Investment Titans: Investment Insights from the Minds that Move Wall Street

Book Description

Let the legends of finance be your money managers! Imagine having the opportunity to ask Babe Ruth how to hit, or Charles Lindbergh how to fly. Investment Titans assembles an unprecedented panel of Nobel laureates and great financial thinkers--including Harry Markowitz, Paul Samuelson, John Bogle, and others--to ask: "How can investors make smart decisions that minimize risk and uncertainty and maximize return?" Their answers are thought-provoking, innovative, and certain to provide profitable insights for readers to use in their own investing.

Each contributor's field of knowledge--hedging risk, defeating psychological negatives, picking stocks, choosing strategies--is featured in its own concise, hands-on chapter. The result is a rare, fascinating look inside the minds and techniques of some of today's greatest financial thinkers.

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Investment Titans assembles an unprecedented panel of Nobel laureates and great financial thinkers--including Harry Markowitz, Paul Samuelson, Roger Ibbotson, and others--to ask: "How can investors make smart decisions and consistently beat the pros?" The result is a rare, fascinating look inside the minds and techniques of the greatest financial thinkers of the 20th century.

Customer Reviews:

dare not recommend it a "buy".......2002-07-20

The core concepts of the nine you know who, as summarized by the author, are: 1) diversify your portfolio 2) be cost conscious 3) start investing now and stay invested 4) keep your emotions in check 5) take an active, involved role in investment even if you got an advisor.

Not that insightful, right? You know these ideas quite well but just fail to execute them profitably, dont you? Now you may see why I dare not recommend it a "buy".

p.s. The best I can get is from Samuelson:- "You should take money seriously. In fact, you shouldnt enjoy investing. That's a trap. It makes you too active. You churn your own portfolio. You listen to stories, and most of the stories are not worth listening to."

Insightful!.......2001-04-10

Jonathan Burton relays the advice of nine top investors - Harry Markowitz, Paul Samuelson, Jeremy Siegel, John C. Bogle, Joseph Lakonishok, Richard Thaler, Gary Brinston, Peter Bernstein and William Sharpe. The author focuses on different aspects of investing - stock-market risk and reward, indexing, value versus growth investing, investor psychology, international investor strategies and risk tolerance. Burton concludes Investment Titans with observations about common themes - diversifying, investing now and staying invested. This solid book avoids repetition by focusing on different investment issues for different investors. We [...] won't give you stock tips, but we do offer book tips - this is a recommended buy for all readers interested in investment strategies.

Stand-Alone Nontechnical Summaries of Financial Theory.......2001-01-17

This book is the nonmath, condensed books version of much of the financial theory written by academics about stock investing, plus some perspectives by outstanding practitioners. If you can understand the math, you will learn a lot more by reading the original works. If you cannot, these side-by-side comparisons are not examined in enough depth to help you understand who's right and who's out of date. The book is well written though, for what it is. The book's concept is simply mistargeted from what investors need to know.

Of the thinkers who were interviewed for this book, the most useful information comes from John Bogle, Gary Brinson, Richard Thaler, Joseph Lakonishok, and Jeremy Siegel. You can read any of several books by John Bogle that are more helpful than this book, such as Bogle on Mutual Funds or Common Sense about Mutual Funds. Jeremy Siegel's Stocks for the Long Run is a classic that anyone can learn from. The Lakonishok studies suggest lots of inefficiency in the markets that Brinson talks about. Thaler's work is cutting edge in helping people understand the systematic tendency for professional and amateur investors to make mistakes.

If you ignore the Markowitz, Samuelson, Bernstein, and Sharpe material in the book, you will have missed relatively little.

Modern financial practice has moved well beyond the original academic perspectives built around the theoretical assumption of a perfectly informed and rational market composed of identically-minded investors. Those useful research-based distinctions are not made here.

If you want to understand what you should be doing as an investor, I would suggest looking elsewhere. Depending on your goals and circumstances, different paths may make sense for you. If you are between 46 and 56, I suggest that you start with Charles Schwab's new book, You're 50 -- Now What?

Of the key lessons in the book, you should pay most attention to the advice to diversify, hold as much in common stocks as your risk profile allows you to do, stay invested all the time, keep costs down (taxes, fees, and trading charges), focus on indexes of sectors that have historically outperformed (such as small cap, value stocks), start investing as soon as you can, add to your investments as much as possible, and . . . leave well enough alone (forget about chasing the latest hot stock or manager to try to beat the averages -- past performance is not an indicator of what will come next).

If you do decide to read this book, check your behavior against the principles I have just listed above. Most people violate these concepts, and have missed the chance to make more money.

