Market-prices

The plot's been done to death, and much more effectively: A Starfleet vessel, in this case the Enterprise NX-01, caught up in a war between two species. This time around it is the Sarkassians and the Ta'alaat. Mind control, mysterious alien technology beyond the crew's comprehension and a crewmember, Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, racked with guilt. Yawn.

The text of the book makes several references to the Enterprise being approximately a year into its mission, which would place the story in 2152. Consequently I found it very trying to have a large bold chapter heading glaring at me every few minutes, with a date that places the events well before Enterprise even left earth.

Even if you can get past the cookie-cutter plot and conspicuous errors, it's hard to care what happens in What Price Honor?. The writing is stiff and flat. It is impossible to feel any empathy for the downtrodden Ta'alaat as you learn next to nothing about them. The aggressors, the Sarkassians, are easy to dislike, but that is based on the behavior of one particularly obnoxious ambassador. The whole story feels incomplete somehow, as if it was all written in a big rush without the author really thinking about it.

This book probably should rate a bit higher than three stars, but four would definitely be too high for it; it is a gripping action-adventure novel, with good characterization and an interesting plot, but it is really nothing out of the ordinary as Trek novels go (although it WAS nice to see a more in-depth look at Lt. Malcolm Reed, who is usually just a background character.)

On the down side, this is one of those novels that prominently contains a mystery that the reader sees coming by no later than chapter four, but that the characters just can't imagine the solution to until the very end. At least in this case it isn't because the characters are being portrayed as dolts, but simply because this sort of thing is not something one would expect in real life, but any reader of fantasy or science fiction knows that in a fictional story, it is very possible; still, even if their relative lack of speed on the uptake is not unreasonable, it still makes the story very frustrating for the reader.

I enjoyed reading this book, but I can't say that there was anything particularly spectacular about it that would make it stand out in the crowd of Star Trek books, other than the fact that it is (at this point) one of very few "Enterprise" novels. If you enjoy the show, or would like a good introduction to it, this book is certainly worth the read, as it is if you simply want a good, action-packed Star Trek novel. But if you want more than that, this isn't the book for you.

What Price Honor is a stand-out among Star Trek books. Unlike many, which simply fall into the ship stops at planet, crew sees problem, crew solves problem and saves planet mold, What Price Honor weaves an interesting tale, combining scenes from the near past, months earlier and present-day in to a cohesive story. We gradually learn more about how ensign Alana Hart dies as the near-past and present-day plot-lines advance.

We follow how Ensign Hart goes from a social recluse to finally having a romantic interlude with Malcolm and requesting a transfer right before her death. Complicataing matters is that this all represents "first contact" with the Sarkassians and Ta'alaat who are embroiled in a interplanetary war over ownership of technology from a now-extinct advanced society.

Malcolm & Captain Archer's desire to resolve what happened to Ensign Hart (who we later learn was actually killed by Malcolm) draws them deep into the thick of the inter-species conflict.

(...)This book is really great because it is somthing that us as readers can somewhat relate to. From "To Kill A Mockingbird" Atticus said that you never no someone until you get into their shoes and walk around in them. That's what this is like, if you play the game and then read the book then you begin to see yourself as Blair when you read the book and it isn't really Blair it's you who is doing all the action. In the book you can read what Blair is thinking and not just watch and see what he does which makes it a lot better. The novelization of a game can never be exact and I think that the auther did a good job because he made it exciting and he made it more relistic for the Wing Commander Universe that is based off of both the games and the books. If it really happened you would most likly not fly that many missions. I reccomend the book.

This is my favorite war book. I loved the games and the movie. It took me a while before I found out that there was a book series. I picked this book up and did not put it down until the third time through.

YOU MUST BUY THIS!!!

I remember playing the game with my Uncle back in '96. I remember thinking to myself then-"Hey wait this is the Admiral T. he can't betray the Confederation!!" Now I realize that this is what made the game better. The big bad leader of the human fleets has greed and ambition. As for the book I think it is the 2nd best wingcommander book with the exception of Action Stations. It really helped tie up some lose ends left in the game.

The real dillema regarding ERP is that the real ex-post ERP is irrationally different from the the ex-ante ERP required for CAPM valuations. Prof. Cornell does explore this issue well for a general audience. However, this book does not diminish my skepticism of CAPM equilibrium valuations and ex-ante ERP estimators.

The author, Professor Bradford Cornell, gives an analytical, yet very readable, explanation and forecast of the decline of the stock market during the past couple of years. In this regard Professor Cornell makes a similar conclusion about the value of equtiies and slightly earlier than did Robert J. Shiller in his book, Irrational Exuberance. It is unfortunate that Professor Cornell and his book did not get the same attention that was accorded to Professor Shiller at the start of the stock market decline.

