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Rating: 
Summary: War Stories from a Full Service Stock Broker
Review: "Investing is a psychiatric profession. It deals more with emotion than with balance sheets and income statements." John Spooner shares that insight at the beginning of the book, and his stories certainly bear out that perspective. The title of the book is explained in the first story about Big Arthur, who really did just want to fool around. It turns out that stock investing is primarily entertainment for most of Spooner's clients. If he tries to provide them with good investments, they get annoyed and leave him. He has to be careful in figuring out what their real objectives are. One woman tells him to invest conservatively for current income, then gets angry when he doesn't beat the S&P 500. She finally quits him. The stories are done in a style reminiscent of Adam Smith in The Money Game, except these stories aren't quite as funny or illuminating. They certainly resonate with me, however. I've known a lot of people these stories could have been written about. Spooner's real opinion is shared succinctly in the middle of the book. "People are mostly good at making money but terrible at investing it." "And not one of them . . . was capable of managing his or her own money." As a result, he tells you to hire a broker and to do what the broker says, or fire the broker. He has three key questions to ask in deciding which full service broker to use. I think you could be misled by these questions, as I was when I hired a talented, well educated man to be my full service broker in 1968. He clearly passed these three tests, and was a nice fellow to boot, yet 80 percent of my money was gone within a year. He put me into three of the worst dogs you can imagine. For perspective, I suggest that you also read John Bogle's, Common Sense About Mutual Funds. If you seriously want to make money, buy index funds. If you want to fool around, find a full service broker who will amuse you. The choice is yours. This book provides a valuable perspective on the stalled thinking that affects people's ability to invest. You can either make most of these mistakes yourself in the future, or learn them by reading this book. It's much cheaper to buy and read the book. I suggest that you decide to make money with your money. Save your entertainment for other parts of your life where the cost isn't so high. Live long and prosper!
Rating:
Summary: War Stories from a Full Service Stock Broker
Review: "Investing is a psychiatric profession. It deals more with emotion than with balance sheets and income statements." John Spooner shares that insight at the beginning of the book, and his stories certainly bear out that perspective.
The title of the book is explained in the first story about Big Arthur, who really did just want to fool around. It turns out that stock investing is primarily entertainment for most of Spooner's clients. If he tries to provide them with good investments, they get annoyed and leave him. He has to be careful in figuring out what their real objectives are. One woman tells him to invest conservatively for current income, then gets angry when he doesn't beat the S&P 500. She finally quits him. The stories are done in a style reminiscent of Adam Smith in The Money Game, except these stories aren't quite as funny or illuminating. They certainly resonate with me, however. I've known a lot of people these stories could have been written about. Spooner's real opinion is shared succinctly in the middle of the book. "People are mostly good at making money but terrible at investing it." "And not one of them . . . was capable of managing his or her own money." As a result, he tells you to hire a broker and to do what the broker says, or fire the broker. He has three key questions to ask in deciding which full service broker to use. I think you could be misled by these questions, as I was when I hired a talented, well educated man to be my full service broker in 1968. He clearly passed these three tests, and was a nice fellow to boot, yet 80 percent of my money was gone within a year. He put me into three of the worst dogs you can imagine. For perspective, I suggest that you also read John Bogle's, Common Sense About Mutual Funds. If you seriously want to make money, buy index funds. If you want to fool around, find a full service broker who will amuse you. The choice is yours. This book provides a valuable perspective on the stalled thinking that affects people's ability to invest. You can either make most of these mistakes yourself in the future, or learn them by reading this book. It's much cheaper to buy and read the book. I suggest that you decide to make money with your money. Save your entertainment for other parts of your life where the cost isn't so high. Live long and prosper!
Rating: 
Summary: Short, insightful stories from a successful broker
Review: Being able to trade or carry out a trade successfully is a talent, the ability to write and catch the readers' attention through 242 pages is a different story. Spooner shows that he has both gifts from God. The stories are really interesing and insightful. A good leisure reading for anyone who has a stake in the investment market.
Rating:
Summary: Every investor should read it more than once.
Review: Investing can be as much a matter of comportment and attitude as anything else. Spooner's relaxed, anecdotal style is a welcome departure from the "sure-thing", exclamatory type of trash that's been on the bookstore shelves (and in the warehouses!) for the last two years. His advice is (largely) helpful to anyone who chooses to invest rather than gamble. By the way, you don't end up managing half a billion dollars of other people's money as an individual stockbroker by blowing smoke at them. Buy the book and read it.
Rating:
Summary: Great information.
Review: This is a great book for beginning and intermediate investors! I really enjoyed this book! His investment related stories were funny while teaching a lesson. A couple months down the road, I will read it again to refresh my brain!
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