Customer Reviews

Sold Short : Uncovering Deception in the Markets

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I have no problem with the theory of short-selling although many investors do. I'm not a big believer that shorts squeeze companies nearly as much as long investors like to claim so I hoped to learn from the source.

Frankly, I'm disappointed for two reasons. First of all, Mr. Asensio doesn't really give good examples of selling short stock as an investment strategy EXCEPT as it relates to small overly promoted fraudulent stocks. I had hoped to learn financial analysis of when a stock should be shorted. Instead, this book focuses only on overly hyped companies run by stock promoters. Fair enough. But the positions in these smaller companies would be much harder to short. In addition, Mr. Asensio may have the time to study the small stocks and uncover these unethical stocks, but it's really not pertinent to the average investor and therefore had minimal value to me.

My second problem with the book is the grandioise self-serving nature of the narrative. Ok, the writer is from Cuba, works his way into the investing business but never feels like he's part of the "club". So he sticks it in their ear by being a short seller. But there is always an explanation about the bad things said about him. And in the last chapter, he attempts to explain away the securities violations he has been charged with and agreed to pay.

This book starts ok but quickly gets very boring and has nothing of value for a person trying to learn about short-selling. I wouldn't recommend this book unless you have a specific interest in bogus stock promotions.

This book covers the anatomy of various stock promotions and it takes no prisoners. It implicates company managements', brokers, analysts, the financial press, the government regulators, the industry's self-regulators, and the corporate finance departments of all firms issuing stock to the public. It is dead-on accurate and a wonderful addition to the rich trove of books on Wall Street. Asensio provides an invaluable service to the public by going through the mechanics of short selling, street name stock, stock held in safe keeping, rule 504 Reg. D, Rule 144 and 145, accounting artifices, offshore rules and manipulations, and all the other techniques that shysters, and those who merely want to mislead you until times and circumstances improve, use. Too often you the investor end up as the sheep and the other guys have the shears and not so coincidentally your money.

If the SEC wanted to do something productive instead of engaging in its ponderous, bureaucratic, expensive, ham-handed approach to protecting small investors through policing capital markets, it should require that this book be sent at government expense to everyone who opens an account with a brokerage firm. It should also run ads in as many financial publications as possible so that the widest number of investors will have a chance to learn of its existence. The government wastes enormous amounts of money trying to find solutions to problems in a "trade-off of risks" world. Why not cut to the chase and opt for efficiency?

Speaking as someone who once wrote a white paper on how stock frauds are perpetrated, for a famous financial letter writer, I will tell you that this is without a doubt the best book on the subject. All stock brokers should have it as required reading in their training classes and they should be tested on it with some kind of an essay examination, perhaps 25-50 pages.

The SEC gleans correctly that many people lose their money betting on stocks because they want to hit a home run or to get rich quick. This isn't news it's why Las Vegas has so much traffic. It's why people bet the ponies, that and the addictive emotional rush it provides. But for the thinking man, who's a bit of a dreamer and an idealist, this book would save vast sums of time, money, anguish and agonizing self-reappraisal.

Full disclosure was the raison d'ętre for one of the two principle securities acts enacted in the early 30's by the FDR administration. It was meant to curb stock market abuses perpetrated in the 20's such as stock manipulations aided by "pools" of managed money. This private management of particularly small investor money later reappeared as the heavily regulated mutual funds industry. This spawned the mutual fund holding company act of 1940, and so on and so forth. Since that time we have seen the rise in power of the SEC, the NASD and of the various state securities commissioners. At every step the promoters find new ways to shear the sheep as regulators are always behind the curve. Like all regulators they calculate the cost of investor risk, but fail to calculate the cost of their regulatory policies. This book does what they should be doing. They should "contract out" to guys like Asensio who would then be provided financial incentive to do this job government can't efficiently and effectively do.

If you're a contemplative investor this is a must read. Buy it.

This book hits hard, naming names, dates, and connections. After reading this you will wonder why these people that are detailed in the book are not in jail. For the most part, historical info as detailed in the book is still available. I went to the SEC site and looked up 4 of the mentioned companies and whoa, all the filings are there. Read them yourself, they are free to the public. There are companies out there who make nothing, sell nothing, and their only source of income is selling (scamming) stock. Asensio unmasks a few of them and it's like stirring up a hornet's nest.
The book itself is fun and reads like a mystery, you don't get bored. He has some personal history which explaines where he came from. He does do a little cheerleading but it should be expected. Asensio and his small crew take on the Giants of Wall Street, wage battle, and sometime win. Along with "The Predators Ball" this book is a must read for new or experienced stock investors.