The thesis of the book is that the equity risk premium for stocks, which is the compensation given to equity investors for holding shares of risky common stocks, was below, perhaps much below, what was historically normal. This implied that investors came to view common stocks as being a much less risky investment than stocks had been in the past. Indeed, a quite common view of many investors before the recent fall in the stock market was the view that common stock were an appropriate vehicle for "savings" rather than just for "investment." The implication of this perception by some investors is that equities in general were likely to continue to rise in price over time and thus represented a "safe" or at least low risk vehicle for discretionary income that was not spent.

However, periods of relative low perceived risk usually do not last and are followed by periods of relatively higher perceived risk. The current period we are now in appears to be one in which the uncertainties regarding the stock market have increased and thus investors are now demanding greater compensation, that is, a higher risk premium, for bearing those uncertainties.

The reason the book does not get five stars is that the book misspecifies the constant dividend growth model equation that forms the basis for the author's explanation of the adjustment in the equity risk premium. However, this oversight should not prevent the reader from getting a great explanation of how the prices of common stocks adjust to risks from this fine book.

This book, with its many references, is a great guide to the academic literature on stock valuation. It was easy to read, very logical, and educational.

"Predictable" might be a good word to summarize this book. "Repetitious" would be another. I thought, if Miss Abby tells one more person how much she wants to talk to somebody, I'll put the book down. Instead I found myself highlighting the instances, at least for a little while. There were many.

In related news, we learn (for the 50th time) that Eli doesn't talk at all, Obediah talks a lot, Laura Mabrey is helpful AND talkative, and Rosa Moon didn't talk before they hugged and became friends, but now she does. Thaddeus offers, within 3 sentences of their introduction, to talk to dear Miss Abby. Hooray!

Characterization is shallow. Plot - well, will she or won't she be able to talk to dear dependable Thad and find happiness? Let's guess.

It's grammatical, but beyond that hard to enjoy.

As an avid reader of Eugenia Price novels, I was very excited to read this novel. Unfortunately, I did not think that the Waiting Time held a candle to Price's previous works. I did not feel the strong connection to the characters in this book as I did with the characters in the St. Augustine trilogy or the Savannah quartet. Even at the end of the novel I did not feel that I truly knew the main character, Abby Banes. The story also did not flow as did Price's previous stories. It took too long for problems to be resolved and the love interest for Abby did not capture my heart as did Mark Browning in Savannah or David Fenwick in Maria. One can tell that this book was in fact the last effort of Ms. Price before she passed away in 1996. I will always read anything and eveything written by this brilliant woman, but if I were not such a big fan I would have been even more dissapopinted.

i have read almost everything she has written and each book has touch my heart. because of ms price i also have fallen love with her island an the people who lived there. this book like all the others is great. i visted the island in sept. its as peaceful as she said.

I do not recommend this book for the following reasons.

1) It could be summarized in 5 pages

2) Some of the assumptions used in the model are not valid

3) I tested the model and it does not work

4) few equations makes it difficult to follow at some points.

There are some major shortcomings in this book. Major ones include assuming that the change in the log of the price of a stock is a gaussian random variable and that day to day prices are not correlated. I tested this and it was not true in any of the cases I tried. The world is not gaussian and events are often correlated.

For purely academic reading, this book may be interesting, but I suggest that anyone doing so supplement their reading with some real-life statistics of their own.

If you aren't too familiar with statistics, this book will be a challenge. Nevertheless, it is a very valuable book, and will help you separate fact from fiction on wall street.

Good points: Learn how to use probability theory to determine the expected returns of a stock, its likelihood of profit (or loss), change in margins, etc. Of particular interest--learn how to estimate the standard deviation of a stock's returns by using its high and low prices. This can save some significant number crunching, and you can use another short-hand rule to estimate the annual standard deviation from daily, weekly, or monthly data.

Of special importance are the 5 laws of finance-especially law 2. Law 2 states simply: You cannot use historical percentage changes in growth to predict future changes (more technically, past percentage growth has no correlation to future growth). What does Wall Street try to do--predict future growth by past growth (William O'neil readers take note.) A history of rapid growth is no guarantee of future growth. Likewise, a history of poor growth is no guarantee of poor future performance. Maybe Ben Graham was right after all.

The one reviewer who said it is typical "technical analysis" must not have read the same book. The main premise is that stock prices follow a "random walk"--meaning you cannot use simple technical rules to predict future returns with any degree of accuracy.

