Riding the Bear: Reap Huge Gains by Recognizing a Bear or Bull Market [Paperback]

Sy Harding (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1999

Over the last 100 years there have been 29 serious stock market corrections, with declines averaging 31.6%. There were ten in which the declines averaged 49.4%. In those, investors lost half of their invested assets. Yet, in the upside of every cycle, the endurance of the bull market transports investors into a state of confidence where they believe this time will be different. The record-breaking bull market of the 1990s certainly has had that effect, the excitement enticing investors into the market as never before, carrying them away on a euphoric wave of confidence that they've discovered something new, a risk-free money machine.

History shows otherwise. Eighty percent of public investors wind up losing money in the stock market over the long term, because few emerge financially intact from the periodic bear markets. Riding the Bear is aimed at ending that vicious cycle for its readers. It explains clearly why bear markets are inevitable, why the next one is just around the corner, and will be the longest and most severe since 1929.

But Riding the Bear is not just about bear markets. Readers learn how to maximize profits in a bull market, and unlike buy and hold investors, keep those profits, and go on to make more in bear markets. It introduces a simple, mechanical system, discovered during the research, that over the last 35 years would have almost tripled the gain of a buy and hold strategy, and with half the risk. It should work for the next 35 years.

Riding the Bear also reveals the truth about Wall Street, its misleading propaganda and deceptions, and teaches its readers to be street smart. As subscribers to Sy Harding's Street Smart Report have come to expect, Riding the Bear tells it like it is, in plain English. Just two chapters "Public Investors versus Wall Street" and "What Causes Bear Markets" are more than worth the price.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Thanks to the exciting bull market of the 1990s, there are now more than 40 million investors in the U.S., and they have far and away more money, and a higher percentage of their net worth at risk in the market than ever before in history. Unfortunately, 85% of that money flowed into the market in just the last five years, and so has never experienced a bear market or anything like a bear market. Most of those new investors are not only unprepared, but are unaware of what they will inevitably face at some point, sooner rather than later. I fear for them. And I despair in the knowledge that a book by an unknown author will reach so relatively few of them. I hope readers will help spread the word of its value. Shakespeare or a John Grisham novel it is not. But honest, outspoken, and unafraid to tromp on Wall Street's self-serving propaganda it is. Riding the Bear will be a virtual life jacket for those it reaches.

About the Author

Sy Harding is the founder and president of Asset Management Research Corp., which has been providing stock market research to institutions and serious investors for 12 years. He publishes Sy Harding's Street Smart Report, an investment advisory newsletter. Mr. Harding has been consistently ranked in the "Top 10 Market Timers in the U.S.", compiled by Timer Digest, and is frequently quoted in the financial media.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Adams Media Corporation (March 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580621546
• ISBN-13: 978-1580621540
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #232,947 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Should have been titled "Dodging the Bear", April 19, 2005

By 

Eric Rachner "[e-mail]" (Seattle, Washington, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Riding the Bear: Reap Huge Gains by Recognizing a Bear or Bull Market (Paperback)

This book is all about avoiding bearish turns in bull markets, and not, as the title claims, about profiting from bear markets.

While the first half of the book is full of substantial and enlightening advice about reducing risk in bull markets, Harding offers only a meager 10 pages or so of light commentary on tools for profiting in down markets, namely short-selling and put options.

Having introduced short-selling and put options, he quickly abandons the subject, with barely a word of advice on how long to hold a short position, and not one word of guidance on executing an options trade.

If you want to learn how to avoid bear turns in bull markets, this book is worth the price.

But if you want to learn how to execute profitable options trades and short sales in a bear market, you won't find this book helpful.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Should be a PART of your library, October 30, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Riding the Bear: Reap Huge Gains by Recognizing a Bear or Bull Market (Paperback)

Riding the Bear is half good. There is useful perspective information on the history of the markets, how they tend to cycle, and some very interesting measurements of bear and bull runs. The sordid past of Wall Street brokers gets a good airing. For a long term perspective on the importance of watching your investments closely, it gets 5 stars.

Unfortunately, it falls down hard when it comes to specifics of how to deal with a bear market. The ideas put forth to time the market rely heavily on backtesting theories and seasonality. "If you followed this plan, you would have made X percent over 20 years instead of only Y". This may work in the future, or it may set you up for big disappointment. The methods of selecting stocks to short is also simplistic and dangerous. I give it zero stars for this aspect. I think the markets are too dynamic to rely on backtesting any timing theory.

There are also plenty of graphs in here, but Mark Twain's statement that there are lies, damn lies and statistics holds true. Some of the most important graphs are incomplete, and give a misleading impression. The most glaring is the Market Cap to GDP measure. I found another version of this graph, and the full graph is not so clear an indicator. The selective use of statistics is a turn off in this case.

Read this book, but only to compare it to other perspectives. Don't think you are going to rule Wall Street by spending $11 on this paperback.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Stock Market Book I Have Ever Read; Dynamic!, April 29, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Riding the Bear: Reap Huge Gains by Recognizing a Bear or Bull Market (Paperback)

Sy Harding's book contains stock market strategies that will prevent you from being a victim (and about 80% of investors do poorly in the market). Many investing books are written by successful and well-known market mavens yet they are often hard to read and their major points murky (Tom Dorsey's 1995 "Point and Figure Charting" is essentially unreadable ...). Not so here. Hardings book is very well-written and complete. It was written in 1999, he warned of a huge bear market coming. Historical perspective is given to show how old man Kennedy and others financially raped the small investor on repeated occasions ... Hardings clearcut explanation of the seasonal effect (buy around Nov 1 and sell around May 1)is noteworthy. Stockcharts dot com provides the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) line info for free, that Sy wrote about. Every small investor needs this book. Sy has a site in his own name that is worthy of your viewing. Can't think of a better gift for an investor than this book.