The Perfect Stock: How A 7000% Move Was Set-up, Started And Finished In An Astonishing 52 Weeks

Rating:
Summary: A very good book
Review: I am trading since 1979 and have read many books since I began trading. This is a great book. It is very simple and gives the gist of successful trading. I do not agree with the anonymous trader from Hawaii. All I need is just basic price and volume action to see the primary trend. The fundamentals are a lagging indicator and usually come up after the primary trend has already begun. In fact, many stocks top out at the peak of their fundamental strengths. Moreover, most of the true lessons are hidden and may escape the so-called technical trader because the book is written as a novel. Being immersed in the story, it is easy to miss the lessons.

Rating:
Summary: Simple, entertaining and educational
Review: I really enjoyed the book. It is written in simple language for anyone to understand. Some of the lessons are obvious but many others are hidden. I have been involved with the market for over 25 years and I found the book enlightening. It was fun to read without the usual jargon that comes with books on investing.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Bother
Review: I trade for a living and have an extensive library. Don't bother with this book. Skeptical? Here's an excerpt: "...they are the money men. The money men use money to make money. Many times they use their own money and at other times they use somebody else's money." If you want fiction (who doesn't need a little brain candy?) read Grisham. If you want information, not entertainment, read Murphy, Schwager or Sperandeo. This is my first review and I've been a busy AMZN customer for years.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining Fictional Introduction to Stock Trading
Review: The Perfect Stock is a fine complement for any of the good introductory books about becoming a stock investor, such as How to Buy Stocks and Common Sense about Mutual Funds.

Mr. Koteshwar has built an entertaining story around the rise and fall of Taser's stock through early 2004. In the story, his protagonist is a freelance stock analyst who is hired to check our Taser just before the stock tops out. In real life, Mr. Koteshwar's investment newsletter called the top to the day so we can assume that some aspects of the book are semi-autobiographical.

Through the course of the novel, you will learn how a bubble is built and burst on a given small stock. He provides perspectives on the founders, the investment bankers, the pool players who run the stock, hedge funds who play the run, and the little guys and gals who get taken to the cleaners. From this perspective, you will learn many important lessons about how speculators profit from momentum (stocks that are rising rapidly on increasing volume) plays and what to watch out for. I especially liked the way that the book described the trading strategies and profits of those who played Taser from different perspectives.

Although this is not an investment guide per se, unless you ignore the lessons in the book you cannot help but become better informed about how to evaluate a momentum play . . . and to protect you from making major mistakes.

The methods involved are ones that I have known many successful investors to use . . . and the failed efforts are ones that I have heard many stock brokers describe as the failings of some of their clients.

Where are the clients' yachts?


Rating:
Summary: One of the easiest ways to get a basic grip on stock trading
Review: There are plenty of technical books for the stock investor on the market today. This one takes a totally different approach for teaching the basics of stock investing and how the market moves by following the characters in a fictional novel. By reading the various actions they take, the reasoning behind those actions, and the how they adapt to changes the reader comes to understand the basics of the stock market. If you are not a technically inclined person and don't want to get bogged down in trend analysis, price/earnings ratios, or other more complex methods of explaining the market then this book is a great way to get a handle on what goes on. If you want insight into how Wall Street works for both the insiders who understand it and the outsiders who don't then The Perfect Stock is an easy and illuminating read.

Rating:
Summary: Very good read.
Review: This book is a clear example about the real game behind the markets. It is a fresh read and full of tips and reality.

Rating:
Summary: Poorly written, no tips or techniques
Review: This is another poorly written, self published book. He should have hired an editor. Short choppy sentences made it difficult to read. The author isn't a writer.

As far as the investing information presented, there are no real insights here. The author did a report (fictitious or not) on TASR during the last week of it's blowoff run. While there was some interesting background on on the company, nothing was new or a out of the ordinary. Someone not familiar with bringing companies public might find it interesting. The real story was the 2004 blowoff was created by the insiders to allow them to unload their stock.

What the reader was probably hoping to read was how to find more "perfect stocks". Unfortunately he just describes how two traders played the blow off move and offers nothing in the way of finding more of these big movers. Canslim or Darvis methods would have most likely caught the move, though again, there is no method presented. The author says he learned lessons that will be with him the rest of his life. He didn't detail these "lessons". Since he only focuses on price and volume, and he doesn't pay attention to fundamentals or news, the only real useful "tips" is the use of a 10% initial stop loss and buying new highs. Bottom line, it's a biography of a blow off move.