ISBN: 0140143459
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Avg Cusomer Rating: 4
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Summary: Interesting and well written...
This should be required reading analysts and associates along with `Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle' and `Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success'. Each gives a different and illuminating perspective on the ups and downs of the many different departments that make up large, institutional finance organizations. Moreover, there are in totality especially useful if you have no idea about how finance actually operates on a day-to-day basis beyond what you see in your economics courses (definitely the case at Harvard, U Chicago, MIT and the like, where these firms heavily recruit). Can definitely give those without and an internship or direct experience the ability to level the playing field to a large degree.
Summary: Wall Street Demystified
For those of us that have an innate disbelief for brokers, traders, advisors and the likes working from Wall Street, this is a must read. For those of you who take lessons and advise from financial advisors, money experts, radio and TV charlatans, this book should be mandatory.
The basic premise (mine, not the Author) is, why someone who knows what will go up or down, will share that with me? By a simple rule of supply and demand (and its effect in price), when more people find out about a `good deal', the `less good' the deal becomes. I.e. the fewer people that `know' that a commodity will go up in value, the better, as the demand for that commodity remains low. The more people that find out about this commodity (stock, bond, investment, metal, etc.) the demand will rise and so will the price. Why will someone that `knows' what will improve in price, share that with you? If your advisor really knew, he/she would not be wasting their time telling you about it, they would gobble up on that commodity, spend all they have to buy more, and then borrow some more. Then the opposite is also true: once he/she accumulated as much as possible of such commodity, then they would have a credible and legitimate reason to `spread the knowledge', so people would start buying and he/she can sell... and the price will go down!
The only reservation which would oppose this logic is that the large and prestigious Wall Street bankers, with such tall buildings and important names, century old reputation, so much marble, granite and stainless steel, etc. `have' to be ethical, professional and give you a good service for your money. They can't be a sham; or can they? Introducing Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker. This is a book that is hard to put down. For a person like me, not very familiar with the doings of the stock market, banks, etc. this is extraordinarily revealing. What an education! This book should be required reading in any MBA program.
The books is very entertaining and easy reading, Lewis' style is fun. There are some stories so amusing that I had to put the book aside until finished laughing. Constant references are made to true names, places and newpaper articles at the time of the events described. All this gives it the color of truth. I `googled' the Author and the book, and could not find a single article refuting any part of this book. Given the fame achieved by being listed as a # 1 bestseller in the New York Times, if someone had something to say, I am sure we would know by know.
I happen to have a neighbor who worked as a stock broker for a decade or so. To my questions, especially to why he quit (he is still young and not a millionaire), he just handed me his copy of this book. He only added `there is a dark underbelly to trading'. And was he right!
This book shows, from the inside, the inner workings of the famous, prestigious and powerful Wall Street banks. Nothing sugarcoated, the plain truth. I read the last 20 pages very slowly because I did not want the book to end.
Summary: Kept my interest.
I read this because I was required to for (MBA) school. I read the entire book over two weekends; a difficult task for me because of poor reading speed and poor attention span. I generally do not like to read and find most of what I read a painful bore and highly unbeneficial. This book was an exception. This book gives us an interesting insight into Michael Lewis' real world experience, something we cannot get a real feel for in traditional textbooks. If it is not already, this book should be required reading for all MBA programs. Thank you, Mr. Lewis, for sharing your story.
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