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Rating: 
Summary: Incredibly boring, incredibly useful
Review: Consider yourself warned: this book is really, really boring. Astonishingly so. I do this stuff for a living, and it still put me to sleep.The reason it is so dull, however, is that it explains securities processing with great clarity and precision, without any mistakes or digressions. It is slightly outdated, so if the advances of the last seven years are very important to you (they won't be, to most people--the back office doesn't change as quickly as one would think), get Michael Reddy's book "Securities Operations" instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Outdated
Review: Has some factual and historical information, but now dated. Borrow it from the library.........
Rating: 
Summary: Learn about securities processing, if you stay awake.
Review: If you manage to stay awake then you too can learn about securities processing from start to finish. This is a great book about how the sell-side brokerage firm works, although much of the information here is outdated; electronic systems have streamlined the process and made it more efficient. Still, this book has a great wealth of information in it. This book impressed me in its clarity and at the same time, its magical ability to be so boring.
Rating:
Summary: Learn about securities processing, if you stay awake.
Review: If you manage to stay awake then you too can learn about securities processing from start to finish. This is a great book about how the sell-side brokerage firm works, although much of the information here is outdated; electronic systems have streamlined the process and made it more efficient. Still, this book has a great wealth of information in it. This book impressed me in its clarity and at the same time, its magical ability to be so boring.
Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive intro to back office operations
Review: Publisher New York Institute of Finance (former training arm of the NYSE) has another hit book here! This book steps you through a fictional stockbrokerage firm: "Stone, Forrest & Rivers" and leaves no department out except the one we know so well: Sales. You find out about the business of the Purchase & Sales department, Margin Department, Reorg Dept. and several others. This is the easy way for a newcomer to the securities industry to find out how the firm actually runs. When I was a student at NASD "Phase" classes--training designed to get new examiners (the NASD is the largest regulator of the securities industry, with more examiners than even the US SEC) up to speed quickly on the working details of the stock brokerage and investment banking industry--I noticed an earlier edition of this book in the bookshelf in the classroom. I asked about it because another, veteran examiner told me to get the book. The training instructor said "There is no other book like it. . ." "It is the best there is for covering the entire operations of the back office of a stockbroker". It is no wonder this book is a hit with Lehman Bros. or with CPA firm Deloitte & Touche (they need to audit stockbrokerage firms). If you are only investing, you don't need this book, but if you are charged with running a broker-dealer or auditing it, then this is the book to get you up to speed quickly!
Rating:
Summary: Very interesting book
Review: This book seems to be highly overrated. It deals with the long-gone days of paper processing in the securities industry with scant reference to computer technology. It is also short on the detail that you would expect from someone that understood the subject in depth. If you know of a book that covers this industry both currently and including its essential technology I would like to hear from you.
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