Markets, Mobs & Mayhem

Markets, Mobs & Mayhem
Author: Robert Menschel
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2002-10-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0471267716

In this fascinating tour through cultural, global, economic, and business history, icon of the financial world Robert Menschel explores the phenomenon of crowd psychology and its effects on business and culture. Explaining how crowd psychology creates market bubbles and irrational exuberance, Menschel mines world history—from the rise of the Nazis in Germany, to the fanatical love of brands, to the Dutch tulip craze of the seventeenth century, to America’s 1990s Internet bubble—to reveal how the behavior of crowds negatively affects the business world. Championing the causes of individuality and common sense, Markets, Mobs & Mayhem offers real wisdom for investors who want to keep their wits when everyone else is losing theirs.

The Making of a Market Guru

The Making of a Market Guru
Author: Aaron Anderson
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 504
Release: 2010-05-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0470285427

Ken Fisher is founder and CEO of Fisher Investments, an independent money management firm managing over $35 billion (as of Dec. 31/09) for individuals and institutions. And, Fisher has written the monthly "Portfolio Strategy" column for Forbes magazine for the last twenty-five years—since 1984—making him, so far, the fourth longest-running columnist in the magazine’s history. During this time, he’s seen everything from the stock market crash of 1987 and the great bull markets of the 1980s and 1990s to the Tech bubble of 2000 and the global market meltdown of 2008. Now, with The Making of a Market Guru, you’ll gain an insightful look at Fisher’s prolific career over the years and discover the high-profile market calls he’s made so far in these monthly columns. At times engaging and timely, at others revealing and informative, this book is a sweeping look at a recent and eventful slice of stock market history. You’ll read about what’s changed, but you’ll be more amazed by what hasn’t. And you’ll see investing wisdom that still applies, now and for the foreseeable future, from a quarter-century of Fisher’s concise and witty market wisdom. Preceding Fisher’s columns for each year are a few pages of commentary—putting them in historic context, pointing out areas that are still salient, and others where Fisher’s perspective has changed over the years—highlighting key points that deserve extra attention. Chapter by chapter, this book offers practical investment advice from a leading market voice, while: Looking at Fisher’s market analysis over the years and providing an industry insider’s view of major, and not-so-major, market events Examining how Fisher called three of the last four bear markets Showing that what many commonly think impacts markets doesn’t—and some very surprising things that do impact markets that few are aware of. And much more The more things change, the more they stay the same—at least when it comes to investing. And seeing history through the eyes of a market guru can help improve your overall investment endeavors today. If you take the time to read this unique, historic compilation, you’ll be taking your first steps to understanding how to become your own market guru.

Crowds

Crowds
Author: Jeffrey Thompson Schnapp
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 470
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780804754804

Crowds presents several layers of meditation on the phenomenon of collectivities, from the scholarly to the personal; it is the most comprehensive cross-disciplinary publication on crowds in modernity. For more information, visit http://shl.stanford.edu/Crowds

The Fearful Rise of Markets

The Fearful Rise of Markets
Author: John Authers
Publisher: Pearson Education
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2010-04-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0131388142

Are we barreling toward another massive global financial catastrophe? How can so many bubbles form all at once? Why are so many “disconnected” markets now capable of collapsing in unison? In this remarkably readable book, award-winning Financial Times columnist John Authers takes on these critical questions and offers deeply sobering answers. Authers reveals how the first truly global super bubble was inflated—and might now be inflating again. He illuminates the multiple roots of repeated financial crises: a massive shift in investing power from individuals to big institutions; the migration of key decisions from banks to capital markets; the wholesale financialization of many asset classes; and fundamental failures of both theory and policy. The Fearful Rise of Markets presents a truly global view, avoiding oversimplifications and ideology as it outlines how we got here and where we stand. Even more valuable, it offers realistic solutions—for decision-makers who want to prevent disaster and investors who want to survive it. The herd grows ever larger—and more dangerous How institutional investing, indexing, and efficient markets theory promote herding Cheap money and irrational exuberance Super fuel for super bubbles Too big to fail: the whole story of moral hazard Banks, hedge funds, and beyond Danger signs of the next bubble Forex, equity, credit, and commodity markets move once more in alignment

Traders at Work

Traders at Work
Author: Tim Bourquin
Publisher: Apress
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2013-08-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1430244445

Shortly after most novice traders discover how trading works and begin to realize that they have the potential to make unlimited amounts of money in the financial markets, they start dreaming the near-impossible dream. They fantasize about buying that condo in Boca Raton for their parents or surprising their son with a brand-new car on his 16th birthday. They even begin to imagine themselves opening their own trading firm or milling about the pit of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, lobbying against other professional traders for the perfect entry into a once-in-a-lifetime trade. But then ... they watch the markets lurch in wildly unpredictable ways, lose their shirts in a few live trades, and then freeze in their tracks, wondering if they will ever be able to consistently trade in a manner that can even loosely be defined as “profitable.” To be sure, becoming a full-time, professional trader, working at a proprietary trading firm, or managing the trading activity of a hedge fund may sound like the perfect career, but it’s all too easy for beginner traders to overestimate their trading abilities, underestimate the movements of the markets, and find themselves in a financial hole of epic proportions after a few bad trades. So what does it really take to make a living in the markets? Tim Bourquin, co-founder of Traders Expo and the Forex Trading Expo and founder of TraderInterviews.com, and freelance writer and editor Nick Mango set out to answer that exact question in Traders at Work, a unique collection of over 20 interviews with some of the world’s most successful professional traders, from at-home hobbyists who have opened their own firms to those working at hedge funds, on proprietary trading desks, and in exchange pits. What mistakes did Anne-Marie Baiynd make early in her career? What does Michael Toma wish he had known about trading? What trading strategies work best for Linda Raschke? How does John Carter remain cool, calm, and collected when the markets are sending mixed signals? And how did Todd Gordon make the transition from part-time to full-time trader? Bourquin and Mango ask all of these questions and more in Traders at Work and in doing so reveal insider insights on what it takes to be a successful trader from those who are living that dream. Fascinating, compelling, and filled with never-before-told stories from the front lines of the trading arena, Traders at Work is required reading for anyone who has ever asked themselves if they have what it takes to trade for a living.