May you achieve all of your financial goals!

Book Review.......2001-01-03

From Investments Titans, I have learned that the most important thing an investor should try to do is to minimize his/her risk. To minimizing his/her risk in the market is to have a diversified portfolio. The portfolio risk decreases as the number of different types of stock increases. But how many much diversification is enough? If an investor is trying to reduce the volatility of his/her portfolio as a whole, then he/she need more than one type of stock. But an investor also needs to have stocks that do not go up and down together. It makes perfect sense to own more different types of stock to reduce an individual's risk in an up and down market. A famous 1970 study by Lawrence Fisher and James Lorie showed that risk declines as stocks are added to a portfolio. But the research noticed that once the portfolio holds more that 20 stocks, adding more stocks will have a minimal effect on risk. The point here is to have a diversified portfolio but not to go overboard. In my opinion, having five to eight different types of stocks is being diversified enough. Yet, many analysts say owing between 12 to 20 is ideal for a portfolio. It makes perfect sense that investors will seek the highest return for the least amount of risk. You should take in count that diversification eliminates some risk, but not all. But one thing that this book does not mention is besides having a diversified portfolio, it is also important to focus on well-managed companies that have a strong franchise (brand name). I think it is very important that an investor does not pick stock that has poor management team. An investor should try to invest in a business that he/she understands well and companies that generate lots of cash and competitive characteristics. When he/she buys a stock at what you think appears to be an attractive discounted price, he/she will benefit from the future increase in value generated by owing all or part of a business that is well established. The one thing that I like about Jonathan Burton is that he makes the most important factor in investing very clear. He makes risk in the stock market very straightforward. It is not all about looking at data and number all the time. It is about looking at how much risk an investor is at when he/she is buying or selling a stock. Another thing that I like about this book is that it does not give only his opinion on investing but many others as well. You do not only get one opinion but you get many opinions. So you are not narrow-minded and set only one direction. Over all, the book is a great guide for new investors like me. I would recommend new investor to read this book but would not recommend investor to invest after reading the book because I have learned that you can not understand the stock market by just reading book but you also need to have experience as well.

Book Review.......2000-12-30

Investments Titans By: Jonathan Burton

The first chapter goes through the important knowledge of investing in the stock market. The most important thing an investor should try to do is to minimize his/her risk. To minimizing his/her risk in the market is to have a diversified portfolio. The portfolio risk decreases as the number of different types of stock increases. But how many much diversification is enough? If an investor is trying to reduce the volatility of his/her portfolio as a whole, then he/she need more than one type of stock. But an investor also needs to have stocks that don't go up and down together. It makes perfect sense to own more different types of stock to reduce an individual's risk in an up and down market. A famous 1970 study by Lawrence Fisher and James Lorie showed that risk declines as stocks are added to a portfolio. But the research noticed that once the portfolio holds more that 20 stocks, adding more stocks will have a minimal effect on risk. The point here is to have a diversified portfolio but not to go overboard. In my opinion, having five to eight different types of stocks is being diversified enough. Yet, many analysts say owing between 12 to 20 is ideal for a portfolio. It makes perfect sense that investors will seek the highest return for the least amount of risk. You should take in count that diversification eliminates some risk, but not all. Besides having a diversified portfolio, it is also important to focus on well-managed companies that have a strong franchise (brand name). An investor should try to invest in a business that he/she understands well and companies that generate lots of cash and competitive characteristics. When he/she buys a stock at what you think appears to be an attractive discounted price, he/she will benefit from the future increase in value generated by owing all or part of a business that is well established.

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Investment Titans: Investment Insights from Minds That Move Wall Street
Jonathan Burton
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OG0CLC

Book Description

Over the past ten years notions of complexity have emerged from the hard sciences and are now being applied to the social sciences. This is a highly contested area, but what is clear is that the notions and language of complexity offer the chance to reinterpret traditional views of theory and practice. This collection addresses HRD from within the notions and language of complexity, presenting multifaceted alternative perspectives to the current practice and theory of HRD.

Divided into four sections, this book presents sixteen different perspectives and represents the surrent state of the art, as portrayed by twenty internationally renowned academics and practitioners.

Book Description

Plant Layout and Flow Improvement is a one-of-a-kind book which takes engineers step-by-step through the design process of any plant -- manufacturing, distribution, etc. -- to maximize the efficient flow of materials. This book contains 16 scale layouts, 20 illustrations, 3 spreadsheets, 4 checklists and 13 tables.

