the warehouses!) for the last two years. His advice is (largely) helpful to anyone who chooses to invest rather than gamble. By the way, you don't end up managing half a billion dollars of other people's money as an individual stockbroker by blowing smoke at them. Buy the book and read it.

Stand on your own two feet as an investor........1999-11-05

Great writing style. I'm surprised to say this about a financial book, but it was a real page-turner.

This book teaches you when to trust your own observations as a consumer an investor, and also supplies a few good rules to fall back on. It's investment advice, with a bit of personal advice mixed in. There are comical stories which help you realize how insane and irrational our financial markets can be. It helps you understand the psychology of Wall St., while keeping a healthy distance from Wall St.'s incestuous institutions of research.

Average customer rating:

Very High-Level Overview

Good High Level Overview

back office procedures and settlements, by mervyn king

Bank & Brokerage Back Office Procedures and Settlements
Mervyn King
Manufacturer: Global Professional Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Banks & Banking | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1888998768

Book Description

An indispensable guide fro bank and brokerage CEOs, executives, and boards who want to understand and implement bank office procedures and settlements. Key topics include set up and role of the back office, life of a deal, post-settlement duties, ancillary responsibilities, and risk management. Includese many case studies and appendices.

Customer Reviews:

Very High-Level Overview.......2001-12-13

If you are a Treasury Back Office professional...don't buy this book. It is a broad and very high-level overview.
Be aware that you can have precisely the same book, from the same author with a different name: Back Office & Beyond.

Good High Level Overview.......2001-02-05

If you're interested in obtaining a high-level overview of the subject, this is an excellent book.

back office procedures and settlements, by mervyn king.......2000-04-19

Not many book titles exist in the area of back officeprocedures and settlements, so after seeing the title of this new book and its review ... , I decided to order it.....now I wish I had spent my [$] another way. The subject referred to in the title covers less than half the book's text. The other half of the book regurgitates the same old "risk management best practices", well known examples of risk oversight failures and Basle recommendations issued with respect to the regulation of market risk (issued in 1996, which came into effect in 1998). There are far better books written on the subject of risk management and the author should have stuck to describing what the title of the book suggest: back office procedures and settlements. In this area, the he book would have benefitted from some updating to reflect "state of the art" technologies. The "best practices" for managing operational rsk in the area of foreign exchange settlements are far better described in a paper on this subject by the NY Foreign Exchange Dealers Association (1996)and can be downloaded for free from (for example) the JP Morgan website.

Bank and Brokerage Back Office Procedures and Settlement

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Bank and Brokerage Back Office Procedures and Settlement
Mervyn King
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Banks & Banking | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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General | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1579581064

Book Description

Every bank and financial institution worldwide grapples with the problems of proper, accurate, and legal recording of customer transactions, whether a simple stock trade or a conversion of currencies. In this ground-breaking work, financial operations expert King shows banks, brokerage, financial funds, and a host of other financial institutions how to improve and enhance operations management to ensure careful and accurate back office activity/settlement. Topics include: set up and role of the back office; post-settlement duties and operations; currency conversions and the Euro; risk management and market fraud; investigation and audit support; operations management, etc.

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Natural Law and the Theory of Society 1500 to 1800
Otto Gierke
Manufacturer: Beacon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JNU5Z8

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Natural law and the theory of society, 1500 to 1800
Otto Friedrich von Gierke
Manufacturer: University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Natural Law | Perspectives on Law | Law | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: B0007IZ816

Book Description

Gierke, Otto. Natural Law and the Theory of Society 1500 to 1800. With a Lecture on the Ideas of Natural Law and Humanity by Ernst Troeltsch. Translated with an Introduction by Ernest Barker. Complete in one volume. Cambridge: The University Press, 1950. Reprinted 2001 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 2001016483. ISBN 1-58477-149-6. Cloth. $110. Reprint complete in one volume that contains "an English translation of five sections of the fourth volume of Otto von Gierke's magisterial treatise on the history of the German law of associations. When this edition was published, all competent students of the history of jurisprudence and political thought at once recognized that Professor Barker had made a very important contribution to the literature of these fields, none the less so because of the elaborate and learned Introduction which he himself had contributed." C.J. Friedrich, Harv. L. Rev. 49:677-680 cited in Marke, Catalogue of the Law Collection at New York University 938. Gierke [1841-1921], an important German jurist, is widely considered to be a founder of modern German constitutional law.

