Success and Survival on Wall Street - by Charles W Smith (Paperback)

About the Book

The author granted some of the most famous insiders on Wall Street the protection of anonymity in order to procure their deepest and most frank views on the operation of the market. This book paints a startling portrait of how the prejudices of six different types of players_f...

Book Synopsis

The author granted some of the most famous insiders on Wall Street the protection of anonymity in order to procure their deepest and most frank views on the operation of the market. This book paints 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 market. Smith explains how new trends interact with these psychologies and draws a remarkable picture of how market behavior is inherently more human than technical.

Review Quotes

Charles Smith x-rays the reasoning behind the behavior of professionals that investors encounter as they navigate the market. Mercilessly stripping away the rhetoric, he gives a spare yet clear and revealing account of six fundamental ways of thinking, and advises investors on how to cope with the sales strategies that correspond to them. An eye-opener for the legions bewildered by their investment advisers, or for any who simply want to understand the 'mind of the market.'

In his deeply ironic analysis, Charles Smith shows us that the highly specialized milieux of securities markets resemble life in general; mysterious in some ways, unpredictable in other ways, intimately dependent on socially created stories in every regard, yet centered on mundane transactions of sale and purchase. What's more, Smith relates the market's operation to the everyday activities of its uncertain, often worried participants.

My absolute favorite new investment book should be read by anyone eager to make a million in the market, Success and Survival on Wall Street: Understanding the Mind of the Market. . . . Smith has come up with a taxonomy of the Wall Street species.

Smith's book is a representative of a rare genre: sociology books useful to the general reader.

About the Author

Charles W. Smith is professor and chair of sociology at Queens College, CUNY. The Mind of the Market, his earlier work, was an Alternative Selection of the Book of the Month Club and Fortune Book Club. Market Values in American Higher Education, Smith's next work, is due out in the Spring of 2000.