Buy High, Sell Higher: Why Buy-And-Hold Is Dead And Other Investing Lessons from CNBC's "The Liquidator" [Hardcover]

Joe Terranova (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 3, 2012

Whether you're a professional investor or just want to trade like one, Buy High, Sell Higher will show you how to pick winners, maximize gains and minimize losses...In this book, you'll learn how a stock's price is just the beginning of the story, and that other indicators like moving averages and volume can help you to spot stocks that have momentum. You'll also learn how to determine the optimal moment to buy a stock, when to sell it, how to protect yourself against sudden reversals in the market, and how to capitalize on moments when other investors are retreating.

What's the best month to buy tech stocks? To sell an energy asset? And what is the one-day of the year that you should never, ever trade on? Answers to these and other questions are just some of the insights that Joe Terranova shares in Buy High, Sell Higher.

Terranova is a series regular on CNBC's Fast Money and the Chief Market Strategist for Virtus Investment Partners, a firm with over $25 billion in assets under management. Prior to joining Virtus, he spent 18 years at MBF Clearing Corp., where he was the director of trading and managed more than 300 traders. And as viewers of CNBC's Fast Money know, Joe is a master at demystifying the forces that drive today's markets. So why not let him show you how to use telltale signs to spot investments that are poised for lift-off.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Stock market rules have changed-and with them, so should your strategy, advises Terranova. After many years working at MBF, one of the biggest natural gas and oil trading firms in the world, and witnessing the astonishing market events of recent years, Terranova realized that the average investor needed a new plan to survive and profit in this market and that anyone prepared to do the homework and tackle the unexpected could become a better investor. While investors have been trained to look for bargains, that's not a great strategy. Blending case studies and instruction, Terranova teaches readers the basics of the new investing: keeping an investing calendar; choosing professionals for your team; avoiding the temptations of day trading; and investing in assets you believe are important. As Terranova effectively argues, the key to long-term success in any market depends on the investor's ability to recognize when the story has changed.
(Publishers Weekly )

One of Joe Terranova's greatest strengths is his ability to take vast amounts of complex financial data, break the data down to its moving parts, and then explain what it means in an easy-to-understand way."
(Mark B. Fisher, founder/CEO MBF Clearing Corp, and author of The Logical Trader: Applying a Method to the Madness )

Run, don't walk, to read "Chaminade" Joe Terranova's book, Buy High, Sell Higher: Why Buy-And-Hold Is Dead And Other Investing Lessons from CNBC's "The Liquidator".
About 10 days ago, Joe was nice enough to send me a copy, and I immersed myself in it last weekend.
In his book, Joe delivers a thoughtful approach in deciphering the reams of data and information an investor and/or trader needs to dissect and analyze in order to maximize one's decision making process.
What is great about Joe's book is that he is quite specific about rounding up and filtering out the noise. I particularly like his recommendations on how investors and traders can become more organized. As well, his timing ideas and methodology -- check out the chapter entitled "Know When to Enter and Exit the Market" -- are very valuable and pragmatic.
Joe's methodology is backed up by 18 years of hard-hitting and strong experience in managing risk and managing investment professionals at MBF Clearing and now as chief market analyst for Virtus Investment Partners.
On the back cover of Joe's book, "Fast Money's" The Divine Ms. F. (Karen Finerman) writes in her endorsement, "Confidence and perseverance -- tempered by humility and strength of character -- is Joe Terranova's winning combination." And throughout Buy High, Sell Higher, Joe's sensitivity to Mr. Market and to his associates comes through loud and clear.
When I finished Joe's book, I couldn't help but anticipate his next book on trading.
Read Buy High, Sell Higher and consider buying it as a holiday present for your friends who want to become more skilled in the markets.
(Doug Kass, "The New Real Money Pro" )

Joe Terranova knows what it takes to win. His research and knowledge go into every trade he makes. I can't wait for him to share his passion in his new book and to learn the secrets that Wall Street professionals don't want you to know.
(Mike Bossy, National Hockey League Hall of Famer, New York Islanders )

