Rating: 
Summary: Privileged whiner cashes in on his proximity to celebrity.
Review:
First, as an attorney, this book points out a mistake Cramer & Co. made: Being high-profile, they should have had all employees as a condition of employment sign a confidentiality agreement. Which might have prevented this book from being published at all. But since it has been...
The author is a priveleged kid whose neighbor gets him a job through very little effort after the author graduates from college, apparently without having realized that one can, perhaps should, seek employment -- or at least give it a thought -- prior to graduating.
He starts below $300/wk but is, within a year or two, making a 6-figure salary and bonus. As one who worked as an assistant in the entertainment industry, I laughed out loud at the author's whining. First, no one got me my job through connections -- it was a struggle for me just to get an $300/wk assistant job. In the entertainment industry, many abusive bosses exist, and many of the themes of the author's stories of abusive (demanding?) bosses were familiar to me. The difference is, my colleagues and me didn't whine and our year-end bonuses in year one, two, three were around $1000. I never made over $30K per year total, and I worked longer hours than the author apparently did (since he mentions taking weekends off, a luxury I often didn't have, and admits that Cramer always worked longer hours than did he). (I had student loans to pay off, meaning I could only afford to live in a gang-infested neighborhood in L.A. -- this pales in comparison to his complaints that his NYC apartment was sometimes noisy and small, of course!).
So, in summary, while the book has some interesting antecdotes, esp. for Wall Street junkies or Jim Cramer fans or detractors, a few quite funny, the basic gist of the book as I see it is that the author lucked into a great job, got paid extremely generously by a demanding and often profane boss, whose tactics and personality the author did always agree with. His book trades on Jim Cramer's fame and his attitude toward his job opportunity strikes me as whining. He wouldn't have lasted long in entertainment. Good thing his neighbor wasn't in The Biz instead of connected to Wall Street!
Rating: 
Summary: Easy reading, but not worth it
Review: I came across the book in the bookstore and just sat down and read it. Giant fonts, not much substance. I was there for 3 hours straight reading the book so at least I can say i found it entertaining. In fact the book should be given a little more credit than just this. It revelas the dirty tricks of the trade in stock trading. The individual cannot be expected to compete with the "capitalist pigs" on wall street. One of the dominant feelings I was left with after reading the book is it is just extremely difficult for the average joe to come up with good trades in the short and mid-term.They manipulate anything and everything they can to make a little extra money. I am surprised at how JJC and crew outperformed the S&P consistently without really much research or fundamental or technical analysis. They were momentum traders, most of the time trading based on info they got that morning or on the phone or based on rumors. When the rumor did not prove true, they started spreading it until it did (or simply he goes on CNBC and recommends the stock, and immediately thereafter he sells his position). I finally understand the wall street quote "buy the rumor, sell the news". When smth is announced, this is news only to the general public. The large trading firms, hedge funds and money managers have already positioned themselves because they get informed before the public announcement is made (be it 10 hours before or 2 minutes before). The analysts have an incentive to leak info to fund managers such as JJC because the guy just trades at very very high frequency. A lot of money is made by these firms from the comissions, so the info they give ppl like J.J. Cramer ultimately helps to fill their pockets too. I have not yet read cramer's own book "confessions of a street addict", maybe my views will change after i do. Would I recommend the book? If you know JJC from TV, or from thestreet.com, you may find it interesting. The guy is painted as a non-stop curse machine in the book. There are a couple of very very funny anectodes (JJC violence) where i was laughing out loud at the bookstore. Note: some reviewers have been commenting on how the author doesnt know anything about cramer, because he never got close enough. That he wrote the book because he is just disgruntaled after being fired and this is a revenge of some kind etc., but i must disagree. It is clear from the book that the author and cramer have worked together for 12 hours every day for 4 years in the same room with the rest of their 5-6 person group. I got the impression the author was justified to write the book.
Rating:
Summary: The Story of the Also-Rans
Review: This book appears to be a knock-off of the feisty, both enthralling and appalling "Confessions of a Street Addict" by James Cramer. Cramer admits that he's not a very nice guy to work with, but he can write and tell a story. Nicholas Maier whose only claim to fame is that he knew a friend of Cramer's which got him his job, for which he did not appear to be very talented, and he leaves at the end to go back to his family, much richer, thanks to Cramer, and he would lead us to believe wiser. Cramer at least has passion for his work. Mr. Maier seems only to have sour grapes. It's not a good read. His book only confirms Cramer's account of himself, but Cramer's account is much more compellingly written, even suspenseful. Mr. Maier should have quit sooner and should not have bothered to write this sorry little tale.
