exchange

Dr DeRosa's book was entertaining, easy to read and packed with anecdotes and information. As an investment pro, his book gave me a greater insight into the often arcane political manipulations that eventually sow the seeds for economic instability. He pulls no punches when he states that central banks and governments themselves set themselves up to be the eventual "victims" of their own bad policies and instead of doing something different, they blame the speculator.
I like his information "boxes" that help the reader with the technical details of the book. Although I have long been a fan of single currency idea's, DeRosa's book has given me reason to pause. Well referenced and well researched.
The reviews by Dr Hanke and Dr Friedman can't hurt either.

"In Defense of Free Capital Markets is an impressive survey and analysis of the crises of the 1990s. Mr. DeRosa makes a strong case that official intervention has made matters worse, not better, and that in such instances it is far better to leave it to the invisible hand of the market than to the clumsy, visible hand of regulators."

--Milton Friedman Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution Nobel Economics Prize, 1976

Professor DeRosa offers up a generous helping of reality in evaluating the currency crises of the past dozen or so years. From the first world foibles of the Bank of Japan to the third world of currency pegs, the currency calamities of the late twentieth century are thoughtfully presented in a lean read.

While perhaps giving short shrift to the political constraints facing policy makers in times of crisis, Mr. DeRosa nevertheless does well describing the environments and pre-conditions which ultimately fostered our most recent international financial catastrophes.

In this, the age of fiat money, unsustainable currency policies are easy prey for the worlds biggest market. Anyone interested in a brief but informative history of recent currency debacles will truly enjoy this book.

I enjoyed 'Bargained for Exchange' even though international thrillers are not my usual choice in novels. I was intrigued by the main character John Cann and was 'hooked' in the first few pages.

Then I became quickly enthralled with the other characters and found myself thinking of them as real people. Macomber interweaves many locations & characters so well that his very creative story is easy to follow.

I am reluctant to give away any of the plot but will say this much....I found myself moved to tears over what happened to Janie; then felt tremendous anger. The last few chapters are page turners during which I found myself 'cheering' for John Cann against the bad guys.

Imagine a novelist that combines Clancy's best 'thriller' skills along with the legal expertise of Grisham....that's James Macomber!

I highly recommend 'Bargained for Exchange' and look forward to reading more of John Cann's adventures.

Very original novel. While it is fiction, it was quite clear that the President and those running for Prime Minister of Israel referred to real people (that is if you call Bill Clinton a real person). It shows some of what is wrong in the Universties today and how the P.C. crwod has taken over. It ended with an exciting and satisfying climax. The characters seemed real, some likable, some the opposite. I appreciated Geoff Metcalf turning me onto the book and I cannot wait for his next one.

I couldn't wait to finish this book. There were elements of Ludlum and Clancy throughout. A fine read, well worth the time.

Mr. Walker is clear and concise in his depiction of how the options markets work. He details various strategies and makes options investing understandable to those new to it.

In my 11 years as a futures investor, broker, and author, I have never seen someone with as much grasp of options investing as Mr.Walker and have the capability to explain it.

Comprehensive, simple, full of examples - worth the money.

Yes, As a beginner I can confidently say I know what option is, it's uses and the risk involve. The Author did not only explain the principle but gave practicable example everyone can relate to. All in simple and plain English, you don't need to have been to a school of economy to know what an option is. With the help of this book, I can't look stupid when others uses terminologies relating to option. Keep up the good work Joseph.

This book, published in 1997, is a real beauty. In May 2000 as I installed Exchange 2000 I needed to trouble-shoot SMTP at a low level. Chapter 2 with its instructions on how to roll your own SMTP session using nothing but telnet helped me find an access problem that had eluded me for days.

Understanding DNS was also a snap with this book. Banging around with ping still is an essential check on installation integrity when setting up servers and workstations. The common, low-level utilities, including system sniffers and logs, are nicely explained throughout the book.

The book is only 234 pages and many of the details on Exchange 4.0/5.0 will not be of interest for much longer. However, the essentials of Internet SMTP mail are covered so clearly that this book is one that I will retain in my library for a long time.

The book is lots of fun for those who like to hack away from the DOS prompt (and a bit beyond). However, if you think "ping" is something that goes with "pong," you can skip this one.

Even though this book covers mainly exchange 4.0 the information here is wholly appropriate for exchange 5.5.

The book covers smtp, and pop3 and using internet mail with exchange using indepth material.

This book is excellent and also makes a good ongoing reference as well.