About the Author

Terranova is a series regular on CNBC's Fast Money and the Chief Market Strategist for Virtus Investment Partners, a $25 billion Hartford-based asset management firm. Prior to joining Virtus, he spent 18 years at MBF Clearing Corp., where he was the director of trading and managed more than 300 traders.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Business Plus; 1 edition (January 3, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1455500666
• ISBN-13: 978-1455500666
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #535,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars For investors, too. January 4, 2012

By Samuel Chell HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Terranova is familiar to many as one of the financial gurus on "Fast Money," a daily post-market show that's capable of holding the viewer's attention longer than the rather loud and repetitious one that follows it. He comes off as a thoughtful, cogent contributor and is equally communicative and lucid as a writer--important, since despite appearances, most books that offer advice about money share in common the following: 1. the author's key points can be summarized in a paragraph or two; 2. after reading the first several, they begin to sound suspiciously alike. So besides pointers that might help the reader make a buck, it's important that the writer have a personal voice as well as a knack for conveying familiar ideas in fresh language. Terranova's book succeeds on both counts, as the author offers the reader the opportunity to shadow him during some of his "big money" moves and offers potentially useful concepts like having an "investment calendar" and a "winning team" to lessen the pain and increase the gain of the non-professional investor.

From listening to some of the fast talk about fast money on the show, the reader might expect the book to be focused primarily on trading with excessive attention to exotic trading approaches unlikely to be of much interest to the time-challenged, over-burdened "little money" investor. But there's useful, solid advice here even for readers who do not fancy themselves "traders" much less students of derivatives and complex leveraging plays. I've never paid much attention to a stock's "moving average," but the author explains its importance and tells you which one of many such averages is most followed by the pros. He also explains why you might heed it as well, showing how and when to make use of this statistic which, moreover, is instantly accessible on sites like Yahoo Finance. Like the writers of most trustworthy investing guides, he warns against emotional investing but goes one further: he tells you which days of the week NOT to trade stocks precisely because of the emotional factor.

As the title of the book would suggest, the author is a fan of neither buy-and-hold investing nor index funds (they're cheap, but what's the gain if the markets show none?). Since the averages have been essentially flat for the past ten years, with investors seeing little to no gain in their portfolios (except for those who bet heavily on a "five-star" mutual fund at the beginning of 2008, only to experience losses of 30-50% as the year played out). At the same time, Terranova is not about to encourage new investors to get caught up in costly account churning: in fact, he makes it clear that many investors (including himself) have inflicted self-injury by taking their gains prematurely. Terranova's approach may remind some readers of Marty Zweig's, the guest on Lou Rukeyser's popular PBS show who was always emphasizing "big mo," or placing big bets on the upward movers rather than buying dips in hopes of profiting from the rebound. Zweig eventually appeared to become skeptical of his own methods and got out of the game. Like a professional athlete, a professional investor requires steady nerves and quick but decisive and disciplined reflexes. So perhaps with age comes an abatement of the energies required to realize the fullest benefits from momentum investing. But that doesn't mean that we occasional, week-end players can't learn how to "sweeten" our swing by watching Tiger (even the post-superhuman version) or how to sharpen our own timing, hedge our bets, and contain our losses by observing how a younger professional like Terranova does it on a daily basis.

This is by no means the only investment/trading book to own. For example, there's much to be said on behalf of dividends--and not just the yield part--but that's for another book.

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth reading January 2, 2012

By Brett Brown

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Having written a book myself on trading, I know that most people are still looking for the book with "the big secret to trading". When they don't find it, they usually give the book a bad review. What this book is: A well written book on how Joe Invests (this book is more geared to the investor than trader). That's not to say that a trader can't get anything out of it. The book covers things like seasonality and how fund managers re-balance. Certain days of the month and year to pay attention to, etc. The way I look at it, if you can read a book and take just one thing away from it that will help you in the market, then the author did his job and it was worth the read. Joe did that and then some.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good strategies November 10, 2012

By P. Garland

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I thought this book was very interesting and suggested some good investment strategies that I'm now incorporating into my investment decision making.