exchange

Despite glamorous reviews from nobel prize winner Paul Samuelson and a NY Times reviewer on the covers, do not read this book if you are hoping to learn how to make money in the stock market. The book doesn't offer a hint. The author tells about what technical analysts do, what fundamental analysts do, and how the random walk behavior of stocks thwarts both types of analysts. After reading this book, one would think the succesful investors just have a feel for "the game," but the author does not do a good job telling the reader how the succesful investors apply technical and fundamental analysis. To be fair, he does mention some anecdotal reports of some investors, but he does not publish the record of these investors in a way that would make me respect their philosophies.

If you want to learn how to apply analysis for making money in the stock market read Peter Lynch's books Beating the Street and One Up on Wall Street, read Malkiel's book A Random Walk Down Wall Street, read Jack Bogle's new book on mutual funds, read all of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reports, and subscribe to Outstanding Investor's Digest.

The one interesting point in The Money Game worth learning is that corruption has ALWAYS been a part of Wall Street. All earnings reports should be taken with a grain of salt unless you're an expert in analysing them! Companies have been managing their earnings for decades! Wall Street is like any other market: Caveat Emptor

I studied finance in college and I think I could have just read this book instead of most of the finance classes I took.

First of all, "The Money Game" starts out with the thesis that the stock market and all other equity markets are just a game. It is not long-term investing that wins in this game for most. This would be heresy for most finance professors and financial planners out there. One example from the book involves a family that passed IBM stock down from generation to generation, it was only sold to cover estate taxes. Many members in the family became very wealthy. However, they worked just hard as their cohorts with no money, and the buy and hold stretagy profited them almost nothing despite the fact that they were "wealthy." Another example is a man who died in the late 1800s with a portfolio worth over $1,000,000. By the time the inheretence was passed down, the portfolio was worth 0, as the companies had gone out of business.

"The Money Game" gives a great explanation of crital issues such as technical analysis, fundamental analysis, mass psychology, mutual funds and their managers, "performance" vs. more conservative funds, accounting practices, random walk theory, "valuation" of equities, and most importantly the money game itself.

Ever wonder how a company like Priceline.com could be worth more than the market capitalization of all the airline stocks put together? This book explains how something so out of whack can happen and gives many examples.

In this game, money is how you keep score. When someone is making lots of money, they are winning the game. When they are loosing money, they are loosing the game. But the game is there to be played, win, lose, or draw. For the players, it's just too tempting to stay in, it is vital, it is life for many.

I've read hundreds of investing books; skimmed hundreds more; even written one myself. But dare it be said: This beautifully written work may well be the best book on the subject ever written. Not because it covers everything, or promises to make you rich. But because it offers timeless insights into how players, amateur and professional, really do play the game, and thereby gives you rich food for thought on how, or whether, you should play. Sure, you won't find anything on program trading, IRAs, 401k's, the great fund boom, or dot com stocks. However, that just goes to show that you needn't read today's papers to truly learn today's market. A bestseller in its day, there is still something for everyone here. Simply put, The Money Game is a classic, the first book on investing you should read.

Having also been on an intership, I found it very easy to identify with the characters and situations. The book brought back a lot of memories. The inclusion of historical events, spanish phrases, descriptions of places, people and food made reading The Band of Gypsies a very rich cultural experience.

I only wish the book was longer. I would have loved to learn more about the other characters and their experiences. I was so drawn in by the story I couldn't put the book down. When I finished, I was almost disappointed because I was so eager to continue reading. I am really looking forward to Iberian Nights. I would certainly recommend The Band of Gypsies to anyone wanting to experience (or relive) the excitment and adventure of being in a foreign country.

What a great book! The style is clear, descriptive, and captivating. The stories the writer tells (although might have been a bit exagerated) are breath-taking. I could not stop reading the book once I had started. Can't wait for the sequel. Awesome!

This book has a very fast paced story along with an interesting - and emotional - storyline. However I did agree with one of the others - I would have liked to know more about all the characters. Almost the book was too short!

There are some interesting similarities to real life on an international traineeship and life among international students. While I wouldn't consider everything to be typical, it certainly captured the essence of that lifestyle. If you dream of travelling the world and experiencing exotic countries you will love this story!

A great read - I certainly will be reading the sequel!

Earlier this year I had to deploy a set of Exchange servers. I am not an MCSE, but I have installed Unix boxes and even hacked sendmail entries, so I figured, how hard should this be? Answer: very.

