Rating: 
Summary: Best trading book of this century
Review: This book gives treausure maps, minefield maps, and road maps for the market. The treausure maps tell you how to make money by analyzing the balance sheet,(beware of inventory and accounts receivable), by buying the growth companies in the first and fourth quarter, by following after interest rates, by buying the biotech with the insider buying, by bargaining for a good price, by waiting after a bad year, by waiting until real estate is down.The minefield maps tell you how to avoid the blowups from earnings propaganda, the heads and shoulders and all that,the low book value stuff, the short term mentality,the boastful
companies, the propagandist who's always gloomy. The road maps show how to use scatter diagrams, return data from all Countries, the value line, the conservation of energy,tennis,
baseball and chess to provide a foundation for investing. It's all documented with dozens of original tables, also very funny, and scholarly.
I think i've read every other book about investing, and this one is head and shoulders way above them. [...]
Rating:
Summary: Another Masterpiece.
Review: Practical Speculation is one of the two best books on trading/investing on the market, the other book is The Education of a Speculator. The Education of a Speculator, was largely an autobiography, in which Niederhoffer shared some of his life experiences and lessons, that helped him become one of the greatest traders in history. Most successful traders will tell you that it is the best book on the subject of investing ever written. The new book Practical Speculation, teaches you how Victor does his research, walks you through a few examples, and explains why the the research churned out by brokerage firms, and Stock Market Commentators is flawed, and will only loose money for you. Victor alerts you to the pitfalls that most average investors fall in to, and shows how the scientific method can be used to illuminate the path. This book is well written, entertaining, and filled with great ideas, that you wont find elsewhere. Victor's two books are probabaly the only two books any investor need read. I have read most of the popular books on investing and trading, and Victors books are so far ahead of the rest it is unbelieveable. I have only just finished reading this book, but I know I will go back to it many times, as it is difficult to absorb all the great ideas in one reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing, Self Serving Book
Review: "What a waste of my time". That was the thought that crossed my mind as I labored to finish the book. The -only- reason I bought this book is because it was recommended by Gary B. Smith, a technical trading columnist at TheStreet.com/Realmoney.com for whom I have great respect. But after reading it, I felt that I was none the wiser. The book makes some good points. The chapter on Abel Abelson, the famous permabear in Barron's, is a good read and a good example of someone failing to see the trend (permabulls aren't any better, mind you, but there is no example of that in this book). And the authors' emphasis on backtesting (instead of relying on a hunch) is commendable -- up to a point. But the authors spend way too much time defending their own record. And backtesting has its own limits. IMHO, the market is all about emotion; backtesting will not always capture this. They authors are also dismissive of technical trading, fundamental analysis, and P/E ratios! Gimme a break, Vic. Are you saying nothing works except ValueLine?! I *know* they do because I have increased my capital nine fold in four years using these very tools. I was hoping that this book will help me become a better trader and a better investor, but I am none the wiser for reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Debunks, derides, and eviscerates the conventional wisdom
Review: This book reminds me of that great quip by Derek Bok, former president of Harvard University: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." I just got this book and skimmed it cover-to-cover the first time to get the main points. It's clear I have a whole lot to learn about the stock market, especially in these dangerous times. One by one Niederhoffer and Kenner explode the conventional wisdom espoused daily by the market "pundits." I had so many forehead slapping moments reading the rigorous studies and illustrative anecdotes that I am now convinced the only people on the planet who know less about the stock market than I do are financial commentators. Next time I hear another one of their tips or explanations, I'm going to shout, "Prove it buster!" at my TV screen. If you're looking for another 90%-successful-trades-approach, this isn't it. In fact, if there's once central lesson I learned is that there's no holy grail to investing success. I liked the rambling style; the authors show that you can find stock market insights just about any place if you're willing to dig. (Tip: if you're not a numbers person, you can skip the graphs and occasional equations, they're all explained in the text anyway.) There's that old saying, "First time shame on them. Second time shame on you." First time shame on my broker and all the talking heads in the financial media. Next time shame on me. Well, there won't be a next time. If you have money in the stock market, get this book. Today. Ignorance is not bliss. It is very, very expensive. I. M. Lucubrator PS: Will someone please do the country a favor and get a copy of this book to Greenspan ASAP?
Rating:
Summary: Experienced perspective - enjoyable & valuable.
Review: I'm a young trader at a regional brokerage firm and eager to expand my knowledge and move forward, so I always keep an eye out for good books. In my opinion the best choices are books by experienced market participants that I can learn from. I recently bought 'Practical Speculation' and also 'Fooled by Randomness' by Nassim Taleb. Both are by well known fund managers. But whereas the Taleb book had no practical money making suggestions, or even any information about the author's trading style or track record, 'Practical Speculation' is
full of distilled wisdom and useful information. I wish all the trading books I bought were half as valuable as 'Practical Speculation'. I just ordered 'Education of a Speculator' also and can't wait to read it.
