The Wall Street Self-Defense Manual: A Consumer's Guide to Intelligent Investing

by Henry Blodget

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0977743322
• ISBN13: 9780977743322
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Atlas Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.5" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Great book. Lots of common sense

The book gives much common sense to investing. It's a great antidote to many of the other books. Key concepts: Don't try to beat the market; looking at the fees on mutual funds; rebalancing your your portfolio, start investing for retirement--the earlier the better, settle with lower earnings expectations.

I forgive you, Henry.

I had seen this book on one of my local bookstores' shelves, and quite honestly I had no intention to buy it until I say the New York Times review that completely trashed the book in the truest sense of the term. I have been one of those hapless small-time "investors" who lost a bunch of money during the dot-com boom, thanks to the advice of "market sages" like Blodget. I have started wondering what Blodget might have to say nowadays, and I plunked down the sticker price to buy the book. I have to say the book was a pleasant surprise. As other reviewers have stated, if you already know about the benefits of passive investing and have read books such as the "A Random Walk on Wall Street" by Malkiel; there is little that the book can provide you in terms of investing information. This book is far shorter, and has pretty much the same information in an arguably more entertaining and interesting format. Even though I consider myself well-versed in the basic tenets of passive investing; there were quite a few things that the Blodget book taught me that I did not know, such as how Benjamin Graham basically renounced fundamental analysis towards the end of his life, etc. It's far easier to read and follow than Malkiel's book, too. (By the way, if you have not read Malkiel's work, by all means please go and read both books together) I am not sure about the alleged $10 million (according to the NY Times reviewer) of accumulated wealth that Blodget managed to retain from his days as high-flying analyst; but as far as I'm concerned, Blodget earned the couple bucks of royalty he will be getting from the copy I bought. I found the book useful, entertaining, and weirdly poignant at times where Blodget talks about his past in Wall Street(because it reminded me of my own investment follies from the era). It was refreshing to see that as I had wisened up from my experiences, so had Henry Blodget, too. Overall, this is a good and informative book. Good job, Henry. I had been pretty upset at you and your colleagues when I lost money at the end of the dot-com boom; but hey, I forgive you now. A few hours of enjoyable reading more than paid for it.

An engaging cold shower

I read this engaging book in one sitting. The writing's charm makes the book's challenging ideas go down easier. Using academic research and his own reporting, the author demonstrates how the vast majority of investors will lose money by choosing an active investing approach (i.e. picking stocks, attempting to time the market, and so on). Not only will they will lose money by making bad calls, they will lose money by generating costs. A dollar wasted today can never compound into the future. This makes protecting one's money from the wealth-eating power of taxes and inflation very difficult. The author shows that, for those of us not named Warren Buffett, the answer lies in a disciplined passive investing approach--an approach that is simple on paper but runs counter to human nature. Before reading this book, I had thought of my retirement strategy as prudent. This book forced me to consider the extent to which ego has driven my choices, the unnecessary costs I am generating today and their impact over time. Eye-opening, scary, but fun, too.