Customer Reviews

The Psychology of Money: An Investment Manager's Guide to Beating the Market (Wiley Finance)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

After reading Mr. Ware's book, I found his writing style to be witty and concise. However, his book is not at all practical or useful as an investment guide. As a professional money manager, I didn't think that the book had good enough concepts in it to warrant "Beating the Market". Definitely not in the same class as, say, Warren Buffett's annual reports and his letters to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway.

I seriously doubt that applying the concepts in this book will be helpful in "beating the market", especially the S&P 500 index, which has consistently beaten approximately 80% of all actively-managed mutual funds.

This book makes a nice attempt at relating psychology to finance but falls short, in my opinion, by falling back into common sense generalities that should already be known, without having to read this book, by those hoping to profit in the markets.

This book does not stand out in any fashion other than as a forum for the author to show off his anecdotal tales of philosophy and finance.

I found nothing concrete to implement for my investment style. And the exercises to expand my "mental boundries" for unique thinking, seemed like rehashed, rhetorical self-help.

There was little correlation between the title and the content; again reminding us that one should not judge a book by it's cover.

... making you aware of your own/your clients' biases and giving you practical tools to defuse them. Specifically, by way of example, money managers (I am one) will learn to:

- recognize their own typical behavior, or that of colleagues or clients, as belonging to one of several psychological types ... - thereby stopping short of saying/doing stupid things and also circumventing problems at the workplace; - identify actions that will boost behavior that you or your firm seem to lack: creativity, focus, a will to use analytical skills, etc; - identify industry mantras ("team approach", etc) for what they are or identify actions that transform a mantra into action

Overall, I agree with the other reviewers that this book is a surprise, a very positive one. Basically it convinced me that every money manager should have, packed with his/her baggage of technical skills and intelligence (standard and "emotional"), also some psychological training. This book goes some way towards such education.

I am uncomfortable with a couple of Ware's ideas, particularly the "listen to intuition" advice towards the end of the book. As an "owl" I would be inclined to say this, but basically I met too many fakers who would justify rash investment moves only on intuition and long-running experience, lose money or fail to recognize the moment to take profit, and never talk about it afterwards. Intuition may come before analysis, but if it cannot be supported by reasoning I don't see that it should be followed; as a matter of practice you won't be able to anyway, because first you have to sell it to clients, team members, or bosses, and you won't.

But stars measure how good is the book, not how much I agree with it, and this one is great. I'm serious, buy it. Even more so if you don't believe in the psych stuff: do violence unto yourself, buy it now and read it, you'll need it more than others do.

This book was a pleasant suprise. The title sounds a bit dry, but the writing is engaging and funny. As a professional investor, I found the chapters on people's different attitudes towards money and investing very interesting and useful. Especially in relating to my clients. Best of all, the author provides practical suggestions for each concept that he introduces. I highly recommend this book for professional and amature investors alike. Neal Scheyer Professional Trader

I know Jim Ware, and he knows I love to read. So when his book was published he offered to send a copy. Sitting next to me was a large pile of "to-be-read" books, so I was certain a book for investment managers would reside near the bottom for a long while. That was then...

Shortly after it arrived, knowing that reading diverse topics offers insights not available if I stick to the familiar and friendly, I began to read. What a shock (no offense Jim). This is a wonderful book! Even before I was finished, I found myself referring to it in a conversation about different methodologies for strategic planning...totally unrelated to investments. By using Myers-Briggs Typology, Jim gave me a renewed sense for how I can be more successful when I approach others based on what makes them comfortable, rather than from my own comfort zone.

Jim obviously shares my interest in synthesizing diverse subject areas. He, quite naturally I thought, shows how wisdom from quantum physics, large scale change, eastern thought, creativity and-god help those analytical investment types-spirituality can lead to new ways of thinking within any profession. Jim offers a wonderful synthesis for anyone who wants to see the world from several leading-edge vantage points.

And, I loved Jim sense of humor. Near the end, he implies that many investment managers take the "fun" out of fund. I began to wonder if fund is the past tense of fun? Thank you Jim for this enjoyable journey.

"Jim Ware has a great knack for understanding people and understanding successful investing. This unusual combination of skills creates a rare find: useful insights to improving investment performance through helping people work together better. Jim 's wit and humor make this a fun read as well!"

As a professional investor I found this book very useful. I think the author is dead-on when he says the competitive edge in the markets is self-knowledge. He makes it easy and entertaining, with his sense of humor, to accomplish self-diagnosis and improvement. The chapters on how people relate to money are very useful for dealing with clients and colleagues. Highly recommend this book.

As a die hard Index fund fan, I would disagree with the author's book title that it is possible to beat the Index year after year. However, the author's unusual mix of Myers-Brigg people type categorization plus investing was an interesting read. I gained the most from this book from the author's thoughts and stories about the creative thinking process more than anything else. Enjoyable book to read, but not sure his techniques can be practically applied by an investor.