Natural law and the theory of society, 1500 to 1800: With a lecture on the ideas of natural law and humanity, (Beacon paperbook)

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Natural law and the theory of society, 1500 to 1800: With a lecture on the ideas of natural law and humanity, (Beacon paperbook)
Otto Friedrich von Gierke
Manufacturer: Beacon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Natural Law | Perspectives on Law | Law | Subjects | Books

Natural law and the theory of society, 1500-1800

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Natural law and the theory of society, 1500-1800
Otto Friedrich von Gierke
Manufacturer: The University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Natural Law | Perspectives on Law | Law | Subjects | Books

Natural Law and the Theory of Society 1500 to 1800, with a Lecture on the Ideas of Natural Law and Humanity By Ernst Troeltsch (2 Vols. In 1)

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Natural Law and the Theory of Society 1500 to 1800, with a Lecture on the Ideas of Natural Law and Humanity By Ernst Troeltsch (2 Vols. In 1)
Otto; Translated with an Introduction By Ernest Barker Gierke
Manufacturer: Beacon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J1AL22

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NATURAL LAW AND THE THEORY OF SOCIETY 1500 TO 1800.

Manufacturer: Beacon Press Boston
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IANPOA

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Natural Law and the Theory of Society, 1500 to 1800
Otto Gierke
Manufacturer: Beacon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000JRBD3W

Book Description

This book will appeal to specialist engineers with enquiring minds and, in a broader sense, to all who live in buildings, especially those in a seismically active region. While the continual development of building codes permits the design of new construction to resist earthquake loads more effectively, a major problem is that buildings which may once have conformed to past seismic codes become structurally unacceptable according to today's codes and need upgrading or `retrofitting'. Poor construction methods also result in buildings that do not conform to any codes. Existing `vulnerable' buildings that require strengthening in earthquake-prone countries immensely outnumber all recent construction.
The `health' of buildings thus requires assessment and rehabilitation. Seismic assessment ranges from the cataloguing of `danger symptoms' in individual buildings to structural analyses involving finite element procedures and refined statistical analyses incorporating expert systems, stochastic processes and predictions from available databases. Structures have to be rendered fit for earthquakes, and this book goes a long way towards showing why and how, offering the results of cutting-edge research in the area and presenting innovative methods that enable system improvement while the structure remains in use.

Book Description

The contents of this book in its English edition summarizes the basic re-search work accomplished by the author on the field of Fluid Dynamics, Magnetohydrodynaics (MHD), Classical Thermodynamics, and Astrophy-sics. Besides, it contains a section attached to each chapter with the title of Selected Topics. In these sections fine theoretical points are cleared up and a large number of illustrative problems are solved. This way the idea is to have readers who use this book as a text book as well as a research monography addressed to all those who study Theoretical Physics and who are interested in the analytical treatment of perfect and real fluids, as much as in the dynamic state of fluids electrically charged which flow in regions where there is a magnetic field, and also fluids at rest proper of Classical Thermodynamics. With this material we wish to facilitate the access to fundamental aspects of Fluid Dynamics, MHD, and Thermodynamics, and the application of these disciplines to Astrophysics. It is assumed that the reader is aqcuainted with Maxwell´s equations of Classical Electrodyna-mics, those of Hydrodynamics balance equations, and the fundamental postulates of Thermodynamics. A reasonable handling of the calculus of variations and the tensorial notation is required, as well as knowledge of the principles and methodology of Lagrange´s Analytical Mechanics. In general terms and from the view point of the required mathematics, the book is self-contained in the sense in which everything that is needed is clearly stated within the text.

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Nonlinear MHD Waves and Turbulence

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Astrophysics & Space Science | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

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Mechanics | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 3540666974

Book Description

This book is of interest to researchers in astrophysics and the planetary sciences. It surveys the current knowledge on the propagation of nonlinear waves and the development of a turbulent dynamics in magnetohydrodynamic flows. The authors emphasize how the theoretical understanding of MHD waves and turbulence is related to the description of media where the presence of an ambient magnetic field is known to play an essential role. These effects are important in the physics of various space plasmas such as the magnetosphere, the solar wind, the solar corona, the interplanetary and interstellar media, etc. The authors treat fundamental aspects as revealed by asymptotic analysis, numerical simulations, and observations in the solar wind.