Exchange has a bezillion options and you'll need an almost zen-like mastery of the application to be successful deploying it. I didn't have the time to build this foundation, and relied heavily on this book to explain some of the arcane concepts.

"Managing MS Exchange Server" is very well indexed and does a pretty good job of explaining some of the obscure registry entries and security options in the product. It also provide the mental "glue" that I needed to see how my Exchange servers would interact.

A few of the registry keys were different as a result of the most recent service packs. This is forgivable given the book's always going to lag the product, and the differences weren't that horrible.

If you're tasked with doing any amount of work with Exchange, you really need this book.

If I had to choose but two MS Exchange books for my arsenal, this would absolutely be one of them. The other would have to be Barry Gerber's "Mastering Exchange Server 5.5"

Paul Robichaux has done an EXCELLENT job of filling in what few gaps Barry Gerber left in his book. Where Gerber provides an excellent guide to setting up and getting to know Exchange, Robichaux takes you deeper into more "advanced" administrative issues such as disaster recovery, security, enabling Exchange for remote users, etc.

If you manage an Exchange server or servers for your orginzation, this book is indispensible. Hats off to the author!

I inherited an Exchange 5.5 server from a previous admin about 2 years ago. I had very limited knowledge of Exchange prior to that. This book gave me an excellent understanding of Exchange. Robichaux's writing style makes this book very readable. Paul, please come out with the Exchange 2000 book!

Mark Smith, a Goldman Sachs and Wall Street veteran, takes an entire book to attempt to get across the point that stocks should be valued based on future earnings, and are (were) not overpriced in the late 90's. The book was composed during the late 90s and early in 2000, during the biggest stock market bubble of all time. He carries a major grudge against Jessie Livermore, and John Kenneth Galbraith, and takes every opportunity to throw in a "cut" on these 2 historic figures. Seems obvious why he carries a negative torch for Galbraith. Galbraith devotes a chapter in his mid 50's book The Great Crash 1929 to Goldman Sachs participation in Wall Street Chicanery though several investment trust schemes. Galbraith's treatment of Goldman was based on fact. More respect for Galbraith's views should have been shown.

Seems the overall point of the book is that no price is too high for stocks, and that you can't beat the market using technical analysis or fundamental analysis. His halting of his narrative to provide a physical description of characters are both annoying and distracting. Its an obvious attempt to bring some sort of writing style to his descriptions which are clearly not there.

Smith goes to great lengths to make a case for stocks being not overvalued in 1929, the early 70's (during the nifty fifty popularity), and before the 1987 crash. However, he fails to look back on whether the earnings and dividends produced by companies after these times would have justified these valuations. Such an analysis would have made this book valuable. Instead we get late 90's rhetoric to support his case.

He suggests that increased "productivity" through technology justifies higher p/e's. This garbage logic is coming back as the market rallies in late December 2003. Such logic was also used in the 1990s bubble era, just as productivity increases from the prohibition was used to support 1929 bubble valuations. I would suggest saving your money for now, and reading this book after the next stock market calamity which is coming to your neighborhood soon. The book will then be good for a few laughs.

A key debate among economists is just how "rational" markets are. One school says they are completely rational, immediately absorbing all available information into the pricing of the items traded in each market. Others (with far fewer followers these days) say markets are far from rational, needing massive government intervention. The terriory between these two viewpoints is most likely where the "truth" lies.

Smith takes an interesting, very focused approach to this debate. His focus is the history of the U.S. stock market; his thesis is that the market is getting closer to rational perfection with each passing decade. The result is an eminently readable book.

In his march through twentieth century stock market history he introduces us to a host of characters - some are famous names you will already know; others are les well known scoundrels that taught lessons valuable to those who police the market.

Smith's story also introduces, and explains, various investment strategies and fads, placing each in historical context.

If you already have a doctorate in economics, this book may teach you little. But if you read history, business and economics titles because you want to, not because you have to, buy this book.

Mark Smith has succeeded in writing one of the best histories of the stock market certainly in recent times and maybe of all time. The book has rich descriptions of many of the individuals and companies that have shaped the market over the years. But much more importantly, the book has a coherent, important message.

