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Summary: Passion makes Profits
Review: What I like most about this book is Jim Cramer's ability to express in the most vivid manner his deep level of emotional engagement with his job. He has enormous talent. But the key is how he intuitively becomes aware of every theme of talent he has and how he invents himself a role that perfectly matches and demands his talent. His passion for superior performance turns into profits. This is always the case with individuals who have the opportunity to do what they do best and who count on significant relationships to help them grow their performance.Jim's book is a must read for anyone interested in the emotional economy.
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Summary: Very readable insider's view of the Wall Street game
Review: Excellent read. Gives great insight into how the financial game is actually played, as opposed to the PR-driven public image. Also quite helpful for understanding what's behind some of the recent scandals and company blow-ups.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely interesting and enlightening
Review: I took this book on a vacation and couldn't put it down. I'm an amateur investor and found the details of what goes on in Wall Street quite enlightening. I hear there are a lot of bogus reviews. Don't believe them. If you invest, you should buy this book. It's a good read even if you don't.
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Summary: Live Vicariously Through Cramer
Review: If you've ever dreamed of running big money, and want to know what it might be like, you'll like this book. If you like what he writes on Thestreet.com and you like him on TV, you'll enjoy the book. In my opinion, his site, TheStreet.com and TradingMarkets.com are the two best sites on the internet for investors.The only way anyone can hope to make it through this tough market is by constant study and research, and Cramer's story is a real inspiration to serious investors.
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Summary: Could not put it down
Review: Interesting to see that the Review Ratings are either 1 or 5...very similar to the split impressions that a lot of us have of Jim Cramer! Love him or hate him, Cramer is a fascinating individual. As an ardent RealMoney subscriber and watcher of TV show Kudlow and Cramer, I wanted to know how Cramer got to where he is today. I could not put this book down. It is a fast-paced read that does a terrific job of shedding some light on the world of hedge funds, the coming public of a dotcom, and the mistakes that hard-driving/successful people make. A thoroughly enjoyable book.
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Summary: Swimming Laps in the Wall Street Blender
Review: Several others have discussed two books in the same review: this one and Maier's Trading With the Enemy. In ways and to an extent their authors probably could not have anticipated while writing them, the two books cover much of the same ground but disagree primarily on the nature and extent of Cramer's legal liability. (I am unqualified to comment on certain allegations and technicalities which will probably be resolved in a court of law.) Personal accounts, especially of highly volatile circumstances in which Cramer often found himself, are necessarily selective and subjective. It is important to keep in mind that this is his account. He duly acknowledges his imperfections which result in both verbal and physical violence. On occasion, he abused his associates with profanities; other times, he destroyed telephones, furniture, and computer terminals. As Cramer explains, there was a "game" to be played and apparently he played it very well. (In his own book, Maier acknowledges those skills while accusing Cramer of improprieties and even illegalities for which, he insists, Cramer should be held accountable.) For me, the greatest value of this book is derived from his detailed account of HOW he did business: networking to obtain information and then analyzing it; making "buy/hold/sell" decisions while under tremendous pressure (e.g. from deadlines as well as from the potential consequences of those decisions); and meanwhile, struggling (with mixed results) to balance the demands of his career with his family obligations. Those who read this book will soon become aware of Cramer's various "addictions." (He is remarkably frank when discussing them.) It will be interesting to learn what lies ahead for him as well as for the investment community in which he was once such an active and controversial competitor.
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Summary: TheStreet.com shareholder point of view
Review: This is not the most intellectually challenging book to read but entertaining nonetheless. Especially from my point of view, a shareholder in TheStreet.com. Here is a story of an egomaniac who tries to paint an objective portrait of himself but comes out as a self-promoting and self-congratutory. No wonder he is not one of the well-liked people on Wall Street. Nevertheless, his life story from the middle class Phillie to Harvard Crimson to LA reporter back to Harvard and to Goldman Sachs is interesting in a yuppie-ish way. Maybe a bit like Fitzgerald intrigue. And he did shed light on what goes behind the scene on Wall Street which I find fascinating. This is a sort of book that I would haven written. I, with absolutely no talent in writing, but always dreamed of getting published. Maybe that is a bit too harsh:)
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Summary: Thought it was excellent...