You can email me at expat.muller@t-online.de

cheers

This book is concise, engaging, and informative. The author is clearly above par in his ability to define what is going on in the back ground of Exchange without boring you to death. And if your not familiar with the internals of POP3 and SMTP messenging, theres some interesting hands on with Telnet. A MUST HAVE BOOK for anyone starting to learn Exchange.

If you've read the 'Security Operations for Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server' guide from Microsoft, what value can this book possibly add? That's the question I asked myself before digging into this book. Answer: A LOT!

For starters, it's a very well-written book - starts with some great explanations of Security Fundamentals - the buzzwords, the protocols & algorithms, threats, risks, and vulnerabilities. I've read many security books, but seldom have I found just the right balance - as technical as it needs to be, but still interesting enough for the non-techies.

The section on Installing Exchange With Security in Mind is particularly interesting. Everything you want to know about messaging/Exchange security is covered - SMTP Relays, spam, content filtering, antivirus, SSL, MAPI/RPC security, et al. Great coverage of email encryption and Public Key cryptography, Outlook client security, POP/IMAP security. Can never get tired of readng about securing Outlook Web Access.

Overall, a must-read for Exchange admins. The only thing I would've liked to see is: i) this book to be released at least a year ago.. this one's at the tail end of the Exchange 2000 lifecycle - too close to the Titanium (Exchange 2003) release. ii) Perhaps some more coverage of specific vulnerabilities of SMTP and Exchange, and how secure Exchange is compared to other messaging systems - Notes, Sendmail, etc. THE TRADEOFF (or benefit rather) is we have a book that can still be carried with one hand... still under 400 pages without the index. Remarkable! (A round of applause for Paul Robichaux..)

Bharat Suneja
MCT

If you maintain or administer Exchange servers, this book is a must for you. It covers a borad set of security topics specific to Exchange server, secure messaging and even secure IM. Very valuable guide for IT. Does not dive at too low a level for practical use.

This book has enough information about security, both of the messages and the messaging environment, for a good Exchange administrator to build and maintain a rock solid secure messaging environment.

This book is more academic than practical, which is not a bad thing. I enjoyed reading it and found it to be well researched and very educational. Just remember, however, that any systematic strategy that makes money in the stock market will become ineffective as soon as it becomes well known (anyone remember "Beating the Dow" or its offspring, "The Foolish Four?"). So read this book if the topic interests you, but don't expect to cash in by exploting these anomalies.

Also, A Random Walk addresses some of these anomalies and explains why, given transaction costs among other things, one cannot profit from them.

The financial markets give investors a chance to make money when they work - and when they don't. When markets work efficiently they uncover the true value of an asset by pegging its fair price for informed buyers and sellers. When for a variety of reasons markets are inefficient they misprice assets. When the specific circumstances of that mispricing are recognized and persistent (viz. predictable) it is an anomaly. The regularity of anomalies offers investors, at least in theory, the opportunity to profit by taking a position that recognizes the temporary nature of the mispricing before it rights itself. These anomalies are the subject of Singal's study which takes its title from the updated 1970's classic exposition of the efficient market hypothesis by Princeton Economics professor Burton Malkiel.

This is a detailed look at ten market anomalies. Singal's goal is to move us well beyond descriptions and academic evidence and offer trading strategies intended to achieve an outsized market return. Each chapter summarizes key points and projects potential returns from implementing the outlined strategy. Additional market anomalies are briefly identified in the final chapter. As a bonus of sorts an appendix gives the most detailed explanation of short selling I have read.

From a practical standpoint some anomalous situations would appear to be more exploitable than others. Mergers between public companies occur with some frequency, so an understanding of how to play the merger premium paid by acquiring companies for their target is useful. Changes to the composition of the S&P 500 Index and their impact on stock prices occur with less frequency, but this is balanced by opportunities from the January and "New December Effect" (mark your calendars). From anecdotal observations, I am not convinced by the author's discussion of the Weekend Effect, and the chapter on International Investing seems like a fair argument for diversification rather than an anomaly. The so-called Value Line Enigma identified in the final chapter is perplexing to this reader, since the supposed outperformance of their recommended stocks runs directly counter to a similar study of mutual funds picked by Morningstar. An apples to oranges comparison to some, perhaps, but it is a sufficiently known study to warrant comment. A chapter dealing with currency forward rates will be beyond most non-professional investors. I would have liked to have heard more about spin-offs, the long-term overperformance of "independent" subsidiaries occasionally distributed to shareholders of a parent company. Singal identifies the simpler, "sharper" corporate mission as the reason. Actually, it may be strong sponsorship and generous, upfront management incentives which spark those returns.

