Customer Reviews

The Faber Report: CNBC's "The Brain" Tells You How Wall Street Really Works and How You Can Make It Work for You

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

IMHO, an essential part of being a good trader is having a good sense of how things function on Wall Street. If you are a new trader this a book you should consider picking up. Beyond entertaining, it will offer you a good set of anecdotes to help you frame who the players are and how things work on Wall Street. Beyond this book, you should consider other anecdotal books that feature successful traders like Market Wizards, New Market Wizards (both by Jack Schwager), and The Best by Marder and Dupee. When you have built your framework for understanding the trading environment, take a look at a simple book on technical analysis - Dave Landry on Swing Trading or Bulkowski's Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns. If you have a decent grasp on the technical analysis part, then try a simple strategy like the 1-Day Breakout Method, it looks pretty good from what I've read so far and I look forward to trading it shortly.

This is the kind of book on Wall Street I have waited years for. First, the writing is terrific; too rare a treat in books on stocks and markets. Second, the anecdotes and examples, while highly instructional, can stand alone as exciting tales - you needn't even be interested in Wall Street to find much of this material fascinating. And if you are interested in Wall Street - even if you're a regular Joe who's a little intimidated by markets, as I am - the book goes a long way toward helping you tap into the Street savvy you've long suspected was necessary to even the score. A first-rate effort.

Decades from now, when historians want to get a better understanding of what Wall Street was like at the turn of the 21st century, they won't need to look much further than The Faber Report. Faber's book paints an amazingly clear and comprehensive picture of today's investment climate, giving the reader gobs of insight into the inner workings of the Street.

The book has something for everyone; whether you're a novice investor trying to navigate the world of mutual funds or a hedge fund manager with a penchant for short selling, you'll find it eminently useful. (And if you happen to be the New York state attorney general looking for a blueprint to prosecute Jack Grubman and the rest of Wall Street, you'll find the book very worthwhile!) While the book covers investing basics with exceptional clarity (it has a paragraph on the P/E ratio that is one of the best I've seen), it also contains some headier material that more sophisticated investors will find helpful (his 12 point checklist for uncovering financial shenanigans is a keeper).

It's difficult to write a book that is both entertaining and instructive, but Faber has pulled it off in spades.

There's no one better in the world of financial reporting than David Faber. As a member of the media, I could only wish to be as connected, informed, and intelligent as he is. But most importantly, he's the best there is when it comes to sifting through the b.s. that has plagued Wall Street over recent years. This book is almost uncanny, in that it was written months before the dominant financial headlines that rocked the markets in the summer of 2002. We get the warnings about Worldcom, Imclone, and so on, well before anyone else does. Plus, he tells the reader where they can find raw data, what to look for, and the signs that a stock is trouble. Not really a "How to Invest" book, but rather, a "How to Be Informed" book. This book is a must-read. Faber tells it like it is. He was right in the 1990s when he warned on CNBC about the over valued Internet stocks, and time proved him right. By reading this book, you'll understand what to look for the next time Wall Street starts blowing a bubble.

David Faber is a good reporter in that he does not only repeat what information is given to him but injects some analysis and investigation into his stories. These capabilities are reflected in this book in explaining how the different hedge funds, brokers, mutual funds and bankers interact and affect the market. Although there is some fluff , all in all this book is interesting if only to satisfy your curiosity.
On the other hand, even though it gives you an understanding of wall street it offers no help on how to use that to profit. Considering that most individual investors are in the market to make money, this book leaves a gap to be filled. To that effect I found the book " Generate Thousands in cash on your stocks without selling them" recommended by another reviewer to be helpful in supplying specific strategies to recover losses on stocks in this market.

This hook is filled with funny, fascinating, and fantastic stories from the world of business and Wall Street and is worth buying for that alone. The analysis is fragmented however and the advice of limited usefulness, e.g. I'm not sure how many investors need help in choosing a hedge fund.

Buy it for the amusement value.

Explaining how analyists work and their associated confilcts of interest is very interesting stuff. However, this book doesn't really offer advice to investors on how to invest intelligently. In the end, this is a decent book with some good info on how the street works, but its not worth $. I dont plan on re-reading this one in the near future.

I really tried to understand the message David was trying to deliver with this book. However, it is so poorly written one must wonder who did the editing. Content wise, it is shallow and offers nothing to anyone seeking an inside look at Wall Street. Faber should stick to offering his opinions on CNBC and forget about a career in writing.

There's no one better in the world of financial reporting than David Faber. As a member of the media, I could only wish to be as connected, informed, and intelligent as he is. But most importantly, he's the best there is when it comes to sifting through the b.s. that has plagued Wall Street over recent years. This book is almost uncanny, in that it was written months before the dominant financial headlines that rocked the markets in the summer of 2002. We get the warnings about Worldcom, Imclone, and so on, well before anyone else does. Plus, he tells the reader where they can find raw data, what to look for, and the signs that a stock is trouble. Not really a "How to Invest" book, but rather, a "How to Be Informed" book. This book is a must-read. Faber tells it like it is. He was right in the 1990s when he warned on CNBC about the over valued Internet stocks, and time proved him right. By reading this book, you'll understand what to look for the next time Wall Street starts blowing a bubble.

If you have an ounce of savy about Wall Street you will find this book to be a joke. I think that even if you have never heard of Wall Street you would find this to be a little above kindergarden material. I also think David should stick to giving his opinions on the air and forget about offering them in print. This book just dosen't hold together. He tries to inject a little humor, but that too is weak. If he actually wrote this himself, which I can not entirely believe, then it is pretty poor stuff. Don't look for a follow-up book because this one will not go far. Nice try David, but no cigar.