The Book of Investing Wisdom: Classic Writings by Great Stock-Pickers and Legends of Wall Street (Book of Business Wisdom) [Hardcover]

Peter Krass (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 19, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0471294543 | ISBN-13: 978-0471294542 | Edition: 1

Charles H. Dow, Benjamin Graham, George Soros, Peter Lynch, Warren Buffett, Mario Gabelli, and Donald Trump. You won't find a seminar or lecture anywhere that boasts a panel quite like this-a group of the great stock-pickers and market gurus, both past and present, brought together to instruct you on the art of investing. The Book of Investing Wisdom offers you a unique insight into how these professionals and many others achieved financial success through intelligent investing-all from the comfort of your armchair. Never before have the writings of such a large and diverse group of brilliant investors been collected between the covers of a single book.

The Book of Investing Wisdom is an anthology of 46 essays and speeches from the most successful, well-known investors and financiers of our time. In their own words, these legends of Wall Street share their best investment ideas and advice. You'll hear from Bernard Baruch on stock market slumps, Peter Bernstein on investing for the long term, Joseph E. Granville on market movements, John Moody on investment vs. speculation, Otto Kahn on the New York Stock Exchange and public opinion, William Peter Hamilton on the Dow theory, and Leo Melamed on the art of futures trading, to name just a few.

For easy reference, the 46 essays featured in The Book of Investing Wisdom are organized into eight categories, covering the nuts and bolts of analysis, investing attitude and philosophy, investing strategies, market cycles, views from the inside, lessons from notorious characters, insights from the Great Crashes, and advice beyond your average blue chip. Each essay is preceded by a brief introduction that provides intriguing and insightful background information about its author's life and career, and places the essay in historical perspective. Significant statements, inspiring thoughts, and even quirky bits of wisdom have been highlighted throughout the book to call attention to each contributor's most memorable ideas.

Offering practical advice, strategic wisdom, and intriguing history, The Book of Investing Wisdom will inspire and motivate everyone from the professional money manager to the do-it-yourself investor to the business student.

PETER KRASS is a freelance writer and editor living in Connecticut. He contributes regularly to Investor's Business Daily. His other books include The Book of Leadership Wisdom: Classic Writings by Legendary Business Leaders and The Book of Business Wisdom: Class Writings by the Legends of Commerce and Industry, also available from Wiley.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When the stock market booms--as it did through most of the 1990s--relatively inexperienced investors like to believe there's a new paradigm at work. That's why it's refreshing to take a look occasionally at how investors survived previous booms--and busts. What did the founders of Moody's, Value Line, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average think about the markets they were analyzing and attempting to quantify?

Thus, when Charles Dow writes in an essay titled "Booms and Busts" that "There is a pronounced difference between bull markets that are made by manipulation and those that are made by the public," you perk up. Sure, he was writing all this in the Wall Street Journal in 1899, but he could just as easily be talking about day traders and 401(k) savers in 1999.

Essays by more current investment gurus appear, too. Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, and Abby Joseph Cohen pitch in, as does George Soros in a must-read section called "Crash and Learn". Not all investing involves the stock market, so even Donald Trump makes an appearance, with an essay called "Trump Cards: The Elements of the Deal."

You won't find hot stock tips here, but you will find the greatest investors of the past century or so discussing the principles that governed or govern their decision-making. And since those decisions created some of the greatest fortunes of all time, it's a vital read. --Lou Schuler

From Library Journal

This collection of speeches and articles provides sound investment advice. The contributors, well-respected experts, include Peter Lynch, who suggests buying stocks in a field you know through personal experience; Mario Gabelli, who discusses how world economic growth expands opportunities for American investors; and Martin Zweig, who explains the merits of selling stocks short. The weakest feature of these tapes, which are well narrated by Richard Poe, is the lack of new information for experienced investors; the strongest point is that the opinions given are solid. Recommended for most public libraries. Mark Guyer, Stark Cty. Dist. Lib., Canton, OH
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 498 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (March 19, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471294543
• ISBN-13: 978-0471294542
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #507,351 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A solid conservative investment for your reading portfolio., March 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Book of Investing Wisdom: Classic Writings by Great Stock-Pickers and Legends of Wall Street (Book of Business Wisdom) (Hardcover)

An exceptional collection of essays by 46 great names business such as Pickens, Baruch, Moody, Buffet, Lynch, Forbes, Soros, and Trump. Key themes include: basic of analysis; attitude and philosophy; strategy; cycles; views from the inside; and more. Each essay includes a biographical sketch of the writer.

This collection of essays proves to be interesting, entertaining, and filled with informative thoughts. This is not a 'how to get-rich-quick in the stock market book'; it is more of a solid, conservative investment for your reading portfolio. Reviewed by Gerry Stern, founder, Stern & Associates, author of Stern's Sourcefinder The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder, and the Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder.

5.0 out of 5 stars Got both CD version and the hardcover. Get the hardcover since the audio has only a small fraction of the content, August 15, 2011

By 

Citizen John (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Book of Investing Wisdom: Classic Writings by Great Stock-Pickers and Legends of Wall Street (Book of Business Wisdom) (Hardcover)

The readings included in the CD were excellent, but the vast majority wasn't included. This book was way too abridged in the audio preparation. For that reason I suggest getting the physical book instead of audio. I got both and will confirm that every chapter of this anthology was excellent.

My favorite segment is by Edwin Lefevre called "Vanished Billions." Lefevre is my favorite financial writer of the 20s and 30s. Wow, this one is good! It's not in the CD though.

One of my favorites is Selling Short by Martin Zweig. His explanation of trading rules and the difficulty in following resonated with me. It was interesting to hear the reading from Mario Gabelli called Grand Slam Hitting. Whereas this book was compiled in the 90s based on writings from earlier times, Gabelli had interesting predictions on the future that turned out to be mainly accurate.

This is an anthology, a collection of writings by notable authors. I got the feeling that money was never the primary or original motivator for them. They were intensely interested in solving problems having to do with investing, speculating and economics.

5.0 out of 5 stars Audiobook version is entertaining!, January 18, 2011

By 

Mark "Mark" (SEATTLE, WA, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Book of Investing Wisdom: Classic Writings by Great Stock-Pickers and Legends of Wall Street (Book of Business Wisdom) (Hardcover)

My local library has the OverDrive eAudio version of this book, and because the topic can be rather dry to read, the narration does a good job of pacing me, and getting me through the volume.

The content is not much different from other books or audio-books of the genre, but because I don't work in the financial milieu, it helps to reinforce the type of thing and expected reaction for people living a "financial lifestyle"!