Customer Reviews

The Streetsmart Guide to Short Selling: Techniques the Pros Use to Profit in Any Market

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

 

 

If you are a professional regarding short selling, I suppose this book will not cut it. For the person getiing their feet wet, this book is very informative, and gives a good basic for shorting. Easy to understand and well written. Points you in the right direction. It does not fool you into thinking there is no homework to be done before you short.

Proofreading is critical, especially in a text where people will be risking money in the market. There are some very basic errors even before the book gets to the more difficult stuff:
Page 36:
"2500 shares of ABC at $10 = $5000
50 shares of XYZ at $10 = 2500"
(Obviously these are both wrong.)

Page 47:
"You short 100 shares of Great Drop at $100 per share. The stock hits $110...the next day you get a confirmation from your brokerage firm. It says you covered the stock at $11 and sustained a $100 loss."
By my calculations, if you bought 100 at $100 ($10,000 total) and covered the same 100 at $11 you would have an $8,900 GAIN ($10,000 - $1,100 = $8,900).

There are, however, many good ideas for targeting a potential short: insider trading, proxy information details, overvaluations, etc, as well as the risks involved: buy-in, short squeeze, no-borrow, IRS regulations, etc. If the text is reprinted and the errors fixed, it would be a good read...

With the problems in the markets -- which seem to just continue -- this book provides a way to make money. I always hear about short selling, such as on CNBC and the Wall Street Journal, but never hear any explanations. This book shows how to get started and how to deal with the pitfalls, such as the short squeeze. This is a very good book and highly recommended.

With the stock market plunging in 2008 and 2009, there has been a lot of talk about short selling. Most investors are only familiar with buying stocks long-term. This book gives a great introduction to short selling, but I will warn readers that this is just an introduction. The author discusses topics such as the uptick rule, short squeeze, short interest, and buy-ins. If you do not understand these terms, then you will benefit from this book.

I personally do not short stocks, but I wanted to learn about it to be more educated. The problem that I have with going short versus going long is that when I find an undervalued stock, and I buy it long with cash, I have the luxury of time. Even if the stock drops more than 50%, I can wait as long as I wish. With shorting, when the stock goes up a lot, an investor might get a margin call and be forced to cover even if in the end he or she is right. As far as educating readers on shorting, this book is excellent.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

Interesting read. I found the information on point for what I was researching. There are some distracting typos that made me reduce to a four star rating.

I was enticed by the first 2 chapters ... In summary, if you understand the basic of finance, just don't waste your money on this .... If you don't know finance, this book is a misguidance. Read the first 2 chapters and that's it.