Use The News: How To Separate the Noise from the Investment Nuggets and Make Money in Any Economy (Hardcover)

by Maria Bartiromo (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Virtually everyone tuned into the stock market during the past few years is plugged into CNBC, and virtually everyone plugged into CNBC is familiar with Maria Bartiromo. Striking, articulate, and always at the center of the cable station's Wall Street action, Bartiromo has become a welcome source of fiscal authority through incisive but accessible daily TV appearances that stretch from the early morning Squawk Box to late afternoon's Market Wrap. Many viewers may think that her take on each day's events, and long-range perspective based upon them, are derived from years of academic study and exclusive inside tips. Not so, Bartiromo claims in Use the News. She says average investors can also separate the noise from the news and guide themselves to more profitable portfolios. In clear prose--like the direct language she employs on TV--Bartiromo shares the ideas and expertise of some of the Street's top executives, money managers, and analysts, explaining how the markets and financial-news machines really work and describing ways anyone can gather and assess useful data. "In this book, I'll expand on what I already do in my broadcasts: namely, level the playing field so that individual investors have the same information, understanding, and chances of success as the professionals," she writes. Fans, and even nonfans, should enjoy it. --Howard Rothman

From Publishers Weekly
With the stock market tumbling, investors who can efficiently sift through all the available financial information will have the best sense of how a stock will perform, claims Bartiromo. After all, that's what she does every day as an anchor for CNBC's Street Signs and Market Wrap, as a featured reporter on the cable channel's popular Squawk Box segment and as producer and host of Market Week with Maria Bartiromo. In a friendly, hands-on style, she offers readers a view of the stock market (both the big picture and various market sectors) from her vantage point as a reporter on the floor of the NYSE. No "math whiz," Bartiromo is adamant that understanding the market requires nothing more than "common sense and doing your homework." Relying on analysis from investment pros, corporate chiefs, dozens of excellent Web sites (ranging from those that carry breaking news about corporate events to government sites that store reams of meaningful data), faxes, e-mails and phone calls, Bartiromo demonstrates firsthand how she focuses on real-time, relevant data, analyzes what it does (and doesn't) say and puts the distilled information into context. Most important, Bartiromo reminds investors that they shouldn't rely on or always believe what they hear about a stock on television or read on the Internet without first doing some research of their own, even if the source is CNBC's star financial personality. (June)Forecast: Readers will find Bartiromo's voice of reason as appealing on the page as on the small screen. With a 25-city national radio campaign and a 15-city NPR syndicated feature, this book is bound for the business bestseller lists.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: HarperBusiness; 1st edition (June 5, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0066620864
• ISBN-13: 978-0066620862
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #709,564 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars It's what the book DOESN'T say that counts., October 17, 2001

By A Customer

Maria Bartiromo is not a money manager. She's a reporter, and one without any real insights of her own. After all, this is the woman who, when asked if the market was in danger of crashing about a year ago, blithely replied that in the Internet age, a correction that used to take 2 years to complete could be over in 2 weeks. But don't blame poor Maria. She was probably just repeating what somebody told her the day before.

So if she doesn't have insights of her own, what exactly did she put into this book? Mostly comments by other people. In fact more than half of the book consists of lengthy quotations from Maria's Wall Street cronies. But what sort of people cozy up to the media on Wall Street? Why, it's the marketing and PR people of course. So there you have it. It's no accident that so much of the book was devoted to relentless name-dropping. After all this book is mostly a marketing campaign for Maria and her friends on the Street.

That doesn't mean that everything in the book is false. In fact, most things said in the book are true. But as with most marketing campaigns, the problem is not what they tell you, but what they DON'T tell you. The used car salesman may not outright lie to you, he just won't mention that the transmission has been rebuilt. So don't expect any deep, incisive expose of Wall Street practices in this book. When people talk to a reporter, they won't say anything that's bad for their firm. When a reporter writes a book, she wouldn't say anything that makes her sources look bad.

What's in this book is also in many other books. Save your money.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A terrible book ..., December 16, 2001

By	Mark Van Dine (Hingham, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Simply another marketing exercise of tying a book, any book, to an attractive face with some media exposure to make some quick money. Not much difference between this and a Life Philosophy book by Vanna White or a biography of Britney Spears. The content is basic new investor instruction that you can find done better and for free at Web sites like Motley Fool and others. Very badly organized with lots of extraneous material ... this book is at least two rewrites away from an acceptable first effort. Look elsewhere, friend.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Stop...don't buy this book., August 1, 2001

By A Customer

I had read many of the negative reviews for this book, but decided to ignore them and picked up the book in an airport bookstore (that's right, a full price book store...ouch!). What a waste of money. You guys were right, and I should have listened to you. You guys who wrote the congratulatory reviews must be friends of Maria's because you couldn't have read this book.

Just to show I am a complete follower, I also read Navigate the Noise by Bernstein as suggested in one of the other reviews of Maria's book. Nav the Noise is a much much more helpful book.

So, I'm one for two.