Rating: 
Summary: There's nothing here.
Review: As I read this book, I kept waiting for the dirt on Cramer. Got to the end and there wasn't any.
Rating:
Summary: Don't be a fool
Review: This book constitutes an attempt to cash in on a four-year relationship with Jim Cramer. In reality, Nicholas Maier never got close enough to Cramer to come up with any interesting information we couldn't find on the book's cover. Only a fool what compare this author to Michael Lewis while purchasing this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Jim Cramer: what you see is what you get!
Review: As a regular viewer of CNBC's "Kudlow and Cramer," I was interested in reading this book written by one of Cramer's former employees. The Jim Cramer you see on TV is the same Jim Cramer you read about in this book. He's hyper, opinionated, and driven. He's been largely successful in life whether its investing or TV and now even as the author of his own book. One wonders what mountain Jim Cramer will next attempt to climb.
Rating:
Summary: Disgruntled Employee Trashes Employer
Review: Basically, this book is about a young man who lands a job at Jim Cramer's hedge fund. Works there for 4 years, makes more money that "both his parents combined", and then finally walks out after the Cramer gets fed up with him. There are some funny moments in the book, like when Jim throws computer monitors across the room, bashes copy machines into small pieces, constantly yells obscenities, threatens brokers This writer would probably do a good job for the National Enquirer. Let's take a story and but a monster twist on it.
Rating:
Summary: Cramer is a trip!
Review: Having read both "Trading With The Enemy," and, "Confessions of a Street Addict," all I can say is, I'd like to have Cramer trading for me. The man is brilliant and, entertaining as hell. I highly recommend both books, with Maier's book getting a slight edge for readability.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome adrenaline rush...
Review: I am a daytrader and reading this book really motivates me in this market. It's amazing what scams you can pull off to come out ahead in the market. I would like to meet Jim Cramer and have a few words.
Rating:
Summary: "What profit a man...."?
Review: Each year, thousands of eager and ambitious young women and men arrive on Wall Street. What we have here is Maier's account of what happened to him after he relocated from Cambridge (MA) in 1994 and went to work for Cramer & Company, a hedge fund. He made a total commitment to advancing his career and eventually was entrusted with managing an investment fund of approximately $50-million. His is an insider's unique and compelling interpretation and evaluation, not only of his own experiences but also of Jim Cramer and the firm he founded and headed. As I began to read this book, I realized that its title lends itself to all manner of interpretation. For example, who is the "enemy"? Those with whom one competes for career advancement, obviously, but also those psychological forces which require trade-offs when ethics are in conflict with expediency. (Pogo once suggested that "we have met the enemy and he is us.") Maier and Cramer worked closely together and then, for various reasons which Maier explain in this book, he left the firm after five years. By then he and Cramer had become enemies and are now involved in litigation. It is important to keep in mind that personal accounts such this are necessarily selective and subjective. (The same is true of Cramer's Confessions of a Street Addict.) There are specific reasons why this book's subtitle is "Seduction and Betrayal on Jim Cramer's Wall Street." Maier acknowledges that he was seduced by the opportunities he pursued while employed by Cramer & Company. Eventually, he felt betrayed by Cramer and explains why. That relationship reminds of the character Bud Fox played by Charlie Sheen in the film Wall Street. He is dazzled by the business success and lifestyle of Gordon Gecko, the character played by Michael Douglas. Much of what motivated Fox also motivated Meier. Moreover,when the film concludes as Fox and Gecko are headed for federal prison, Fox's opinion of Gecko is strikingly similar to Meier's opinion of Cramer when their five-year association ends in 1995. It remains for each reader to decide to what extent Meier is responsible for what happened to him, and, to what extent Cramer should be blamed. My own opinion is that neither emerges as an especially sympathetic character by book's end. Both seem to be inevitable products of a materialistic society in which, if "greed is good," wealth and power are even better. But the question remains, "what profit a man...."?
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