Smith argues, quite persuasively, that the history of the stock market can be seen as a continual (if sometimes bumpy) upward movement in the valuation measures applied to the market. Smith brings us back to the days when common stocks needed to YIELD more than bonds because they were riskier. He then traces the advance of P/E ratios all the way to the present. Although I am still unconvinced by his arguments that the markets of the late 20s and late 60s were not bubbles (he seems to almost make bubbles definitionaly impossible), this book is a valuable contribution to the current debates about the state of the market.

This is not a get-rich-quick book or a how-to manual, but the story Mark Smith lays out is vitally important to all investors and is an enjoyable read to boot. Highly Recommended.

This Reference Guide is packed with information to help a budding programming get started in Customizing Outlook. The enclosed disc provides some good examples support this reference material well. However, the structure of the book is a little off base. Instead of feeding a bunch of detail at the beginning, Mr. Byrne should start off with a simpler approach. In addition, he should have used a more structured approach and used Bolder or Capitalized Font for critical areas of emphasis. Furthermore, it would have been nice to give at least a basic run through on Visual Basic Programming.

None the less after some trial and error, a savvy user should be able to at least get started on some Outlook Customizations. This reference guide certainly increases in value if the budding programming who uses this book is taking a class where a professor can explain the details behind the book. 3 1/2 stars seems about right.

I am very excited about the book. I have learned that Outlook can do so much more than is available in the basic canned version. I am not a programmer, nor am I very technical, and yet I am able to follow the information in the book. Indepth, but even amateurs can understand it!

This is an intermediate to advanced book that keeps it worthwhile VB programmers that don't know the quirks of the Outlook Object Model. The examples and disk are very helpful.

After reading this book, all I can say is "wow." That was one long book. It was full of so much information on stocks and when to buy and sell. But the information was not the same old stuff that I have heard before, I was introduced to a whole new theory of buying when everyone else says that you shouldn't because you have sound information on your side. Loeb also talked about putting a good amount of your available money in a smart investment, and watch that investment carefully. A main point that he stressed over and over was not to invest just to invest, only invest when you are going to put in the effort to make money. I thought that it was a difficult book to read because it was about economics, but I think that it might come in handy once I do get money to invest. It was written a long time ago, but I think that the advice that Loeb gives in the book can still be used today.

I read this book on the advice of William J. O'Neil, undoubtedly one of the market wizards of our time. Gerald M. Loeb is an outspoken advocate of perfecting the art of cutting your losses and timing your buy and sell decisions. For those trading for rapid profits, he mentions the importance of concentrating in the "one outstanding, fast-trading leader that is jumping in the right direction". Detaching yourself from the crowd and realizing one's ditance from perfection is one of the many insights to be gained in this book. To me, the compassionate wisdom of Gerald M. Loeb more than justifies the cost of the book.

OLUMUYIWA OMOLOLU.

I've read many recently published books on how to profit from the financial markets. Too many of them leave me feeling like I wasted my time and money.

I decided to go back to the "classics"--Schabacker, Edwards and Magee, Graham, Hamilton, Rhea, and of course, Gerald Loeb.

The more I read these "classics" of investment literature, the more I see the market hasn't fundamentally changed at all. All of those books have taught me something important, but I will always have Loeb's "Battle for Investment Survival" close to the top of my list.

Loeb demonstrates he is fundamentally honest. Unlike most books, that get you to think becomming a millionare through daytrading is easy, Loeb teaches that there is no such thing as "easy money" in the financial markets, nor are there "safe investments" (bonds) as the value of money is constantly depreciating.

He also teaches that there are NO guarantees, and that most people WILL lose money regardless of what they do. I think this is true, but most people cannot face it--even those "efficient market" types who advocate the buy and holding of index funds. (I believe Loeb would be a big fan of Exchange Traded Funds, however)

So, what is one to do in order to preserve purchasing power? His answer: intelligent speculation and the ever-liquid account.

To speculate intelligently, Loeb advises focusing on actively traded stocks--not illiquid "penny stocks" for your SPECULATIVE activities.

Let's be clear--Gerald Loeb is no "buy and hold" advocate. Loeb could be considered an advocate of the "relative strength" approach--before the concept of "relative strength" ever existed.

The moment your stock is failing to deliver superior profits, and you have no fundamental reason to believe its uptrend will continue, he advises you sell and look for another. If you can't find anything interesting, or the market is going down--you stay in cash. For Loeb, you MUST avoid catastrophic losses like those sustained in the crash of '29. A stock that doesn't rise (or fall if you like to short) is a waste to be avoided.