Customer Reviews:

Book History by the Author.......2004-11-01

Plant Layout and Flow Improvement, with its accompanying disks, has been on the market for about 10 years now, and is widely accepted as a very practical book about how to design a quality layout for a manufacturing plant. It is sold world wide, and graduate students have called me regarding the use of many of the new concepts in this book for their master's theses. Many colleges and universities have used it as a supplement to their standard text book. I have recieved nothing but positive feedback from the readers. More information is available at: theofficenet.com/~blucreek/

Plant Layout and Flow Improvement.......2004-08-05

Save your money for a good book on Flow Improvement Through Lean Principles and Value Stream Mapping.

Trade liberalization, exit, and productivity improvements: Evidence from Chilean plants (NBER working paper series)

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Trade liberalization, exit, and productivity improvements: Evidence from Chilean plants (NBER working paper series)
Nina Pavcnik
Manufacturer: National Bureau of Economic Research
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

International | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Good advice for serious beginners

It's about business, the business of farming.

A Wise Investment for the Inquisitive, Curious Beginner

Where's the beef?

Being a Farmer does not mean living in Poverty

Making Your Small Farm Profitable: Apply 25 Guiding Principles/Develop New Crops & New Markets/Maximize Net Profits Per Acre
Ron Macher
Manufacturer: Storey Publishing, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Agricultural Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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Successful Small-Scale Farming: An Organic Approach (Down-To-Earth Book)

You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise

Small Scale Livestock Farming: A Grass-Based Approach for Health, Sustainability, and Profit

Five Acres and Independence

Building a Sustainable Business: A Guide to Developing a Business Plan for Farms and Rural Businesses (Sustainable Agriculture Network Handbook Series, ... Agriculture Network Handbook Series, Bk. 6)

ASIN: 1580171613

Book Description

This practical, step-by-step guide to operating a small farm in the new millennium examines 20 alternative farming enterprises. Readers will learn how to target niche markets and sustain a farm's biological and economic health.

Customer Reviews:

Good advice for serious beginners.......2007-06-15

There are lots of books written about how to grow things, how to raise animals, organics, etc. However, this is one of few on the subject of small farming that actually puts the whole picture together in terms of creating/sustaining a business and a lifestyle. The author expects that the reader is serious about surviving and thriving from his/her farming activities and shares information specific to the "business" of farming in a sensitive and ethical manner. It shouldn't be a secret that the small farmer needs to take advantage of every asset on the property year round, in addition to wearing every hat in a small business: Planning, marketing, sales, accounting, production, maintnenance, networking, etc. Excellent general information and many specifics, too. Well worth the read if you are serious about learnting to farm for profit.

It's about business, the business of farming. .......2007-03-01

This book is about the business of farming. It is not about how to produce a specific crop or livestock. There are many other books out there that cover these subjects. Some people rated this book poorly because their expectations for the book conflicted with what the book's subject is.

If you want to know about the buying equipment, how many hours of your time and how much capital you'll need to expend on various livestock or crops and how much you can expect to profit by those efforts, this is the book that will help you.

A Wise Investment for the Inquisitive, Curious Beginner.......2004-03-21

First, let me begin by saying what this book is not. This book gives zero advice to practicing small or large farmers on how to turn a profit. This book is not a how-to guide for those starting out. Nor is it a step-by-step method on how to get rich by working the land. If that were the case, then every small farmer in America would have read the book and gotten wealthy, instead of banks and other creditors foreclosing on family farms and putting them on the auctioning block.

Now, let me elaborate on what this book really is. This book is a very polite warning by two very seasoned, jaded individuals who are aware of the escapist notions and romantic fantasies many people have about farming. They have been around long enough to have become intimately familiar with the Back to the Land Movement, a Return to Simplicity, and Environmental Sustainability/Sustainable Agriculture- aka The New Improved Agriculture. It took me a while to realize this (three readings in fact!) and understand the dangers associated with one pernicious stereotype about farming.

Many of us on the sidelines believe that anyone can farm, and all it takes is a willingness to work hard (the trite saying about hard-working ditch diggers getting rich comes readily to mind). When we think of the farmer, we often have one (malicious) stereotype in mind- that of the dumb country boy with a 'gee aw shucks' outlook on farming and life. Basically, we really do not think it takes brains in order to farm successfully. I mean, after all, you take some seeds, toss in a little fertilizer of your choice, water them and come back in a few months to collect your crop and get your pesos (almost literally)- just how hard could that be?

