Rating: 
Summary: A very complex mind
Review: Started many times reading the book only to put it away again and again. It's very hard to read, not mentioning to understand. Soros is by no doubt one of the finest thinkers in the market and his trading comments are totally different to what I've ever seen. If you are willing to study Soro's theory on reflexing systems and self enforcement, it's worth the effort to read and re-read the book.
Rating: 
Summary: You won't lear how to make one million dolars here...!
Review: The language is very, very heavy, sometimes you don't even know what Soros is talking about. The predictions he made proved wrong in their great majority. It seems the books is the product of a sick mind.
Rating:
Summary: Financial Insight, Literary Morass
Review: There's nothing wrong Soros's ideas, this much is obvious given his stunning investment record. He fancies himself the investment/philosopher king, though, and is incapable of expressing himself clearly. He suffers that post grad mentality that suggests the heavier the diction, the more profound the insight. For investment professionals willing to put up with this, the book is worth a read. For the average investor, however, this book is a waste of time.
Rating: 
Summary: Soros's book lets you in on the mind of a master financier
Review: This book chronicles the amazing achievments of the greatest investor of our time. He goes into detail about his methods and his successes
Rating:
Summary: Abstract but brilliant philosophical approach to investing.
Review: This book will be studied for years to come for its profound insights on markets and investing. It's a tough read, though. Probably impossible to understand unless you've first read stuff by and about the philosophy of Karl Popper. Read/understand Popper first. Then Soros. Good intruductions to Popper are: Brian Magee's PHILOSOPHY AND THE REAL WORLD, and Popper's autobiography, UNENDED QUEST
Rating:
Summary: Essential reading for the advanced speculator and analyst
Review: This deep and profound book has been criticized by many as being opaque and unreadable. While Soros's writing style is rather obscure to say the least, this does not alter the fact that this book contains some of the most original and advanced ideas ever conceived of in the field of finance. Soros's exceptional analytical abilities shine through, despite the turgid prose. I must stress though that this is not a book for beginners - you definitely need a reasonable grasp of markets, global capital flows, and economic theory to fully understand the book.Soros begins by introducing his theory of reflexivity. This involves situations where people's judgement of fundamentals (e.g. trusts buying and selling of stocks, or banks providing credit) can actually alter the fundamentals. For example, if banks lend lots of money to Mexico, this means Mexico can spend more and increase its GDP for a year or two. This increase in GDP then makes Mexico seem more creditworthy, so influencing banks to lend even more. Clearly if sentiment changes, the cycle can work in reverse, which will cause a self-reinforcing crash, as happened in Asia in 1998. While his theoretical framework is interesting, the real strength of this book is in Soros's analysis of the financial markets from the 1970s into the mid-80s. It is fascinating to see him analyse the major structural changes of that era (e.g. the savings and loans fiasco, the incredible boom and bust in the dollar, the stockmarket bull run, the 3rd world debt crisis, the collapse of OPEC) as they unfold, and even better to see how he fits this information into his real-time trading. As Paul Tudor Jones says in the introduction, this was at a time when technical systems trading was at it height, yet here is Soros using pure fundamental analysis to short oil at $28-31, and then riding the eventual collapse down to $11 per barrel. Even more impressive was his huge ($1 billion+) short dollar/long DM/long Yen position in 1985, which he added to after the September Plaza Accord and held from Y242/DM2.92 all the way to Y155/DM2.07. Soros made his name on the British pound, but his profit there was much less in percentage terms than on these incredible trades from the mid eighties, which helped propel the Quantum fund to a 126% gain over 11 months. Unfortunately, Soros ends the book badly. His analysis of his own trading is interesting, but he then veers off on a discussion on the merits of regulation vs free markets, and proposes an international central bank. While this is an interesting topic, Soros seems a little out of his depth at times, and completely fails to consider many important issues (e.g. the restrictions on individual freedom that regulation imposes; the fallibility and sometimes excessive power of regulators, etc). He also give a short description of the 87 crash (where he lost hundreds of millions) which is quite interesting. But despite this anticlimax, this book is absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in speculation, economics, financial markets, and who wishes to develop an understanding of global events. Soros, for all his flaws, is undoubtedly one of the greatest financial minds of all time, and it would be a remarkable achievement for any intelligent person to read this book and not come away much wiser.
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Summary: Application of Karl popper to financial markets
Review: While there are several good things in the book like his view of reflexivity (extremely relevant for a world in which stock prices determine fundamentals instead of the other way round) or his trading diary the most important lessons from the book come in the section where he discusses Popper To those who know little about him Popper in 1934 started a new era in the philosophy of science with a book written in German, and translated in 1959 under the title "The Logic of Scientific Discovery". He rejected the traditional idea that scientific knowledge was based on a method called induction whereby theories are verified by observations. Popper argued that the logical process of induction simply does not exist. Theories are forever tentative and the most useful function (and the only logically decisive effect) of observations is to act as tests or attempted falsifications of theories. It is application of this theory to stock markets that is of extreme relevance for a trader. "Stock markets are places where different propositions are tested" are the nine most important words ever written about stock markets. Once we can see the mistake that the market is making in coming to general conclusions from specific events then making money is easy as a trader. I think this philosophy of Knowledge reconciles his poor capability to predict events which is always based on some generalizations with his stock market success as well as his ability to see the flaws in general in a generalization that the market has accepted.
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Summary: A good walk through Soro's Mental Lanscape
Review: Yes, the book could be culled down to a few words, but Soro's level of critical thinking is the difference. Both he and us gain valued insight from seeing a financial process germinated, grown, and pruned, where needed. Soro's journey comes across as authentic and without major pretense. I gained useful perspective from a stroll through his absorbing mind and especially liked his concluding notes about how the open society movement gives him added purpose.
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Summary: Highly philosophical thoery, hard to put into practice
Review: You have to read the book at least three times. First to know that the book is not worthless.
Second time to understand the theories.
And the third time to attempt any practical approach to use the theories.
Soros is undoubtably one who can see the big picture and not just the trees.
If you are similarly inclined and want to test your theories (at your own risk) this book is a useful reckoner.
But read this if you are a serious investor and have to know what the world's second greatest investor thinks ( the first is Warran Buffet and his theories are too simple
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