Loeb is not a fan of too much diversification. He thinks it is a crutch that guarantees mediocre performance.

His most important teaching would focus on money management (what we would now call "asset allocation"). Loeb would consider it foolish to allocate a significant (more than 50%) of your capital to stocks. You always need a cushion for those inevitable losses in trading operations.

I've taken Loeb's advice to heart. His advice is even more applicable to options trading.

By keeping a small amount of money in a volatile asset, and ruthlessly cutting losses, you give yourself a chance to match the market or even outperform, but with significantly less risk (volatility), due to the large cash reserves.

Loeb's advice isn't easy to follow. But making money isn't easy. And by following Loeb's advice, I'm quite pleased.

I currently live in Japan and know many JETs. I'm not too sure who the audience for this book is. If you want to know the current and future state of the JET program, you are not the audience. If you were in the JET program in 1988 or 1989 this would probably be good nostalgic material for you to reminisce over and laugh about. I don't question its accuracy and much of it is interesting to read (kind of like gossip because it focuses on mostly negative and sensational aspects of JET participants' experiences in Japan), but for most people I think it is just a reference book for when you need to know what happened back in the late 80s. If you are a prospective JET, I recommend that you talk to former JETs who were recently in Japan.

Reading this book has honestly changed my life. As a JET Program applicant, I bought this book in hopes that it would give me some insight which will help me do well in my job interview for the ALT position. Now, not only do I know more about the JET Program than I ever did before, but I think I also have a more enlightened understanding of Japanese culture and the true meaning of "internationalization."

One recurring theme in the book is Program participants who have come to Japan with unrealistic expectations and the unwillingness to view things in a way which looks beyond their own cultural nearsightedness. In their jobs and daily life, these people become frustrated at what they perceive as intolerance from a rigid and naive Japanese society who should be grateful for foreigners who want to make Japanese culture into something more consistent with their own western values. What became obvious to me as I read these stories is that while there certainly exists some intolerance on the Japanese side of things, one of the biggest causes of these participants' frustrations has been that they have been blind to their own intolerance.

I have learned that people who feel that the job of an ambassador (which seems to have more to do with a JET's duties than teaching English does) is to conduct themselves no differently than they would in their own culture actually end up creating divisiveness, misunderstanding, and tension between cultures, which is the opposite of their purpose. A foreigner who is willing to adapt to and learn from Japanese culture mores while retaining their personal values is the kind of person who truly embodies the ideals of "internationalization," and has much more power to affect positive social change than the kind of person described above.

I have always viewed assertion of individuality to be a virtue, and I have viewed cultural pressure to conform as oppressive and wrong. But reading this book made me realize that many people's path to true happiness comes through being a good member of a group, and not necessarily through being a strong individual. While I still personally feel that my place in the world is to be a strong individual, I also am comfortable with the fact that many people feel differently. I have also realized that assertion of individuality in many cases, such as when it comes at the expense of damaged human relation, can actually be the opposite of virtuous. This is not to say though that the pressure of conformity is necessarily a good thing, just that those who feel most comfortable in situations where they are able to meet concrete expectations are not necessarily wrong just because they are different from me.

Reading this review might lead you to believe that the book itself is devoted to spouting the kind of opinion that I have presented in this review. This is not the case. While I do believe that the author holds similar views to those I stated, his book is a serious, thorough, and objective study of the JET Program. He presents a variety of experiences, both positive and negative, from JET participants, Japanese educators, and people from various government ministries, and allows the reader to draw his or her own interpretations of the information presented.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in knowing more about the JET Program and to anyone who would like to gain insight into Japanese culture and the process of "internationalization" through the viewpoints of people who have been involved in the program.

I arrived in Japan as a JET in 1992 (-->1995), which from what I gather from Importing Divesrity is just after The JET Program's major wrinkles were ironed out.

Every so often while reading I'd wonder aloud, "Why doesn't McConnell mention..." only to find that in almost every case my questions were answered. Overall the book is not only informative, but well written using both careful research and some humor. (5000 College graduates heading off to teach English in Japan would make a good comedy.) The minor problems with the book are not really significant but should be mentioned:

1) While it makes sense to focus on the English teaching aspect, a few more pages could have examined the role of the CIR.

2) There is a brief but solid section on the JET experience in the teacher's room. I would have liked more pages on this topic. (Though Japanse teacher-ALT relations are discussed at length -- just usually within the context of the classroom.)