The author also pokes some holes in the components of "efficient market theory" especially CAPM. Beta as a description of an individual stock's price moves is questioned.

Bad Points: The lognormal distribution was not explained in enough detail. This is a significant flaw, as the rest of the book requires understanding of this vital concept. Once you can get that, you will reap immense benefit from this book.

This is an excellent book for traders. It successfully uses probability analysis to predict market and stock fluctuations. Nevertheless, it is too sophisticated for the typical compulsive investor. I recommend this book for people who have an above average understanding of market forecasting.

A thoroughly enjoyable read for any fan of SG-1 but particularly new fans. One comes away from Ashley McConnell's fast-paced story hungry for more! I love how the author brings the characters to life: O'Neill's dry sense of humor, the true love for knowledge that drives Carter and Jackson. She outlines the basics of Stargate technology, the Goa'uld, and the SGC so new fans know the score but this is artfully woven into the story making it a great read for any fan. What are you waiting for...step through the Stargate and enjoy!

I think that this was a very good book. I have all three Stargate SG-1 books that were written by Ashley McConnell and I enjoyed all of them, including this one. They were all very well-written and had a lot of information about the characters and events that were written in the books. They also had a lot of action, suspense, and serious moments throughout the books which kept me entertained and interested. I think that the Stargate SG-1 books are worth reading and I really enjoyed reading all of them. I also think that Ashley McConnell is a good Science Fiction writer and should be congratulated for writing these books instead of being criticized for writing them.

I absolutley loved this book. I do caution you, the first chapter goes a bit slow, but it goes faster after that. I am a Stargate nerd and this book definatly quenched my thirst but it also left me wanting more. It was just that good for me. If your into the whole science fiction craze like me this is a definatley a good choice to read.

I forced myself to read the first 100 pages; I could not continue. The main character, Luke, comes across as a belligerent adolescent, with the articulation (read lack of) to match. I'm not even interested enough to finish this review, except to say this is the only book I have ever tossed in the garbage can.

This was my first Joan Johnston book, and while I didn't need to read the first 3 or 4 books in the series to understand the plot itself, I felt like I was coming in on an ongoing family story. I found both Amy and Luke boring, and I kept waiting for some startling revelation-which never came. Needless to say, I'm not interested in reading the first books in the series.

This is Luke's story. Not as much of a romance as some of the others, but it is still very good. Love that Ms. Johnston interacts with other characters that we have already met! Luke has many more sides than previously revealed and as the story went along, I found myself liking him more and more. Would have liked more in the way of talking about his & Amy's previous relationship & why it didn't work. The development of their relationship & understanding the years they spent part of the story seemed a little thin. Overall a really good read!

With respect to this book, I do agree that

1) momentum is a very important trading concept whilst MACD is a very useful oscillator type indicator to identify overbought and oversold situations, and thus change of s/t trend, a TA tool which helps traders not to buy high sell low, especially in a day trading environment.
2)the author had written a very easy reading book in a very friendly and understandable way.

However, I can hardly agree that:-

1) the author presented momentum as a surefire weapon in the highly volatile market and can be used alone
2) the author did keep it simple, but it's too simple all the way throughout the 180+ page content and he should lead the readers from simple concept to complicated application or even teach readers how to improve its accuracy with simultaneous usage of stochastics or RSI or...In fact, there are many examples/charts illustrated by the author which showed extended period of divergence with very unfavorable price moment that might have already kicked an investor out of his position, in case he/she did not have a strong brief on his/her position but by sheer reliance on MACD.

As a professional trader, I cant recommend this book to anybody. The quality of this is just so far below the author's own classic "Investment Quotient" which the author's strength (trading behavioral psychology) rests solidly upon.

this is a good book and well written. very easy to read and understand.

however, it comes across as too simple. the methods that are discussed here does not really give you the confidence that they are sufficient for you to trade properly.

another book by this author on the psychology part of trading, 'IQ the investors quotient', is a much better and strongly recommended read. in terms of market momentum, martin pring's 'trading with oscillators' is more useful, and just as easy to read.

This book offers a simple but robust method of trading on stockmarkets. The presence of many many (sometimes too many) charts makes it possible to read on the beach, not just behind the computer.
The Momentum Stock Selection method is good. Bernstein claims that you can use the method on intraday basis. This is true, but not in the same simple way as he shows in the book, it takes a lot more interpretation and experiments (on paper first is my advice!!).
His rules on do's and don'ts in trading are absolutely valuable and true, and funny to read of you have done all the don'ts already in the past.

