This book takes the reader on an insider’s tour of the psychology of stock market investing. In more than 3,000 hours of interviews and observations, Smith granted some of the most famous insiders on Wall Street the protection of anonymity to procure their deepest and most frank views on the operation of the market. Their words are heard here in vivid and often surprising detail. What emerges is a startling portrait of how the prejudices of six different types of players—fundamentalists, insiders, cyclists, traders, efficient market believers, and transformational idea adherents—influence the ups and downs of the market. Smith explains how new trends, such as computer trading and mutual and retirement fund investing, interact with these psychologies—drawing a remarkable picture of how market behavior is inherently more human than technical.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
An update of The Mind of the Market (1981), this book provides an intriguing look at the different ways that "true believers"--salesmen, investors, and market cynics--view, interpret, and evaluate the ambiguity of the market. Smith (sociology, City Univ. of New York) includes practical advice on how to build your knowledge of market conditions and 32 questions that investors should ask brokers before taking their advice on investment decisions. Extensively revised to reflect changes in the marketplace--including additional investment options and the rise of NASDAQ, computers, and networked communications as dominant forces in both domestic and international markets--this is a unique resource that should find avid readers in both academic and public libraries.
-Norman B. Hutcherson, Kern Cty. Lib., Bakersfield, CA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
-Norman B. Hutcherson, Kern Cty. Lib., Bakersfield, CA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Assuming that stock market values can be evaluated by individual players who harbor particular investment philosophies, Smith (Sociology/Queens College, CUNY) breaks down the putative mind of the market and reassembles it, all to little point. Smith revisits The Mind of the Market, a study he did two decades ago, and some of its archetypes. Forget the traditional, analytical divisions of technicians and fundamentalists. It's not that simple. Smith reintroduces us to his Fundamentalist, his Insider, his Cyclist-Chartist, and his Trader. New to his cast are an Efficient Market Believer and Enhancer and a Transformational Idea Adherent. The strict views of these True Believers, as Smith calls them, are distributed, in various proportions, among those who trade in the market. The salespeople are also personified by prototypes who are, we are assured, real stockbrokers whose names have been changed. These characters may, indeed, be more familiar to those who socialize, for whatever reason, with registered reps. Smith discourses at length about the ways both cynics and faithful followers of cash or crowds experience the market. (Contrarians are dismissed as reverse followers, not True Disbelievers.) The exemplars upon which Smith constructs his study are, of course, no more than prototypes, stuffed into his academic matrix. But ``it is useless,'' he concedes, ``to select one orientation, one logic, or one purpose and to ignore the others.'' If the market, after this exercise, still seems complex and confusing, well, that's the way it seems to those on the trading floors, too. If the characterizations are of slight value, the concluding avuncular adviceunderstand your investments, limit your losses, ride your winners and stick with market orderswill be more practical. The sociologists view of the market is novel, but don't expect to become a master of the universe, or even of your neighborhood, by using the insights it professes to reveal. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
It is a useless book,
By A Customer
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Success and Survival on Wall Street: Understanding the Mind of the Market (Hardcover)
I lost myself after reading this book. It is definately useless book to me. I regret I bought it which was purely based on the 5 stars review. I don't even know if the writer really understand the market. I think the author wrote this one purely because he wants to creat a book. I doubt if the author knows what he wrote. This book will waste our money and time.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Book on Wall Street,
By A Customer
This review is from: Success and Survival on Wall Street: Understanding the Mind of the Market (Hardcover)
This updated version of Charles W. Smith's book is one of the best, if not the best book on Wall Street I have ever read. I say this an investment professional with 25 years of experience, who has "Survived" and sometimes "Succeeded" on Wall Street.After reading this book, I understood my own world better, as well as what drives "The mind of the market." You can not go wrong with this book. This is a tip you should not ignore.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Success and Survival on Wall Street: Understanding the Mind,
By A Customer
This review is from: Success and Survival on Wall Street: Understanding the Mind of the Market (Hardcover)
Business Week, January 31, 2000, p. 20, in reviewing a score of new stock market says "My absoute favorite new investment book should be read by anyone eager to make a million in the market,and its author is no one you've heard of. Success and Survival on Wall Street: Understanding the Mind of the Market by Queens College sociologist Charles W. Smith... How..? By taking in Smith's insight....'You don't have to be a genius to survive on Wall Street, you just have to avoid being a fool.' This is a serious book clearly worth reading
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