Far from Random: Using Investor Behavior and Trend Analysis to Forecast Market Movement (Bloomberg Financial) [Hardcover]

Richard Lehman (Author), Lawrence G. McMillan (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1576603237 | ISBN-13: 978-1576603239 | Publication Date: November 18, 2009 | Edition: 1

Since Burton Malkiel's seminal work A Random Walk Down Wall Street was published, the financial world has swallowed whole the idea that market movement is chaotic and random. Richard Lehman, coauthor of New Insights in Covered Call Writing, uses behavior-based trend analysis to debunk that theory. He demonstrates that the market has discernible trends that are forseeable. By learning to spot those trends, traders and investors can predict market movements to boost returns in anything from equities to 401(k) accounts.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Richard Lehman unequivocally proves that the market moves in well-defined, often predictable patterns. In Far From Random, he demonstrates a new, simple way to really beat the market. --Yale and Jeffrey A. Hirsch, authors of the Stock Trader's Alamanac

About the Author

Richard Lehman is an instructor of both finance and derivatives at UC Berkeley Extension and a vice president in the wealth management group at Mechanics Bank in Richmond, California. His financial career spans more than thirty years in product management, marketing, and investment management, beginning with an eleven year-stint on Wall Street with E. F. Hutton, Thomson McKinnon, and the New York Stock Exchange. He is the co-author of New Insights on Covered Call Writing, with Lawrence McMillan (Bloomberg Press, 2003).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Bloomberg Press; 1 edition (November 18, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576603237
• ISBN-13: 978-1576603239
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #745,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard Lehman is a Finance Instructor at UC Berkeley Extension and a Vice President in the Wealth Management group at Mechanics Bank in Richmond, California. His financial career spans more than thirty years beginning with an eleven year stint on Wall Street with EF Hutton, Thomson McKinnon and the New York Stock Exchange.

An authority on options, Rick was named Top Broker in the US Trading Championships - Option Division in the 1980s and assisted in the launch of two closed end mutual funds specializing in covered call writing. Rick's first book with coauthor Lawrence McMillan was "New Insights on Covered Call Writing - the powerful technique that lowers risk and enhances returns in stock investing", published by Bloomberg Press in 2003.

Concentrating now on technical analysis and behavioral finance, Rick's latest book "Far From Random" draws a link between these two disciplines, creating an entirely new avenue of opportunities to employ behavioral factors in trading and long term investment management.

Rick holds a BS in Management Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy New York and an MBA from the State University of New York at Albany.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clarity-Why, When and How to Gauge Market Moves, May 23, 2010

By 

John R. Cox - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Far from Random: Using Investor Behavior and Trend Analysis to Forecast Market Movement (Bloomberg Financial) (Hardcover)

I read a lot of innvestments books...10-12 a year and have for years..evey book, point of view and methodology teaches you something to add to your own processes.

I liked this book because I appreciate clarity. In order to be clear and to makes something seem easy, an author has to have a profound knowledge of the subject matter and the ability to communicate clearly. Richarde Lehman ahs both of the those pre-requisites.

Investor behavior and motivation are two keys to understanding market behavior. Understanding who those investors are, how they are rewarded (or compensated), what motivates them are keys to insight into the confoundingly contradictory movements that drive everyone crazy. . You will have a much keener understanding of the news that is being reported to you and have real insight into what is being told to you after having read the book.

With a perpective, the author then provides you with a charting method that will enhance your ability to enter and exit markets..this is a rather useful skill. Your probabilities of executing profitable trades, realizing a greater percentage of the profits in the moves you have chosen, and your peace of mind while doing do will be enhanced with the background and techniques shared in Far From Random.

This will also go on my periodic re-read list and not many books make it there.

I am a successful private investor.

Best wishes,

John

13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History's "Tulips" not so random, November 20, 2009

By 

James L. P. Glidden "Jim Glidden, veteran Wal... - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Far from Random: Using Investor Behavior and Trend Analysis to Forecast Market Movement (Bloomberg Financial) (Hardcover)

In Far From Random, we learn we aren't so removed from our ancestors as we might think. This highly readable book demonstrates that markets are neither efficient nor random, and that being stone-cold frozen with fear (a saber-tooth tiger eyes us for lunch) is akin to buy-and-hold-no-matter-what (our securities portfolio drags us down to our doom). Rick Lehman boldly states that human emotion, and not green-eyeshade analysis, is what really drives prices --whether it's Dutch Tulips, Stocks on margin, or 30 X 1 leverage on illiquid credit default swaps and subprime mortgage derivatives. Far from being nonsense, this view makes perfect sense. Far From Random shows how our collective emotional behaviors, and the markets they move, become predictable. That's an edge any investor would want, and Far From Random will give you a tantalizing glimpse at that edge.

Jim Glidden, veteran Wall St. Bond Salesman

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars nothing new - worse than mediocre, June 26, 2011

By 

X. Li "Lee" (NC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Far from Random: Using Investor Behavior and Trend Analysis to Forecast Market Movement (Bloomberg Financial) (Hardcover)

1) The theory (behavioral finance) this book tries to explain in over half way through the book is not new, and there are many other books on the same subject are much better written and more readable.

2) The "meat" of the book "channel charting/analysis/trading" is not new either. Many books have been written about it in clearer and more practical manner (such as "Channel Surfing" by Michael J. Parsons). But this author made it as if it's a virgin territory that he alone discovered and exploited. The book's explanation on channel trading is extremely mediocre and almost all are based in hindsight.

Personally speaking this book is worthless, because none of its contents or points of view is new or useful to me. Reading it is completely a waste of time.