The Big Win: Learning from the Legends to Become a More Successful Investor [Hardcover]

Stephen L. Weiss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2012

A rousing and practical look at the extremely successful investments of top investors

In his first book, The Billion Dollar Mistake, author Stephen L. Weiss showcased the biggest blunders of some of the world's legendary investors—which lost them billions of dollars on a single investment. Incredibly, the mistakes they made were the same mistakes made by everyday investors but for the magnitude of the loss.

Weiss's second book, The Big Win: Learning from the Legends to Become a More Successful Investor, highlights financial successes, explaining how the world's most successful investors make a fortune and how you can do the same. As with the missteps Weiss profiled in his first book, the strategies used by these legendary investors are available to all, regardless of size or sophistication.

• Profiles legendary investors and highlights their investment strategies—from finding the right investment to researching to making a move
• Probes each investor's personality and questions their investment thinking
• Identifies and describes each investor's "big win" and why it became their most successful investment

The Big Win is a primer on successful investing the way it is really done by the people who do it for a living—passionately and with extraordinary success. The Billion Dollar Mistake told readers what not to do to get rich; The Big Win shows readers how to do it right for the payoff of their lives.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

In his first book, The Billion Dollar Mistake, Stephen L. Weiss explored the surprisingly pedestrian blunders of billionaire investors to show the rest of us how to avoid making the same mistakes. Now, in The Big Win: Learning from the Legends to Become a More Successful Investor, he's back, looking at the successes—rather than the failures—of another group of living legends to show you how to make use of their unique strategies to improve your own returns.

Diverse in their backgrounds, each one of the investors profiled in the book triumphed by drawing on their personal strengths and transforming them into fortune-building wisdom. Weiss highlights the investment acumen and strategies that allowed these exceptional individuals to excel and details their biggest wins, focusing on those that most clearly illustrate their distinctive investing styles.

Incorporating end-of-chapter "takeaways" that succinctly summarize the key lessons to be learned from each story, The Big Win is designed to help readers from all backgrounds and levels of experience understand the qualities that make an investor great, and how to apply the strategies of these luminaries to your investing career. Packed with advice that can be applied to any asset class, the book distills the most important achievements of true investment superstars into exciting and endlessly inspiring stories that you can easily relate to and apply to your financial pursuits to attain greater success. Drawing on the lives of men and women who made their fortunes not only in the stock market, but also in real estate, commodities, and high-yield bonds, The Big Win is an anthology of the incredible stories of true pioneers who transcended race, gender, and class to become investment legends, and what you can learn from their experiences.

From the Back Cover

Praise for The Big Win

"If you want to create wealth, understand how the smartest investors in the world do it. And to learn from the best, then get the best to speak candidly about their investment strategies. That's what Stephen Weiss did in The Big Win, a truly fascinating read that details these legendary investors' winning strategies in stocks, bonds, and real estate."
—Larry Kudlow, Host of CNBC's The Kudlow Report

"Winning . . . that's what Steve Weiss's The Big Win is all about. I have always thought that we can best succeed by learning from the best. And The Big Win—written in a straightforward and easily readable style—chronicles winners in varied fields who have demonstrated a similarity of drive, passion, process, equanimity, discipline, and humility in reaching rarefied heights that should serve as templates for anyone intent on becoming extraordinary."
—Douglas A. Kass, General Partner, Seabreeze Partners Management, Inc.

"Winners win. Stephen Weiss gets that because he's done it at the highest level of this game. His sell-side (Salomon Brothers) and buy-side (SAC Capital) experience contextualizes making successful investing a repeatable process."
—Keith McCullough, CEO, Hedgeye; author, Diary of a Hedge Fund Manager

"Mr. Weiss has written an introduction to alternative investments that has the very best—and very rarest—qualities of business writing, in that his book is educational, entertaining, and accessible all at the same time. Newcomers to the field of non-traditional investment styles will not be intimidated; while seasoned pros may well find new stories here that they can reflect upon to their profit."
—Alicia Ogawa, financial consultant; Senior Advisor, Center on Japanese Economy and Business, Columbia Business School

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 227 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (May 1, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470916109
• ISBN-13: 978-0470916100
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #774,913 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen L. Weiss is an active investor, public speaker and the author of UNHedged: A Novel About A Killing in the Market, released in December 2012. UNHedged, the author's first work of fiction, follows two extremely well accepted investment books: The Big Win: Learning from the Legends to Become a More Successful Investor (Wiley, 2012) and The Billion Dollar Mistake: Learning the Art of Investing Through the Missteps of Legendary Investors (Wiley, 2010). The Billion Dollar Mistake has been published in 5 languages and was named by Forbes as one of the top 5 investment books written in 2010. A veteran of more than 25 years on Wall Street, he has held senior management positions at Salomon Brothers, SAC Capital and Lehman Brothers, where he built Wall Street's #1 ranked sales force, in addition to co-founding a hedge fund. Weiss is a CNBC Contributor with a regular role on the Fast Money Halftime Report. Additionally, he frequently appears on Fast Money at 5 PM, the Closing Bell, and The Kudlow Report. He is also the Managing Partner and Founder of Short Hills Capital Partners, LLC.

Weiss maintains strong relationships with some of the industry's most highly regarded investment managers. During his tenure in research sales, he was responsible for developing investment ideas for many legendary investors including Soros Funds, Tiger Management, SAC Capital, where he subsequently worked, Omega Advisors and Kingdon Capital as well as many mutual funds.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Another Book Review from the Aleph Blog June 5, 2012

By David Merkel

Format:Hardcover

I enjoyed reading this book, but I have some issues with it. First, let me say what I liked:

1) The author chose a number of different investors to make his point. They weren't all outside passive minority investors like most of us are. There were many that invested in whole companies, or, they were the company, and invested in incredible ventures.

2) He points out a number of significant successes and how they occurred, for seven investors.

3) He points out commonalities in the processes in the first two chapters and the epilogue.

4) He is a sharp observer of investment processes. He knows the game, as I do.

What I did not like:

1) Big successes are like snowflakes -- no two are alike. There was little to unify the successes of the book. Readers deserve a more unified theory of what leads to success.

2) The Chapter on Jimmy Rogers was weak. Aside from what he did with Soros, there is no indication that he has made significant money since then. No "Big Win" was recorded in the book.

3) With a few of the "Big Win" investors, it was difficult to tell whether they really had a "big win" or a moderate win. Some of the stories had nothing dramatic behind them.

4) There was little to integrate the disparate investors, despite the chapters that attempted it.

Though I liked the book, I found nothing compelling to make me love the book. I have read better books in this area.

Quibbles

Already expressed.

Who would benefit from this book: If you like a mostly unrelated set of investors that will not teach you an integrated set of ideas, you will find it here.

10 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great insight! April 16, 2012

By Michael J. McNamara

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've been in the investment industry for 20 years and tend to read many books, always looking for one that can help me both protect my clients' assets and generate positive returns. The Big Win by Stephen Weiss does both but what is so special about it is that it is also a page turner and I actually found it extremely entertaining and very well-written. It's rare to find an investment book that can both make you money and keep your interest. In fact one of the only others I can think of that did that was Mr. Weiss's first book.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of Time April 17, 2013

By Paul Jankins

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Its basically just a book Steve Weiss through together to make a quick buck. Each chapter is a brag story with a different Wall Street buddy that he probably heard while on the golf course or at the bar and then he throws in a half assed attempt of a moral to each story. Save or money and your time. The only big win in this book is whatever he makes off the book.