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Didn’t Like It “[I finished reading ‘the selfish gene’ before this book. http://www.amazon.com/Selfish-Gene-Richard-Dawkins/dp/0192860925. This is a fascinating book with a lot of interesting information but unfortunately I did not agree with the core message of the book. L] |
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“[I finished reading ‘the selfish gene’ before this book. http://www.amazon.com/Selfish-Gene-Richard-Dawkins/dp/0192860925. This is a fascinating book with a lot of interesting information but unfortunately I did not agree with the core message of the book. L]
Harry Deshpande wrote this review Monday, February 2 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I picked up ‘The education of a speculator’ (http://www.amazon.com/Education-Speculator-Victor-Niederhoffer/dp/0471249483) by Victor Niederhoffer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Niederhoffer) after reading a reference in a book by Taleb.
The book should be of interest to any day trader or a trader who holds stocks over a very short period of time like 2-3 days.
The book starts and ends with a supposedly normal day in the day of a speculator. It is like a complete Matrix movie fit inside four pages. Your blood pressure is certainly going to shoot up reading the beginning and end.
What lies in between is a bit of a disappointment.
It is very obvious that the author is not a very accomplished writer and there is no systematic way to advance the story line of the book. It does feel like author is writing about anything that is coming to his mind. L
The first 200 pages are mostly about the upbringing of the author and the author has tried to draw some parallels between his early education and his speculative style. (The verbiage about the upbringing continues till the end of the book and gets quite boring)
I had to turn 200 pages before I could see some nuggets of information. However, if you are looking to gain any tricks of trade then you will be disappointed. Further, do not bother reading this book if you play on ‘technicals’.
However, this book has reinforced my decision not indulge in commodities,currencies and foreign market. This is a 24 hour 365 days business that will suck the life out of any normal human being.
The only secret the author has revealed is that he trades on the basis of complex inter-relations. A paragraph from the book:
‘A typical move in US stocks might start like this. The US bond market goes up, perhaps because Tom Baldwin, the largest bond floor trader, has detected some weak shorts with stops one or two ticks above the market. The dollar follows. The US stock market immediately rises because of the increased value of US earnings with the lower interest rates. The high-grade copper, a primary industrial metal, moves up in anticipation of greater investment spending. The Japanese stock market drops because US assets are now becoming more attractive to foreigners. But this makes gold decline because inflation is likely to be lower with a strong dollar. With inflation down, something has to be less attractive. It is time for meats, grains and soft commodities to recede because there will be less purchasing power left for them. But if European and Japanese assets are going to decline, soon they will pull down the U.S. stock market. And the cycle will be ready to reverse. All this in a minute or two, 10 or 12 times a day.
The author mentions that he tracks around 175 – 200 such links and also warns that the links are changing quite frequently.
This book has quite a few references to George Soros and I am not very curious about this personality.
My next dozen odd books on the reading list are all about speculation/investing and about half of them are written by George Soros. But first I am going to finish another book from the same author.
Regards
Harry
Ps: The author mentions to interesting episodes
1987: The US secretary of state warns Germany that US is not going to support dollar unless Germany is ready to reduce trade surplus. Dollar drops all of a sudden and stock market crashes.
1994: US-Japan come up with a face saving deal to reduce Japanese trade surplus and stock market rebounded.
Are we going to see a repition of history? If yes, then which one of the above? J
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