Rating:
Summary: what is wrong w/ the other reviewers?!?
Review: if you have a rudimentary knowledge of speculation (i.e. you know how to translate pop culture into hypothesis of mkt bubbles), then this book has absolutely nothing to offer you. if you don't know how to, suffice it to say you shouldn't speculate, and if you still want to, then this book is definitely going to lead you to the same ruin that the author himself found. vic knows how to build an audience / loyal cadre far better than he can write, which in turn is far better than he can manage a hedge fund. ---i make this statement on the premise that some 70-odd lunatics thought this book was insightful! ---outside of running some rudinemtary regression analyses that offers support to preconceived notions (i.e. selective interpretations as a result of selective data sets), the authors take it upon themselves, high in their ivory towers, to tear down such sacred cows as value investing, trend following, ben graham (and likewise buffett), and market timing. ---and the fact that the authors have no success to show for themselves is not lost on this reader (whereas buffet's success speaks for his philosophy). as an aside, i find that any book, ANY, that finds it necessary to put in testimonials and stories about individuals is obviously lacking in content, insight, and data. this book is full of testimonials (both in support and contrast of the authors). here's a great example of non-information that the authors package as profound: if a stock went up 3 weeks in a row, would you bet that next week it would go up or down? decide! --vic's answer is that its more likely to go up--did you bet wrong? probably. i did....but i don't know, i'd like to look at the stock, the news, developments, chaikin $ flow, inst ownership, overall mkt sentiment, etc etc before i decide, thank you very much! for the rest of you who would throw your $ into an investment / object of speculation without asking any questions, then vic is your guy. i often go back and re-read select investing books (eg: alchemy of finance: 3x; reminisces of a stock operator: 3x; intelligent investor: 4x; etc). this book: 1x, and my strongest recommendation to avoid.
Rating: 
Summary: Iconoclastic and Informative
Review: There are numerous tidbits within that are worth many times the price of the book. For example, the advice to place buy and sell orders behind the quoted bid-ask has sharpened my own trading and serves as a check on emotion as well. The overall optimistic tone was contrarian and timely and should help you to think positively when the market is beset with gloom. I especially enjoyed the authors' debunking of market technicians and their baseless prognostications. Niederhoffer is at his best when subjecting unwarranted assertions to the cold rigor of statistical analysis.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, Self Serving Book
Review: "What a waste of my time". That was the thought that crossed my mind as I labored to finish the book. The -only- reason I bought this book is because it was recommended by Gary B. Smith, a technical trading columnist at TheStreet.com/Realmoney.com for whom I have great respect. But after reading it, I felt that I was none the wiser. The book makes some good points. The chapter on Abel Abelson, the famous permabear in Barron's, is a good read and a good example of someone failing to see the trend (permabulls aren't any better, mind you, but there is no example of that in this book). And the authors' emphasis on backtesting (instead of relying on a hunch) is commendable -- up to a point. But the authors spend way too much time defending their own record. And backtesting has its own limits. IMHO, the market is all about emotion; backtesting will not always capture this. They authors are also dismissive of technical trading, fundamental analysis, and P/E ratios! Gimme a break, Vic. Are you saying nothing works except ValueLine?! I *know* they do because I have increased my capital nine fold in four years using these very tools. I was hoping that this book will help me become a better trader and a better investor, but I am none the wiser for reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Debunks the popular myths
Review: This investment book, above all, is about doing your homework when putting your money at risk: measure, calculate, and analyze. This book assumes nothing and takes nothing for granted. It is skeptical of everything. The only thing it knows is what is left over after the cold objective scrutiny of the facts, and just the facts. And even that is subject to change as a result of the "ever changing" nature of the markets. I liked the section on Alan Abelson, the perrenial bear of Barrons. Apparently, that guy has been a bear since the beginning of time!! Does he have any credibility at all?!?!
Rating:
Summary: Insightful inquisition by a talented man
Review: Practical Speculation is simply a gem among worthless rocks in the genre of investment/trading books. The qualities are numerous but chief among them are truthfulness, empiricism, and humility. Mr. Niederhoffer's goal is to provide the reader with meals for a lifetime... to teach a man to fish rather than simply throw him a half-eaten carcass. I personally recommend concentrating on the information regarding Value Line as well as Zack's, it alone is worth twenty times the price of the book. May you read and be enlightened, invest and be rewarded.
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