Customer Reviews

Crash Profits: Make Money When Stocks Sink and Soar!

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Martin D. Wiess' Crash Profits: Make Money When Stocks Sink and Soar! is really two books in one. On one hand it is a review-and very stinging commentary-of the shenanigans that corporate executives and Wall Street investment bankers have engaged in over the past decade that have done so much to undermine investor confidence in the markets. On the other hand it is an "investment guide for hard times" which-as all such endeavors do-assures the reader of sure fire profits in the future.

This book works much better as social commentary. Mr. Weiss is a well known, very credible and knowledgeable critic of Wall Street. Here he presents a very well constructed picture of just how the excesses of recent time came about and how they have affected investment environments. His stinging indictment of the corporate world not only effectively relates events but also provides a very detailed picture of how these events have affected the average investor's views and outlook vis-à-vis the markets.

As an investment vehicle the book leaves much to be desired, as most of these books do. The problem is these books are aimed at the "average" investor but, like so many of its predecessors, it focuses on the wrong aspects of economic life in the middle class. It's not that the investment advice given is particularly flawed, it's that it fails to provide the guidance that is really needed at this point in time to really improve the economic lot of the middle class family. It talks endlessly of "investment" and virtually ignores debt, which in point of fact is the real scourge of the middle class' economic status. The "average" middle class family has approximately $40,000 a year in family income. It also has approximately $5000 in outstanding credit card debt. With an average interest expense of 18%, the average family's major "investment" is carrying what appears to be becoming a perpetual, high cost debt. On a long term basis, reasonable investments will generate anywhere from 5-10% in return. That's true of Mr. Weiss' strategies as well. Yet Mr. Weiss speaks virtually not at all to the drain debt wracks on total investment return.

If your are debt free, this makes a reasonable investment guide. If you are not, you'd be much better off buying a guide to managing debt. Regardless of you financial situation, this book is worthwhile as a historical review of the dynamics of corporate excess in the `90's.

We retired exactly one year ago, and again, last year we made money from our financial assets - not much, but it beats many of our friends and associates. Our success is attributable to two basic sources, John Mauldin's free weekly newsletter (Millennium Wave Online) and Dr. Weiss' previous book, "The Ultimate Safe Money Guide". Between these two intellectual perspectives of the dynamics of our economic and political environments, my wife and I walk away with a stronger gut feel for why, how and where to protect our nest egg.

Dr. Weiss' new book is like reading one of the "Left Behind" series - but, his is a story developed around plausible outcomes of world events that seem to be developing as we speak.

The book enlightens the reader about the atmosphere of greed and corruption surrounding specific corporations, especially the analysts, brokerage firms and institutions who colluded to implement their strategies. The book gives you a "heads up" to where to park your assets. It also gives you an awareness of the necessity to filter information that you are exposed to when making financial decisions. For example, we watch CNN's L. Dobbs Report every day, but we also know that a major brokerage firm sponsors the show, thus we filter accordingly.

In summary, Dr. Weiss' two books mentioned above are "must reads" especially for those of you near or in retirement.

By combining fiction with non-fiction, Dr. Weiss' had made his extremely bearish outlook a page turner. Advice on protecting yourself from loss during such a crisis is coupled with stratgies allowing you to prosper.

By now, it is common knowledge that many in the financial community gave bad advice to public investors with the sole purpose of lining their own pockets. Weiss' description of those abuses is worth the retelling, as it offers an additional warning to all of us.

Whether you agree with his outlook or not, there is much to be gained from reading this book. His suggestions on keeping your assets in the safest banks, money market funds and brokers is sound advice for everyone. Weiss provides lists of those safer institutions.

By way of explanation, I read an excerpt from this book in a popular tout sheet and bought it merely to pad my order to get to the free shipping level. What a mistake. (The lesson here is to just pay your shipping charge and be done with it).
My own personal view of the equity markets is one of a longer term secular bear market and Ive been trading options for a number of years so I should be sympathetic to Weiss thesis. However, all of Weiss insight in this area is summarized in 15 rules covering 4-1/2 pages. While mostly accurate, there are some glaring errors, e.g. Rules 3 and 4 advising you to avoid contracts of a certain price range. Option prices are based on the cost of the underlying shares so to avoid contracts over $500 is to limit yourself from companies with high share prices with potentially the most room to fall.
Perhaps I was expecting him to elaborate on some other bear option strategies, but all he offers is buying puts. As for directly short-selling (the only other way to benefit from crash markets) all he says is dont do it. He fails to sufficiently describe the time decay problem with long options in his 15 rules. E.g. with respect to the interminable Japanese bear market, simply long puts may not have made you any money because of the graceful but inexorable decline punctuated with sharp rallies. You would have needed a bear-neutral strategy. The problem is that with a preponderance of contracts at a certain strike, the market makers may ride the underlying shares past the expiry so that they all close worthless.
The rest of the book recounts recent financial scandals such as the $6k shower curtain, but I found myself skipping over several chapters at a time because Im one of those odd people who remembers what they read in the paper or saw in the news.
There were some odd chapters on real estate and moving your money to a safe bank, which suddenly struck me as the same stuff Prof. Ravi Batra was writing in the 80s (to wit The Great Recession of the 90s!). To his credit, Batra caught the Great Recession of 1991 (as did your local evening news) but by 1992, the stuff was all nonsense.
Could anyone benefit from this book?
Those interested in the subject would probably already be in the bear camp, but the book is insufficient as an introduction to options trading so there is little practical value. And those unfamiliar with his filler material probably dont read the newspaper, so why would they read a book?