The question remains, does this serious academic study offer practical trading strategies to investors bent on gain. The answer is that Singal has so many ideas packed into the book that investors will be influenced in the aggregate in their trading decisions. Not to be aware of these market biases exposes traders to more uncertainty and risk than may be necessary.

The format in which this book was written is outstanding. Simply because I don't have an interest in all the chapters, and the way in which it was written allows me to read several chapters without reading the entire text. The anomalies are based on backtesting and research, and not just feel or emotion.
Singal shows that there are temporary mispricings in the market and offers suggestions how individuals can implement strategies to profit from them.

Murphy has written a very good reference book, useful for brushing up on the finer points of charting, indicators and so forth. He also does a good job of going over the various technical theories with a straight face, neither endorsing favorites nor casting ridicule on the ones that are more logically suspect (cough cough, gannelliottfibonacci, cough cough).

The only thing I really took issue with was the habit of trying to predict the size and extent of price moves rather than sticking with more general observations regarding momentum and overall movement. Looking for something to happen before there is evidence of its arrival is a dangerous game for technical players, and to devotees of the approach, a friendly warning: be careful not to become a fundamentechnicalyst. Meaning, always keep in mind that effective technical analysis highlights probability rather than makes predictions. Since I just made up the word for this review, I'll now throw in the definition: A "fundamentechnicalyst" is one who makes predictions, just like the run of the mill fundamental analyst does- except the fundamentechnicalyst is making predictions based on technicals: chart patterns and various indicators, rather than supply and demand, weather, politics etc. In giving advance notice of how the movie is going to end, the approaches have similarity in their folly. The answer is to not say, "aha! because of pattern ABC, result XYZ must now occur...." Instead, say, "aha! because of pattern ABC, there is a reasonable probability that XYZ could possibly occur, but I recognize this is an odds game which means 1) it is normal, reasonable and expected for me to be wrong a portion of the time (the odds say so), and B) I gotta have a risk point, just in case this is one of those occurrences where the odds don't play out in my favor.

The difference in the thought process is subtle but critical. A prediction locks you in, creates a psychological commitment, brings your ego into the game, and screws up your mindset in general. Whereas if you recognize trading is essentially nothing but an odds game, then flexibility and peace of mind remain intact.

One of the hidden gems of this book was an excellent outline of why the contrarian method works. I don't want to give away Murphy's goods here, so I will just say that he points out a few very interesting reasons why it is natural for the majority to be wrong at turning points, and it is not simply because the masses lack trading ability or intelligence (though that is a factor, of course; the lumbering beast called Crowd is known for strong back and weak mind.)

To sum up, buy this book if you are new to technicals, if you want to brush up on your knowledge, or if you just want a handy reference. But be wary of the prediction trap. Keep your understanding of probability and odds intact.

Murphy has taken a very technical analysis of a "dry" subject and turned it into a readable, useful guide that should by read (and referred to often) by everyone who dares trade in the futures markets. It's a great first book on the subject, and a great book for experts alike.

Murphy has collected, collated, condensed and presented just about every method of technically analysing the futures markets. His text, whether dissecting simple or abstruse concepts, is remarkably lucid. Comprehensive and comprehensible, this is a reference futures traders must own. All I would have asked for in addition would be more suggestions for implementing trading strategies, but that, in fact, might require another book. If Murphy were to write it, he might outsell all those fake futures promoters and their $195 "courses" combined.

This book has many fine features but has two serious drawbacks as well.

On the positive side, I have never read a more complete polemic in favor of the hedge fund industry. He shreds EMF with loads of good evidence and humorous anecdotes. However, there seems to be a constant drive to reinforce this point. Unfortunately, it takes away from a more thorough analysis of the types of hedge fund investing.

Another problem with the book is that it has trouble discovering its audience. At times, we get detailed descriptions of what alpha and beta represent (Finance 101) and at other times, abstruse PM concepts are brushed over as common knowledge.

I would definitely recommend this book but I recommend that the reader is accompanied by a Dictionary of Finance and Investing.

The iceberg on the cover represents total risk-partly visible and partly not. Ineichen's point is that hedge fund or absolute return managers tackle total risk while their traditional mutual fund counterparts worry about only one part of it, namely the risk of straying from their benchmark. His extensive discussion contains worthy lessons for all investors who want to understand risk. While not every chapter may be useful for every reader, this book is an excellent place to learn about alternative investment strategies.

This is an excellent introduction for potential investors to assess risk and reward.

For more on new hedge fund products, hedge fund leverage, and off-balance sheet risk, I also highly recommend Tavakoli's "Credit Derivatives" 2nd Edition.