Well, speaking as someone who is thoroughly new to farming, never once has farmed, and is inquisitive about the practice of agriculture, after considerable investigation I can tell you the prospective reader that no matter how hard they work, dumb people will not be able to stay on the farm for long. We on the sidelines do not think farming is difficult because we do not think about the Practice of Farming and the Business of Farming. If your experience of farming up to this point is shopping at your local natural foods co-op, perusing the stalls at the local weekly farmer's market, or wandering the aisles at some trendy, eco-hip retailer like Whole Foods or Wilds Oats (who have skillfully co-opted environmentalism as a path to insane riches), and you are considering going into farming as a vocation, then I do not think you will hear the polite warning contained in this book. If you are someone stuck in a dead-end or high-paying but otherwise unfulfilling career (like this reviewer), and you are seeking an out, a means of escape (what we politely but laughingly call a 'transition'), then you just might catch the polite warning consistently stated throughout this book.

Farming attracts many people not because of its business or financial aspects but because of the lifestyle many people associate with farming. If you are an MD, then you are in the business of healthcare. Your business and your lifestyle are completely different. In fact, whether your business is highly successful or modestly successful, your lifestyle could be lavish, it could be modest, or it could be parsimonious- it's up to you and your personal preferences. If you don't like your current situation, from where you work, to who you work for (read HMOs) to your clientele base, you can make a change without changing your lifestyle- too much that is.

Now here is the polite warning: if you are drawn to farming because of the lifestyle, and you turn this lifestyle into a business, then it behooves you to make damn certain that your business can pay for itself, because after all, your business is your lifestyle and your lifestyle is your business. The lifestyle will not work out if the business end does not pay. In fact, the business end may place quite severe limitations on the lifestyle you can reasonably expect to achieve, which in many cases will be well below what you are currently accustomed to. Unlike a 9 to 5 gig with some godless multinational, you can not simply just pack up and leave (this assumes implicitly that the heartless .......... have not fired you in the latest round of restructurings), and if the business end does not work out, you lose not only your lifestyle, but also your home.

For me, the true heart of the book and the real message of the text were contained in the Foreword by Budd Kerr Jr and Part I- Getting Started. In terms of content, the book contains little on the techniques of farming, and has eleven chapters divided into four parts- Getting Started, Farming, Planning and Marketing, and Management, with a handy appendix chock full of useful resources on the Business and Practice of Farming. The text is specifically pitched at a level that almost anyone can understand, and there is a noticeable bias towards the environmentally minded reader.

That said, the true purpose of this book is to get you, the prospective reader who may be thinking of getting into farming, to start thinking about the Practice of Farming and the Business of Farming, all romanticism and eco-hip verbiage aside. This book is of no use to someone who is already farming, and in need of help. The best time to read this book is before you get into farming whole hog as they say down on the farm.

Even though it took me three passes to finally get the message, I am glad that I did read it before taking any action.

Read this book several times BEFORE you venture into farming, not during or after.

Where's the beef?.......2004-02-19

I kept reading and reading looking for the exciting practical information promised by all these reviews. Then the book ended. Then I looked back at the reviews to see what I'd missed that (mis)lead me to believe there was practical information in it. They use words like 'overview' to indicate that there ain't much in the way of real meat in this book. I can sum it up in one sentence: Find yourself a niche market locally and grow what they want. If you need details about producing the product, this is not the book you're looking for.

For extensive, detailed, practical information about making money by pasturing mixed species of livestock, look at books by Joel Salatin. But even he could still bring in more complementary planting for winter forage. Greg Judy has a detailed book about making money with livestock without owning the land or the livestock.

Being a Farmer does not mean living in Poverty.......2004-01-07

I enjoyed Mr. Macher book. His realistic examples and stories on how to get started have convinced me to leave writing software and become a business man who's products are farm products.

The appendicies are great with current information about where to get more information.

His true stories boxes let you know that he understands what beginging farms needed in the way of encouragement and information to help them make the decision to farm.

He is correct when he writes "to survive as a farmer you must have a market before you start to grow and you must provide a quality product with even better customer service."

Worth the money and a pleasant read for anyone thinking about starting a business or farming.

Book Description

This book investigates the responses of companies in Russia's Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) province to the fundamental changes in the economic system and is based primarily on interviews with local managers and decision-makers. Company case studies explore the impact of change on the conduct of business and are related to general developments in the economy. The book also questions the future development of Russian companies in terms of tension between past resilience and enormous pressures for change.

The Russian Province After Communism: Enterprise, Continuity and Change

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The Russian Province After Communism: Enterprise, Continuity and Change
Vincent; Polonsky, Gennady; Polonsky, Avgust Edwards
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTF8TK

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Marketing Management 7e Web Site
Dalrymple
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Web Marketing | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0471362034

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