This is a well-informed and very readable book on the informational value of the financial markets. However, this is not a how-to book on stock picking. What Mr Insana is concerned with in this book is not so much what price movements can tell us about an individual stock, but the macro information that the financial markets can tell us about the economy, geopolitics, major news events etc. There's almost no advice on individual stock picking based on price movements (too noisy), but there are advices on how to choose a job, time the purchase of a new home, move cash in and out of the market etc. based on the message of the markets.

In retrospect, some of the messages from the markets identified in the book are quite prescient. A good example is the rapid deterioration in the A/D line at the height of the Internet bubble. Of course that phenonmenon did not go unnoticed by the market pros. I clearly remember numerous analysts assuring viewers on CNBC that the stock market was not over-valued (and therefore in no danger of collapsing) because so many stocks were in the doldrums!

The book was filled with anecdotes about how major economic and geopolitical events (from Fed rate cuts to border wars between Egypt and Libya) are foreshadowed by unexplained market movements. Had Mr. Insana focused on the rationale behind these movements his argument would've been a lot more convincing. Instead, the book had a tendency to ascribe a sort of magical, oracular power to the market and the "smart money" that makes the market. Of course the real reason is a lot more mundane. Sometimes it's rampant insider trading (as in the oil futures mkt). At other times anyone who has bothered to read a newspaper would have seen it coming from a mile away. A good example is the collapse of the Thai baht. Any regular reader of the Far Eastern Economic Review would not have needed the markets to send a msg - for months the magazine was filled with dire warnings of imminent collapse in its op-ed pages.

Another issue that Mr. Insana did not address is the very important question of how to separate the signal from the noise emanating from the market 24 hours a day. As someone who had (foolishly) dabbled in the futures market, I know first hand that wild swings in the market can be triggered but nothing more dramatic than a 1/2-hr T-storm in downtown Chicago. (I always susepct that if I wait at a 2nd fl. window at the CBOT and sprinkle water on the head of a particular trader as he leaves the building, I can make a killing in soybeans.) In the days of old when the market was almost the exclusive domain of the Smart Money in the know, the msg. of the mkts was probably a lot more reliable than today, when the unwashed masses can steamroll the smart money based on the most ludicrous rumor posted on Pump-n-dump.com. How to separate the grains from the chaff is something we'll have to leave to another CNBC author.

BTW, there really is a web site called pumpanddump.com.

Those other reviewers (as well as CNBC, Amazon and financial experts) are right. SIMPLE MONEY SOLUTIONS by Nancy Lloyd (a Federal Reserve Board economist who I see frequently on CNBC and read in the New York Times Sunday Business) and this book by Ron Insana are all I needed to finally make sense of my personal finances and begin making good investment decisions for my personal portfolio as well as my 401(k) plan.

By using the outstanding, original and easy-to-follow advice in these two books my net worth has actually risen into the high six (6) figures!!! Not bad while the market is stagnating or dropping.

My friends, whose portfolios have been plunging in value, are in awe of my newfound financial savvy and skyrocketing bottom line.

And I owe it all to the information I picked up in these two incredible books. Ron and Nancy should patent this advice. It beats anything I've read elsewhere.