As the cover of this book says: Liquidity! Accessibility! Transparency!

The authors take a European perspective to challenge the traditional way that financial markets have operated in the United States and elsewhere. They point out, correctly I think, that the revolution is here. Fully automated markets now do the bulk of the worldwide futures trading. For example the Chicago Board of Trade was overtaken in futures volume by the fully automated German-Swiss EUREX in Frankfurt in 1998. London was charging from behind to take a big piece of the automated futures business as well. Automated trading experiments are going on in a number of other places, as well.

The vision the authors have is captured by a quote from Ludwig von Mises: "Economic history is the story of the gradual extension of the economic community beyond its original limits of the single household to embrace the nation and the world."

This vision is essentially of convergence into one global market, with one clearinghouse, and one regulator to do everything. The need to get costs down will require that convergence as the ultimate solution. How imminent this vision is has to be a guess (the authors convey the vision in the form of a dream), but the stories in the book show how often the complacent, traditional view has been wrong. The authors are good at pointing out the speed bumps that will delay progress, and outline good ideas for better and faster implementation.

But they are definitely tolling the bell in the near future for face-to-face selling. "In the future there will only be electronic traders." They also see a rise of small traders, small banks (doing direct placements of IPOs over the Internet with traders without underwriting syndicates), and greatly squeezed paychecks for traditional investment banking and trading activities.

I found the book to be consistent with my own vision. I was still left with the question of why the transition has not been a faster one. Financial markets should be converging at a much faster rate, if one looks only at the technology and the use of the Internet. Which aspects of human stalls are the worst delayers? Probably the tradition and bureaucratic stalls, because the existing markets and regulators are very slow to see new opportunity. Consider how recently fixed trading commissions disappeared. Those should have been gone in the Roaring Twenties.

If you want good detailed information on the state of the electronic market revolution, this book is essential reading. If you own a seat on an exchange, your pocketbook requires immediate attention.

There is an excellent section on how to prepare for the transition, and another one on the dangers to be cautious of.

Good look in building your wealth faster through more efficient markets!

In reading the book, there are many things that would scare traditionalists in our business. The rules are changing, and unless we adapt as traders and exchanges, we will be doomed. As I have discussions with other board members, and other floor traders, some intuitively understand the coming electronic age. Others pass it off as a purely European phenomena. "It won't happpen here.", is a phrase I hear every day. Brokers and traders see that the computerized competitors are having a tough time gaining a foothold in the American futures market. They rest thinking that their future is secure, and that maybe their margins will be squeezed a little. The revolution has only begun. While some of the positions the book posits seem outlandish, Columbus was seen as outlandish in 1492 too. This is a must read for any person associated with floor trading or an exchange. This also makes good reading for anyone involved in government regulation. Barriers are being broken down. Borders set by politics are not relevant to the sea change taking place in the financial marketplace. The U.S. is the titan of investment capital today, but a government that shackles the growth of the marketplace due to over regulation, is doomed to see all that capital leave for less regulated environs. I am on the Board of Directors at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, so I speak from experience. The revolution has begun, and we are trying to embrace it.

Building on the monthly news and insight from Patrick Young's ADTrading.com newsletter, Patrick Young and Thomas Theys have put together a concise history of recent developments in capital markets, especially the futures markets, and the steady advance of electronic trading. As a longtime reader of the newsletter I have been exposed to most of these ideas on a monthly basis; as an industry executive I have watched the events unfold day by day. Nevertheless, this compilation provides fresh insight into Capital Markets trends.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in an overview of the recent history of the futures, equity and FX markets and a plausible view where the markets are heading.

I would also recommend Capital Markets Revolution to industry insiders who are well aware of the events and ideas discussed, as they can benefit from the framework and view of the future into which current events are placed.

This was my first book on investing, three years ago. It starts with the assumption that you know nothing, but it treats you like an educated, intelligent person. The pace goes quickly, and by the end of the book you know everything you need to know to be an intelligent investor.
I have recommended this book to several friends who wanted a good investing primer.

Groz's book is just the kind of investment book that has been needed to fill the gap between market kitch and high-brow professional narrative. It leaves the reader feeling well informed but piques her curiousity -- and prepares her for -- an even deeper understanding of the markets and investing. It is clear that this was Groz's intention. A great book for journeyman investors seeking to negotiate markets and market-speak on a daily basis.

After reading many books on investing, this is the first I've found that offers keen insights to beginners and advanced investors. I would have no problem recommending this book to any of my Wall Street friends--or to my parents.