For any practical benefit, this book should have been published 3 years ago. So perhaps publication now is actually a contrarian indicator?
BTW some of the rave reviews are just bizarre, one guy recommending "9 Free Secrets of New Sensual Power" in the same breath. I cant comment on that selection, but if youre trying to pad your order to get free shipping, that is probably a better choice.

I have spent literally thousands of hours over the last several years attempting to understand the nutty nineties stock market bubble, excess credit creation, global economic conditions, Federal Reserve policy implications, deflation/inflation, Austrian School of Economics and investment strategies in a post bubble world. I have no doubt that Dr. Weiss's book would have drastically shortened my learning curve!

Most financial publications are written in academic or industry lingo making them hard to digest for a novice, and just plain difficult to read. Dr. Weiss presents the clearest most simple explanation for many facets of our previous stock market boom and the potential aftermath of these excesses, while most other books over complicate the subject. Dr. Weiss combines fictional tales with facts to weave a boom and bust tapestry that all but the blind can see. I thought so highly of this book, I purchased extra copies for family friends who are complete novices, as a way of introducing them into our current investment climate.

I do not necessarily agree with all of Dr. Weiss's positions, I strongly recommend this easy to read and comprehend book for the novice and market maven alike.

This book is the BEST one you'll find that could be "Bubble Economy 101" or "Bear Markets for Dummies".

If you've felt betrayed and blindsided by the stock market declines since 2000; if you have ever felt the least bit intimidated by the economists, the Wall Street pros, and the guests on financial TV and assumed they know more than you do; if you have been arguing with yourself over whether to sell your stocks; if you have been debating over whether to buy a house; if you have wondered if the yields on corporate or muni bonds are a good deal; if you've ever wondered how our economy has gotten itself into the fix it is in; if you've looked around and felt like we aren't "bouncing back" and wondered why; READ THIS BOOK!

The book is practically worth it alone for the discussion of the government bond market, and why confidence MUST be maintained in it.

The author has a "followup" website at www.crashprofits.net.

Given the way the economy is going, this book is a must read. There is a possibility that there will be a stock market crash in the near future: given the unfolding of the subprime mortgage crisis and untold numbers of foreclosures; banks that dabbled in hedge funds and subprime mortgages beginning to feel the pinch; the dollar spiralling downward; and the price of oil skyrocketing. Somewhere in all of this, one gets a distinct feeling of instability, and that is where Weiss's book comes in.

His knowledge of the investing environment is refreshing and at the same time disturbing. He equips the average investor with knowledge that will help him/her in the coming difficult times. This is not a light read, yet the way he weaves story lines through the book, it places the reader comfortably into the investing environment. He gives worst-case scenarios and asks hard questions that makes the reader think. He also reveals astute insight and provides solutions to problems that help the reader feel equipped to tackle the upcoming turmoil in our economy.

The most valuable parts of the book (I think) are
where he mentions that he rates bank and brokerage firms and includes the websites. I felt as if I was reading the consumer report for banks! We actually visited a library and looked up Weiss's bank ratings books there. They rate banks on a quarterly basis, and include a thorough list of banks in every state, their rating and safety (some banks even get A+). We checked out the banks with the higher ratings in our state.

This book provides peace of mind to the average investor trying to save and invest for the future when the economy looks dismally bleak.

Keep in mind when you read this book that the author was ordered to pay substantial monetary penalties to the U.S. Treasury in June 2006 for misrepresenting himself as an investment adviser when he was not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It was noted in the lawsuit (UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Before the SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION INVESTMENT ADVISERS ACT OF 1940 Release No. 2525 / June 22, 2006 ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDING File No. 3-12341) that "he used selective, outdated, and/or hypothetical examples of specific returns that subscribers might have realized on individual trades had they followed Weiss Research's recommendations, without advising that the overall return was or might not be profitable ... The overall performance of Weiss Research's premium services did not support these profit claims. In fact, during the relevant time period, many subscribers who followed each Weiss Research trading recommendation - as Weiss Research encouraged its subscribers to do - experienced overall returns that were substantially lower than Weiss Research's profit examples and most actually lost money."

This book has a great deal of valuable advice and Martin Weiss is an extremely reliable expert. HOWEVER -- This is the EXACT SAME book as his previously published "Crash Profits." They simply changed the title! I can find absolutely no updated or new information in this one. There is a mention of this on the back cover but you normally only get to see that until you've bought the book.

I really hate when publisher's do this!

This book is a must read for veteran or new investors. It tells a lot about the markets and how they operate. It warns about improper practices of some stock brokers. Included is advice on better stock trading.