Review: Well written, and insightful. It gives you a view of Wall Street that you would otherwise not get. There seem to be a lot of people who do not like Cramer, and that is understandable. But, he is not kind to himself in this book, freely admitting his shortcomings and mistake. Worth a read, and very entertaining. Kernan
TRADEthemove.com
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Summary: I liked it
Review: I thought the book was pretty good. I like trader biographies and Cramer did a good job of telling his. It isnt a how to manual but it does let you listen to a guy who ran 300,000,000 dollars and achieved a 24% return to investors over a 14 year period. BTW his fund charged a 1% management and a 20% incentive fee so the actual returns were higher. Being a biography it is not technical reading at all so for all the traders out there this is a good book to read when you want to just kick back.
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Summary: Antacids 101
Review: Jim Cramer is an intense, in-your-face kind of guy. If you can't stand people like that in real life, you're not going to appreciate his no-holds-barred story. Cramer isn't a novelist, but he doesn't pretend to be. Nor is he perfect--he not only confesses his flaws, he delights in flagelating himself for his shortcomings and mistakes. Maniacal, overbearing, hyperactive--he's a typical money guy. But unlike most of his breed, he's also anxious to share his secrets--not out of philanthropy but as a means, I suspect, of validating his own decisions. He is not a people person. He doesn't pretend to be. He doesn't seem to possess a lot of business acumen. He often doesn't ask enough questions. But he's a consummate stock picker, someone who apparently has an instinctive feel for the market--and that talent, coupled with a snarky cynicism and brutal sense of humor, is enough to rocket the reader through a rollicking 300+ page ride. Though Cramer pours a lot into those pages, he almost lost me at the beginning with his schmaltzy story about the thief who spent a week cleaning out his apartment, an episode that left him broke, homeless, and suffering from severe liver disease. I do realize that for the purposes of this story, he had to concoct an utterly down and out beginning--I just don't believe it. Nor do I believe that he managed to sail through three years of Harvard Law without paying attention in a single class. (I am reasonably certain, without having met the guy, that he's convinced himself that this history is 100% accurate. And who am I to argue--it makes good reading.) This is a book of confessions, not a how-to manual, but Cramer divulges enough information to acquaint the reader with the hedge fund mindset. If I had, oh, $30 million to play with and a cast iron stomach, I might reread the book and set up shop myself. More fascinating than his descriptions of his trading adventures (and of the debts he owes to Alan Greenspan and the Trading Goddess) is his analysis of the rollercoasterish gyrations in the economy and his assessment of the collective psychology of the market. "I know that the new economy was simply a combination of overheated stocks, a desire to start an Amazon, a desire to kill an Amazon, and a desire by investment banks to take advantage of a good thing until they killed it, as they always did with something new and different and momentarily profitable." (Cramer has a love-hate thing with the investment banking community, where he began his career.) Granted, he's telling his story in retrospect, and you know what they say about hindsight. Still, he manages to convey a vision of the world through hedge fund manager eyes. It's not your typical business section perspective, and I appreciated the opportunity to take a fresh look at recent history. Finally, as a woman who earned an MBA from Stanford during the same era that Cramer was attending Harvard Law, I have to give him extra credit for his paeans to the Trading Goddess. Sure, some of it rings a little false (I figure he's trying to make up for past lapses) but it's refreshing to see a guy in this not-exactly-friendly-to-women industry married to a woman whose talents (and judgment) apparently exceed his own. One of my father's favorite sayings was "it takes money to make money." And I had a finance professor who was fond of reciting that old investment saw about eating well or sleeping well. Cramer's spin on those proverbial truths kept me riveted. (P.S. to Jim: the venture capital center of the world is Menlo Park, not Palo Alto. And the road is spelled Sand Hill.)
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