CNBC anchor Ron Insana's second book on the stock market, "The Message of the Markets," follows "Traders' Tales" in 1996, and does an excellent job of selling you on the idea that the market does send signals for anyone who's interested in looking for them. Using Insana's words, "Many times the prices of stocks, bonds, and commodities accurately anticipate or forecast future events. "But what is a "market?" If a market is where buyers and sellers come together and agree to exchange assets - stocks, bonds, futures, options, wheat, oil, gold, cloth, Beanie Babies, guns, drugs, etc., then the "message" of the market has to be the PRICE resulting from that exchange. That price level conveys enough information that if you know what you are looking for, you will be able to anticipate future events solely on the basis of price and its trend. Why? Because there is what Insana calls "smart money" and "dumb money."Smart money belongs to insiders, those closest to the action who see and know what is happening. They act on their knowledge, leaving their tell-tale footprints of transaction prices for all to see. Then there are the outsiders; the ones who wake up one morning and read about something that just happened, realize that it is significant, and decide to catch the obvious trend already in progress, invariably buying from those same insiders who got in months ago anticipating exactly that outcome. What Insana doesn't say is that without smart money to indicate the way, all markets would be chaotic, panic-driven price spikes in either direction as everybody tried to react to the same thing at the same time. He is particularly correct when he warns to watch out for the price move "with no apparent reason." It can signal momentous events on the horizon.The real message of the book thus becomes that if you learn to track where the "smart money" is going, then in addition to profiting along with the insiders on the various price moves, you can also make more intelligent business, investment, and career decisions. Insana uses the interest rate yield curve as well as popular averages to predict the onset of recessions; market internals (Advance/Decline Line, diverging Dow Jones Averages, etc.) to predict the stock market; and commodity price movements to predict geopolitical events.
He gives industry/sector group relative strength rotation credit for frequently predicting the economy's strengths and weaknesses and cites ways in which this can be used in selecting career paths as well as suggesting business trends. He uses commodity price moves as signals that foretell future events such as Chernobyl, the Gulf War, the Egypt-Libya potential war, and other geopolitical upheavals.  However, I believe he makes too much of the market selling off just prior to the announcement that JFK had been shot. There is a story about a certain well-known network newscaster in Dallas making the call back to his NY newsroom, then ripping the pay phone out of the wall to keep other reporters from using it to get to their newsrooms. So there may have been real reasons for the news delay. Anyway, the market was shut down with the Dow suffering only a 3% decline. After remaining closed one additional day, the market continued its upward climb for the next 3 years. While a member of the Pacific Stock Exchange, I witnessed the same momentary "front-running" when Reagan was shot on March 30, 1981. On that day something "felt" amiss when we suddenly got hit will an avalanche of sell orders. Minutes later, the news tape announced that the president had been shot. But like in the Kennedy situation, the market dipped momentarily, then continued its rally. In these two cases, the message was inconsequential, financially speaking. After giving numerous examples of what market signals are and how they've fared over the years, Insana asks his most thought-provoking question: "So why was it that most investors, all the world's politicians...failed to notice trouble signs on the horizon? Once again, it was the failure of many observers to pay attention to the market's ominous message."  The implication being that the rain clouds were forming but nobody took notice. The answer is simple yet unsatisfying: As long as we listen to what "they" say instead of watching what "they" do, we will always fall victim to "their" market. What Insana is making a case for is a market discipline termed Technical Analysis. It looks at market action, valuing above all else the constant interplay between the supply and demand for a any tradable entity, and considers Fundamental Analysis (Wall Street research) as so much hot air. It is not a particularly popular stance, but it is much closer to allying yourself with reality than anything else.

"The New Finance" has basically everything going against it.

First, Haugen's writing style is annoying and childish. An engaging use of humor and metaphor are apparently beyond his skill.

Second, Haugen's story is unconvincing. The case against the efficient market hypothesis has been made much more rigorously and interestingly by other authors (e.g. Andrei Shleifer, Hersh Shefrin, and Richard Thaler, among others). Haugen in some case makes mountains out of statistical molehills and misses vital information in others. In short, Haugen is neither convincing nor complete in his critique. The field of economics covered here has a name, by the way, which Haugen never once cites: behavioral finance.

Third, in many cases Haugen is just plain wrong in his assertions. The cases are too numerous to count, but I'll give two examples from page 12. First, Haugen asserts that if no one uses the CAPM to construct their portfolios then markets cannot be efficient. This is not true. The efficient market hypothesis can hold, as Milton Friedman pointed out, if people act AS IF they use the CAPM, even if they don't really use it. Second, of evidence that markets generally react to new information quickly and without bias, Haugen says "Not true." Which is overstating the case, if not outright misrepresenting it. While there is some evidence of investor overreaction and/or underreaction, the case is far from closed. Moreover, anecdotal evidence of occasional over- and under-reaction does not prove the efficient market hypothesis to be a "Fantasy," as Haugen claims.

Fourth, and this point is somewhat related to the third, Haugen is far too full of himself. Assertions of his own intellectual superiority cloud his arguments and reasoning. This can be dangerous when dueling with men like Eugene Fama, Harry Markowitz, Bill Sharpe, and Milton Friedman. More importantly, it leaves Haugen apparently very comfortable making blanket, absolute statements about financial economics that no self-respecting, respected, or respectful economist has any business making. And I say that not only because Haugen is very frequently wrong. It also isn't very becoming. And since the material in this book is reviewed in far superior books, there is little reason to pay much attention to Haugen and his rantings.

The author's humor is not always funny and is mostly used to fill up the pages, but the contents are interesting and enlightening. It gave me courage to continue what I was already doing in the stock market, buying "losers". A must read for everybody interested in investing or finance !!

Only a courageous professor willing to really find truth would write this insightful book. The fact that he also has a great sense of humor is to be greatly commended. This man deserves a Nobel Prize. It APPEARS THAT HE WILL BE ABLE TO FUND IIT!