Professional Automated Trading

Professional Automated Trading
Author: Eugene A. Durenard
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2013-10-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1118129857

An insider's view of how to develop and operate an automated proprietary trading network Reflecting author Eugene Durenard's extensive experience in this field, Professional Automated Trading offers valuable insights you won't find anywhere else. It reveals how a series of concepts and techniques coming from current research in artificial life and modern control theory can be applied to the design of effective trading systems that outperform the majority of published trading systems. It also skillfully provides you with essential information on the practical coding and implementation of a scalable systematic trading architecture. Based on years of practical experience in building successful research and infrastructure processes for purpose of trading at several frequencies, this book is designed to be a comprehensive guide for understanding the theory of design and the practice of implementation of an automated systematic trading process at an institutional scale. Discusses several classical strategies and covers the design of efficient simulation engines for back and forward testing Provides insights on effectively implementing a series of distributed processes that should form the core of a robust and fault-tolerant automated systematic trading architecture Addresses trade execution optimization by studying market-pressure models and minimization of costs via applications of execution algorithms Introduces a series of novel concepts from artificial life and modern control theory that enhance robustness of the systematic decision making—focusing on various aspects of adaptation and dynamic optimal model choice Engaging and informative, Proprietary Automated Trading covers the most important aspects of this endeavor and will put you in a better position to excel at it.

J. Christoph Amberger's Hot Trading Secrets

J. Christoph Amberger's Hot Trading Secrets
Author: J. Christoph Amberger
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2006-01-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0471785210

Master the market for maximum profits with HOT TRADING SECRETS Playing the trading game takes audacious confidence, but winning takes more. It's about making chances instead of taking chances. As founder of the remarkably successful Taipan Group-a team of independent financial analysts-author J. Christoph Amberger knows: "There is always an opportunity to make exceptional stock market profits . . . as long as you know how to read the signs." In Hot Trading Secrets, Amberger gives you a blueprint for making big money in any financial climate. He will teach you: How to trade on "insider information" legally and profitably The secret strategies of CBOE floor traders How to profit from the "Red Zones" How to become a stone-cold profit predator In a simple step-by-step presentation, Amberger will liberate you from restrictive conventional fallacies. Using Hot Trading Secrets as your guide, you will learn to exploit volatile market events to achieve consistent profits-whether the market is up or down.

Biggs on Finance, Economics, and the Stock Market

Biggs on Finance, Economics, and the Stock Market
Author: Barton Biggs
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2014-03-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1118572300

Released to the public for the first time, writings by the incomparable Barton Biggs Long considered one of the best brains on Wall Street, Barton Biggs acquired the stature of a legend within his lifetime. Among his many coups, he accurately called the rise and fall of the dot-com market, and was an energetic promoter of emerging markets, including China, well before American businesses began flocking there—and he made vast fortunes for his clients, in the process. But, as this fascinating book confirms, it wasn't Biggs's genius as a market analyst and hedge fund manager alone that made him special. The product of a keen and broad-ranging intellect in full command of his subjects—and the English language—the letters compiled in this volume leave no doubt that Barton Biggs was one of the most interesting observers of Wall Street, the financial world, and the human comedy, ever to set pen to paper. Released from Morgan Stanley's archives and made public for the first time, the letters compiled in this volume add new luster to Biggs's reputation as a first-class finance author Address the most essential aspects of high-frequency trading, from formulation of ideas to performance evaluation Shares Biggs's fascinating insights and uncannily accurate predictions about an array of economic and financial topics, liberally peppered with historical references and wry humor Organized thematically, the letters showcase Barton Biggs's observations on finance, economics and the stock market, from 1980 to 2003

Spectacular Speculation

Spectacular Speculation
Author: Urs Stäheli
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2013-02-20
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0804788251

Spectacular Speculation is a history and sociological analysis of the semantics of speculation from 1870 to 1930, when speculation began to assume enormous importance in popular culture. Informed by the work of Luhmann, Foucault, Simmel and Deleuze, it looks at how speculation was translated into popular knowledge and charts the discursive struggles of making speculation a legitimate economic practice. Noting that the vocabulary available to discuss the concept was not properly economic, the book reveals the underside of putting it into words. Speculation's success depended upon non-economic language and morally questionable thrills: a proximity to the wasteful practice of gambling or other "degenerate" behaviors, the experience of financial markets as seductive, or out of control. American discourses of speculation take center stage, and the book covers an unusual range of material, including stock exchange guidebooks, ticker tape, moral treatises, plays, advertisements, and newspapers.