The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The book that Wall Street does not want you to read! [Hardcover]

Steven R. Selengut (Author), Peter Bono (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2007

The Brainwashing of the American Investor is a hands-on, practical investing manual that challenges the prevailing wisdom to put your trust blindly in Wall Street. Author Steven Selegut explains how The Street s investment trend of-the-moment may actually be more for the investment house s benefit than your own. There is no one-size-fits-all winning formula to make money on Wall Street. Selengut has spent more than thirty years in the investment world developing his tried-and-true working capital model that you can modify for your own financial circumstances. Selengut tells you why you need to think outside the Wall Street box to develop your personal asset allocation plan. Contrary to popular belief, investing is not a competitive event; it is an individual and goal-directed activity. Mutual funds the most common investment vehicle for most Americans are not the best way to grow your nest egg over the long term. Selengut s unconventional but common-sense strategies will help you make the most of your investment dollar. The working capital model outlines a sensible, realistic, and safe strategy for long-term, profitable investing. Master concepts such as: How to develop the asset allocation plan that is right for you. How to identify quality investments. Why income is the only real hedge against inflation. Why mutual funds are not the best way to diversify your investments. Why corrections are every bit as lovable as rallies. How to diversify properly. How to establish the all-important profit-taking sell target and when to take profits. Why commissions and taxes are secondary investment considerations at best. How to monitor investment performance without thinking about market numbers or anything else that is outside of your personal goals and objectives. Why the market value of your equity holdings and that of your income investments are completely unrelated. Why the income generated by your assets is more important than their current market value.

Editorial Reviews

Review

He sees Wall Street as the investment minefield and his book is to help you avoid being a victim. -- New Life Magazine, C. A. Jung (Sept-Oct 2002)

His energetic pieces on Wall Street, trading, "the Market", engaged my interest and intellect -- Magical Blend Magazine, Jenn House (Nov 2002 Issue)

Selengut is a seasoned money manager with over twenty-five years of experience and a shrewd understanding of investment realities -- Norm Goldman,

a work that deserves a wide audience. It challenges much of the conventional "wisdom" on investing. -- Allen I. Kraut, Ph.D., Professor of Management, Zicklin School of Business

one of the best this reader has attempted...a pleasant learning experience...both informative and understandable -- Author/Writer, Denise M. Clark --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Steven R. Selengut, MBA, RIA, has been in the financial services industry for more than forty years. He started investing while employed in a life insurer's pension investment department. At age 25, he gained responsibility for a modest trust portfolio and began his trading career using the working capital model outlined in this book. Selengut's twelve-year adventure in financial services produced an appreciation for the Wall Street environment that helped him fine tune his unique investment strategy. The program's success propelled him into early retirement at age 33 and a new career as a private investment portfolio manager. He developed a unique cost-based approach, with individually managed investment portfolios, low annual fees, and commissions to an uninterested third party. He has built a loyal following of dedicated clients, many of whom have been with him since the beginning. More information about his investment management business can be found by calling [phone]. Selengut, a native New Jerseyan, lives near Charleston, South Carolina, with his wife and best friend of fifty years, Sandra. They have two grown children and two growing grandchildren.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 270 pages
• Publisher: W&A Publishing; revised edition (October 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934354031
• ISBN-13: 978-1934354032
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #397,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique Advice That Stands Out From The Crowd, August 13, 2003

By 

Carl M. Rakes (Blacksburg, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book That Wall Street Does Not Want You to Read! (Paperback)

I've spent well over $... on my investment library. So many of the books blend together with little worth remembering let alone implementing, but this is one of two that stands out. Besides being written in an entertaining and irreverant style (if you're an accountant, attorney, or Wall Streeter, look out!), it has immensely practical advice.

Steve is one of 2 authors I've read that focuses on making money on the market's inherent volatility vs. trying to guess what's next. Unlike Technicians who play volatility AND try to guess what's next, Steve just assumes that it (volatility) will be there, like the waves on the ocean (interesting that he has a beach house!). Using safe stocks, he buys lower and sells higher, no greed, just take what the market is going to give you. Saves a lot of time and appears to work.

It would be nice to see some historical results documented in the book, but his site does provide some numbers to evaluate.

The other author... Robert Lichello, recently deceased. Zany book, but accurate. Steve adds the missing ingredient - safety.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Right on the Money!, July 25, 2003

By 

D.M. (South Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book That Wall Street Does Not Want You to Read! (Paperback)

I heard a short segment on Stu Epperson's radio show as he discussed investments with Steven Selengut. I heard enough to prompt me to search for his book on the internet. As a securities rep. myself, Steve appears to be "right on the money". I didn't want to put the book down until I was through. Steve's trading strategy is refreshing information that should make a lot of people a lot of money with less risk. I have even contacted him with a couple of questions and was pleased with his prompt and courteous response. Thank you Steve for sharing your success with everyone. In your next book, please remember that all "advisors" are not "sharks", some of us do put our clients first.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Investment Book I Have Ever Read, November 27, 2007

By 

David J. Fleming (Peoria, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The book that Wall Street does not want you to read! (Hardcover)

As I write this (11-27-2007), the markets are getting ready to open after closing down the previous day. The Dow Jones industrial average has fallen nearly 240 points and the headline in the local paper is screaming "Wall Street suffers another big hit." Serious-faced announcers on cable-TV are saying the Dow is down 10.03 percent from its mid-October closing high, officially putting the blue chip index past the 10 percent threshold that signifies a correction.

For Steven R. Selengut, author of The Brainwashing of the American Investor, corrections such as this are as welcome as rallies. The market, he points out, is just doing what the market has always done.

"Here is some advice that you just won't hear on CNBC or read in The Journal," he writes in this revised edition of an earlier book bearing the same name. "It is based on one incredibly simple market fact: There has never been a market correction that has not succumbed to yet another rally. So when the doom and gloom noise becomes deafening, get yourself out there and party."

When the markets move into a correction, Selengut's investment strategy already has investors sitting on a pile of cash -- accumulated profits taken on stocks as the market rallied -- plus cash thrown off from fixed-income securities. As the NYSE-traded stocks he follows move down 20 percent or more, he moves back into them and waits for a 10 percent profit to cash out and then look for another opportunity to repeat the process.

Even better, for skittish investors such as me, Selengut's unique "Working Capital Model" reduces the emotional factor by taking the emphasis off market value and focusing on growth of working capital, defined as the total cost basis of the securities and cash in the portfolio. As long as working capital is increasing, market value is irrelevant.

As a recent retiree, I appreciate this conservative approach to growing working capital. I implemented and followed the trading strategy myself for about a year and a half before turning my account over to Sanco Services, an investment management company founded and operated by Selengut. The Working Capital Model worked the way it was presented. My only reason for turning the account over to Sanco was to be sure that my financial assets would be handled in such a way that my wife would not have to worry about an adequate income in the event that I was no longer able to manage the assets myself.

The Brainwashing of the American Investor is a book I wish I had been able to read 30 years ago. Those of you who still have years of investing ahead of you would do well to buy this book and read it thoroughly two or three times. It will save you a lifetime of mistakes that come from following conventional wisdom.

This is the book that Wall Street does not want you to read.