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The Physics of Alfvén Waves
Neil F. Cramer
Manufacturer: Wiley-VCH
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Astronomy | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 3527402934

Book Description

Low-frequency wave modes of magnetized inhomogeneous plasmas have been subject to intense study in the last decade because they play important roles in the transport of energy in the plasmas. The "Alfvén wave heating" scheme has been investigated as a supplementary heating scheme for fusion plasma devices, and it has been invoked as a model of the heating of the solar and stellar coronae.
This book covers the latest research into the properties and applications of low-frequency wave modes in magnetized plasmas, the Alfvén waves and magneto-acoustic waves, in the context of laboratory, space and astrophysical plasmas. In particular, non-ideal effects on the dispersion relation and absorption properties of linear and non-linear waves are included, such as ion-cyclotron effects, friction between the ionized plasma and a background gas of neutral atoms, and the interaction of the plasma with dust particles.
The book also surveys the theory of Alfvén and magnetoacoustic waves in inhomogeneous plasmas, as occur in realistic laboratory, space and astrophysical plasmas, with resulting localized wave modes such as surface waves. Waves are considered under a variety of plasma conditions, ranging from cold cosmic plasmas, to hot laboratory and solar plasmas, to the relativistic plasmas around pulsars.

Plasma effects in semiconductors: Helicon and Alfven waves (Taylor & Francis monographs on physics)

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Plasma effects in semiconductors: Helicon and Alfven waves (Taylor & Francis monographs on physics)
A. C Baynham
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

Introduction to Alfven Waves (Series on Plasma Physics)

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Introduction to Alfven Waves (Series on Plasma Physics)
Rodney Cross
Manufacturer: Adam Hilger
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

One: Moon and Starlets--Liam and Violet are lovers who contend with emotional strife. As a psychologist, Violet instills a sense of right and wrong while Liam, reminded of the deaths of his father and brother, toils over his sister's near fatal drug overdose.
Two: Rhapsody Gasping--Riley has just returned from a transcontinental trek. After a soul-searching year he rediscovers Erin at a party. Will their reunion revitalize the stingless beehive in their hearts now that he is a rewritten man?
Three: Every Day is Saturday--Elvis, an independently wealthy man unusually alone with his incisive thoughts, mulls over his solitary life. Due to his slack schedule every day is Saturday.
Four: Car Accident Curiosity--Tim Huxley gets bizarre yet amusing phone calls. After an absurd amount of fervent pleading he finally chooses to meet the voice on the other end of the line.
Five: Dylan Likes to Fish--Dylan, a bartender in a Chicago Pub, likes to fish...for women. A knock on his door one morning may help him to see his way.
Six: Orange Juice--Tanner, a hitchhiker beaten and stranded in the Mojave, finds a ride with a philosophical loon who has a photographic memory and who talks out loud to no one in particular. A former mishap with LSD has also caused the driver to view himself as a glass of orange juice that is about to spill.
Seven: Here Comes Trouble--The climax to these intertwined short stories, a disturbing secret is revealed.

Customer Reviews:

This book is great.......2004-07-08

This is one of the most interesting books I've ever read. Finally we have an author who is not afraid to shake things up a bit and break out of the novel norm. Some stories are told in the third person and some in the first person (although each story is internally consistent), which makes for welcome variety. Not all the stories have the classic structure of rising action, climax, and resolution, and are instead more reflective pieces showing characters reacting to various situations. The stories frame a kind of "life's dance," which is evocative of the book's title, and each story gets your interest from the outset. They only get better as you read on. The third story has perhaps the best hook, in a very understated yet compelling way. And "Car Accident Curiosity" draws you in extremely effectively as we share Tim's curiosity about the woman who keeps calling him but won't identify herself. The ending is perhaps the most compelling aspect of the book, bringing everything together in a very effective and provocative way. This is a book that a lot of people should read. It makes you think. There's some great stuff in there.

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