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The Long and the Short of It - Finance and Investment for Normally Intelligent People Who Are Not in the Industry
 
 
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The Long and the Short of It - Finance and Investment for Normally Intelligent People Who Are Not in the Industry [Paperback]

John Kay (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)


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Product Details

  • Paperback: 300 pages
  • Publisher: Erasmus Press LtD (2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0954809327
  • ISBN-13: 978-0954809324
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,410,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Illuminating!, June 29, 2010
This review is from: The Long and the Short of It - Finance and Investment for Normally Intelligent People Who Are Not in the Industry (Paperback)
Don't be fooled by the shocking pink cover. This ain't chick lit!

John Kay is one of Britain's leading economists and thinks extremely well. He also writes extremely well--check out his regular column in the Financial Times too. His book is subtitled "A Guide to Finance and Investment for Normally Intelligent People Who Aren't in the Industry" and it is exactly that. If you are interested in personal investment, and if you want to draw a pension you should be, this is a great introduction written in a clear and engaging style. He is excellent in helping the reader to distinguish the financial salesman (whose sole interest is enlarging his/her personal wealth, with little regard for yours) from the genuine advisor.

I particularly recommend chapter 7 on "Risk and Reward", which explains how one ought to think about quantifiable risks and how they are priced. Modern economic theory (principally SEU = subjective expected utility, and the CAPM = capital asset pricing model) is highly illuminating. You should behave as if it were true, but recognise that it is not. That is, you can take advantage of the fact that most people think irrationally about risk. Chapter 8 on "A World of Unknowns" extends his analysis to include unknown unknowns, again highly illuminating. If every banker had read it we might not be in the mess we are in today.

Of course the book is about personal investment, but the ideas in it should also be at the core of business investment decisions.
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3.0 out of 5 stars A bit confused, December 30, 2011
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This review is from: The Long and the Short of It - Finance and Investment for Normally Intelligent People Who Are Not in the Industry (Paperback)
The author mentions "The Intelligent Investor" by Graham and talks about Warren Buffett a lot. But it seems as if Kay has not read Buffett's piece: The SuperInvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville ( [...]) It is not included in the bibliography at least. It says pretty much the opposite of what Kay says, especially about "risk". Kay not once mentions "margin of safety"...
Finally he keeps referring to Buffett and Soros together as if they use(d) the same strategy, that doesn't make sense to me.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
prudent spending rate, conventional investor, local authority pension funds, own investment manager, nationalisation bill, credit bubble, modern financial markets, offset mortgage, worth what someone, intelligent investor, enhanced bonds, first percentile, earnings guidance, personal probabilities
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Robb Caledon, New Economy, City of London, Warren Buffett, United States, Wall Street, Bank of England, George Soros, Merrill Lynch, London Stock Exchange, First World War, Morgan Stanley, Monetary Policy Committee, Federal Reserve, Berkshire Hathaway, Goldman Sachs, Buffett Foundation, Benjamin Graham, Drexel Burnham Lambert, Long-Term Capital Management, Northern Rock, Cold War, Twin Towers, Big Bang, British Telecom
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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