I do not necessarily think that Asensio's style of shorting stocks is appropriate for most people, but this book is FANTASTIC. I seriously include it in my list of top 10 all time favorite investment related books. Why? Because Asensio is a master at discovering and exposing companies. This book provides valuable insight on how you can avoid such companies as well as how they accomplish their dirty work. The case studies are absolutely hilarious and make very enjoyable reading. In short, I highly recommend this book and I think you will gain valuable insight from it. Anyone giving the book a negative review has probably lost money on any of the dozens of scam companies Asensio has exposed.

What makes this a fun read is the "rogues gallery of thugs, schemers , and goofballs" who are running stock market scams, and who vociferously object to Asensio's activities. Stock scams tend to attract hysterical promoters with a flair for the dramatic. I particularly enjoyed the little details - the guy who shows up in court in a dress, the threatening emails, the Maria Bartiromo connection. What makes it exciting is Asensio's own precarious finances - he could go broke at any minute as he is hit with lawsuits and stock price manipulation that hurts the values of his holdings.

This guy is certainly not afraid of making enemies - his targets range from major investment banks to the SEC to Christie Todd Whitman - and, OK, I admit he seems a bit paranoid at times. I'm also puzzled a bit by his faith in the efficient markets hypothesis - he says he doesn't believe in short squeezes because they don't reflect fundamental values, yet it seems to me the whole point of the book is that stocks can be overpriced.

This book is one of the best investment books I have read. Being more of a technical trader with some respect for the fundamentals, Mr. Asensio reminded me when these so called "fundamental facts" did matter: When they are material and purposefully ignored, misrepresented or talked down by the company or sell-side analysts. I would suggest every investor, novice or professional should read this book. I don't agree with the review stating that it is badly written. It took me two days to finish 250+ pages. Again, if you really want to understand who are the "one reader"s who voted 1 star and laid their unrooted and obscure blaming on Ansensio, read the book! Even the reviews on the book took a different color...

My original hope when picking this book up from the library was to learn about shorting stocks. Unfortunately Manuel Asensio's book is written on a level where few people can even relate. Mr. Asensio speaks in a language that only very experienced stock shorters can even understand. Whereas some of Asensio's use of language is a bit colorful, he writes wildly about all these key names like his audience is completely familiar with unknown CEO's from unknown companies. Why not talk about some of the big time tech stocks that tanked in the early 2000's like Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, and the late Enron? I actually stopped reading this book midway because of the incessant name dropping.

There are a few pages where Ansensio talks about stock shorting basics and how he started in the business. Maybe if Ansensio related to a wider audience, this book would hae a good reputation. Like this he merely talks how he uncovers terrible fraud and should be viewed as a champion of justice. Mr. Ansensio, you need a big time reality check.

I have been following Asensio since the Solv-Ex scandal. A friend of mine tried to convince me to invest in Solv-Ex. I found Asensio on when I started to research the stock.

I never invested in Solvex because of Asensio. My friend lost about 100K.

This man is brilliant. He has been incredibly accurate. He is living proof that the effecient market theory is impossibly wrong.

The interesting thing to note is the venom that is railed against him. Read these reviews on Amazon!

Asensio's current short pick is KFx. KFx has a ratio of stock price to company sales of over 1,200. Its revenue in the past four quarters was about $950,000, and the stock market values the company at over $1 billion.

Do the math. This man is a market hero.

I wish I would have read this book a decade ago. This book really taught me to be skeptical of hyperbole. This is yes mainly an investing book but people from all walks of life could benefit from being more skeptical and learning to do their own research! The authors of this book are funny too! Such a great book!!

As a Wall Street professional, I found Sold Short to be quite interesting and informative. It's obvious that Asencio does his research well on the stocks he shorts. The story on Solv-Ex was terrific; it really shows how crooked some of these market players really are! There is also a good section on the techniques involved in actually selling a stock short. The only criticism is that Acensio tends to boast about his successes, and gloss over failures (although to be fair, he does mention one company which did not work out for him). Overall, a great read!