Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
OK for Beginning Traders, Not Much New for Veteran Traders, November 30, 2007
I read this book hoping for some insight to some of the specific trading strategies RevShark uses, as I have read his website and newsletter periodically throughout the past few years and find myself usually enjoying and agreeing with his market insights. I was a little disappointed in that regard. If you are an investor just starting out, then the book will help you understand that much of what you see on CNBC and read in magazines like "Money" and "Kiplinger" will not help you become a successful investor. Buy and hold is dead, and this book explains why. But for an experienced trader, there is very little here. There were no specific trading strategies, just a summary of some basic ideas from technical analysis and chart reading. There was also a chapter on investor psychology, but again, nothing that has not been discussed in many other books. I was expecting more.
If you are a new investor, may I suggest that you instead get "How to Make Money in Stocks" by William O'Neil. The ideas in the two books are very similar, but explained much better in O'Neil's book.
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Nice story, general advice, but very little *usable* information, March 6, 2008
This book disappointed me.
The story of man-with-hardships-does-well is nice. The title hints at the reader getting advice on how to also do well - and does not deliver.
The title would have been more descriptive if the "invest like a shark" and "How" parts were removed, and it was just titled "A Deaf Guy with No Job and Limited Capital Made a Fortune Investing in the Stock Market"
(and now wants additional income from selling the story)
You get generally good-sounding advice ("invest when the odds are in your favor") but no way how to know *when* the odds are in your favor, or advice to "use charting to know when the large-movers (Banks, funds, etc.) are buying in and then join them" - but no real advice what chart signals will tell you this, or will tell you if they are still buying, or you are too late.
There is a lot of text about how Sharks are successful, and advice to be like them - fast, aggressive, etc. etc. - but no real advice what this means in practice.
At the end of the day, you get almost no advice you can use and apply,
The only two pieces of advice I found useful here are also commonly given (for free) in every other books and web-site:
- Cut you losses and do not wait for the stock to rebound
- Use a defined set of rules to decide when to buy/sell, and not gut-feel so emotions will trip you up less.
I would not recommend it to anyone looking for how to trade, Novice or Experienced, maybe only to people interested in the biography of successful traders.
Theerfore, I have to say it is not worth the price, and you are better off looking for it in a library - or spending your time and money on something more useful.
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18 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A refreshing introduction to an unorthodox style of investing, November 28, 2007
James "Rev Shark" Deporre has been well known for many years for teaching an investing style that goes against the grain of traditional Wall Street wisdom. Shark investing means moving quickly and aggressively, and fleeing at the first sign of danger. Now, in this book, Mr. Deporre provides an excellent introduction to his methodology and preaches against the buy and hold mentality that is ingrained in so many. I am not a subscriber to the Rev Shark's website, but I do include his column among my regular reading on Realmoney. I found this book to be very insightful, and found many things that rang true with me and caused me to stop and consider how I've been handling my own investing.
I believe this book should be taken as an introduction to DePorre's style of investing--nothing more. It is true that the subject matter is light and that the book does not go into a great deal of depth, but that does not mean it is just another superficial look at trading. The Rev Shark brings a unique approach to investing and his perspective is refreshing. In the midst of a sea of brokers, pundits, advisors, and analysts who constantly preach a buy and hold methodology and seem to think that every small investor has to mirror a mutual fund to be successful, it's nice to hear from someone who believes the little guy can make it on his own without going head to head with the 'Wall Street Whales.'
In short, you won't find in depth lessons on charting here in the book, nor does DePorre provide a spoon fed methodology to picking stocks. What he does offer, however, is some great advice that, if heeded, can help the average investor use the fact that he or she is investing with limited capital to their advantage, rather than allow it to be a handicap. In fact, most of what DePorre says is relatively common sense, but it rings with such a sense of truth that it's worth taking note of. He labels it 'shark investing' not as a cute analogy but rather as a means of defining how the little guy needs to invest if he wants to survive. Be aggressive when the time is right, gorge yourself when profits are available (don't be timid when things are going in your favor), and run at the first sight of danger. It's okay to sell a stock and buy it back a little higher (the Rev refers to that as the price of insurance), and no stock, no matter how much money it has made you in the past, deserves your full devotion, because any stock can turn on you in an instant.
Those looking to be handed a method of picking stocks will likely be disappointed with the Rev Shark's book, as will anyone expecting an exhaustive treatment of investing in less than 200 pages. Those willing to take it for what it is, however--an introduction to a unique approach to trading that, if applied correctly, can help you survive as a small fish in an ocean full of whales--will find this book a great addition to their investing library.
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