Beast on Wall Street

Rating:
Summary: dry, uninteresting, typical college professor type
Review: A total waste of money. It is just a pile-up of diagrams that remind you of your Statistics class in college. The writing is incoherent, boring and plain terrible. In the book, there are repeated mockings of college professors which is real dumb. Ironically, Haugen himself is a professor. Hey, I would not take this guy's class.

I serious question the indepence of the two readers that gave the book a 5-star. Are they related in any way to Robert Haugen?

Rating:
Summary: Offers a convincing theoretical framework for market vol
Review: Although it is a bit strange that he has a story in the middle of the book describing a future political scenario in the world of 24/7 markets, Haugen makes a compelling case for the creation of volatility via the market itself, and not exogenous forces. The reviews above seem to be missing the point a bit. You may feel a bit cheated if you expect all academic writing and come across the story. I think that's what happened above.

Either way, CURSE THAT BRIGHTON BELLOW!

Rating:
Summary: A Curate's Egg of a book
Review: Haugen's book is pretty good in some parts -- and really bad in others. The efficient markets hypothesis of finance does not hold up if it is interpreted as the joint hypothesis that stocks (and other financial assets) are valued on a discounted dividends (or cash flow or earnings) basis and that prices reflect all relevant information. But if the first part of this proposition fails, the second may still hold. Haugen doesn't seem to realize this, while his conclusions -- giving the subtitle -- rely on the jointness of the hypoothesis strongly. Furthermore, to conclude that since the conditions for a particular derivation fail, the conclusion fails is simply wrong in logic, and that is exactly what Haugen is arguing. The review in not very technical terms of several places where strong "anomalies" make one doubt efficient-market valuation is well done. The analysis of the problems with the market and their consequences is fatuously bad. Instead of giving a coherent argument -- preferably one backed with some research results -- Haugen produces a pathetically silly fantasy tale, and some unsubstantiated conclusions. The bad unfortunately outweighs the good; this book is better avoided!

Rating:
Summary: dry, uninteresting, typical college professor type
Review: Whether or not Wall Street will give up its current trading practices in favor of instantaneous auctions, this theory answers a lot of questions. The theory explains why stock funds sell at discounts to their underlying securities. The theory suggests why corporate debt ratios have remained as high as they are -- debt isn't actively traded and is thus much less volatile and risky than is equity financing. It may also explain why volatility increases with the length of the trading period. It will also be interesting if the "Asian Crisis" turns out to be a phenomenon that was due as much to volatility magnified by extended, global, securities trading as to inadequate Asian infrastructure and economic policies. Edward B. Flowes, St. John's University