3) There are some interesting tables in the book, yet considering how many surveys are out there about the JET experience, "Importing Diversity" really needs an appendix for more survey data. I hope an updated version in a few years will include this.

If you have more than a passing interest in Japan, read this book.

Good information about most conventional food.

I find it a bit difficult to find some items because they don't quite fit into the pigeonhole categories.

Great information for fast food items!

Excellent book for carbohydrate counting. Very helpful for diabetics using an insulin pump. Gives units of measuremnets for carbohydrates and fat. Covers most foods, including food at fast food restaurants. This book was designed for easy use.

My wife, being a newly diagnosed diabetic, loved this book. It gives excellent details of the total carbs for ALL types of food, from grocery store to restaurant. She has found it very simple to use this book in her guide of her total carb diet and watching her choices. It is very simplistic to use, a must have!

Exchange Server 2003 Administrator's Pocket Consultant is exceptionally well written. Do not be influenced by the few negative reviews seen here on Amazon. I picked this text up at Barnes & Noble and spent an hour with it before biuying it and leaving the store. I am a CCNA, MCSE, and A+, and I have developed a much greater understanding of Exchange by reading William Stanek's book.

I liked the straightforward no nonsense approach to problem solving and feature implementation. This is one book you can read from cover to cover. The book excels as a technical reference as well, giving the reader pertinent information quickly, with good tips and great real world advice. I especially appreciated the comprehensive coverage of mobile access.

This is a must book for anyone who admins Exchange. The best how to for daily operations and fast answers.

William Stanek has done an outstanding job with this book. "Exchange 2003 Administrator's Pocket Consultant" provides excellent coverage of Exchange essentials. The information is clear, well organized and focusd on what an administrator needs to know.

Great book for Exchange 2003 administration - deserves more than 5 stars. This is like an Exchange 2003 bible for the task you do every day. I read it cover to cover, buy the book without hesitation.

Great coverage on almost everything about Exchange 2003. Particuarly coverage of client configurations, wireless, web and dial-up access. Excellent coverage of directory services and data store administration. Good coverage of backup and recovery. Great coverage of message transfer, queuing, maintenance and monitoring.

This is not designed as a study guide. But definitely can help you in that aspect, I'm using it as an additional resource.

Jay Sneider
MCT

I've been an Exchange developer and administration for 6 years and have gone through a lot of admin, developer, programmer books on the subject. Probably bought a lot more books than I ever used. When gearing up for Exchange Server 2003 I went back to look at the books I actually used previously and went to find out if new editions were available of those books. I bought Exchange Server 2003 Administrator's Pocket Consultant as soon as I saw it. It hasn't let me down yet. The book will be used as the core book in my Exchange Server 2003 Admin class.

Ihe plot is quite outstanding --- two countries exchanging critical resources when they are at war! Intrigue, action, deception, and at the center of all this is our man from Lisbon, David Spaulding --- sauve, cool , and professional. The book is a classic, old-fashioned, fast paced thriller-driller. Yet, somehow it lacks the punch, maybe partly because we know right from the beginning that Spaulding survives the Exchange.

The Rhinemann Exchange features a fascinating fictional premise that Ludlum has dreamed up within the setting of the closing stages of the Second World War. Germany desperately needs shipments of industrial diamonds to perfect its rockets. The USA desperately needs functional high-altitude gyroscopes to perfect aircraft guidance systems. Both sides have what the other needs. And so unfolds "an exchange between enemies at the height of the bitterest war in the history of mankind" (p97), with Erich Rhinemann functioning as the liaison in the neutral territory of Buenos Aires to oversee the exchange. David Spaulding, the man from Lisbon, is the American agent released from his service in Portugal and commissioned on a secret mission to bring the gyroscope blueprints back to the USA. But he doesn't know the terrible secret of the diamond transfer which his country is giving up in exchange. And who is trying desperately to stop the exchange? And what role in the action does the fanatical Jewish group Haganah play? What unfolds is combination of action and suspense, in typical Ludlum style. But in the end the novel didn't quite live up to the potential that the premise offered, and the story lacked the heart-stopping action and suspense of Ludlum's better page-turners, and was burdened with too much confusing political dialogue, and unexplained loose ends. An interesting read, but newcomers to Ludlum would be advised to begin instead with some of his better books, such as (in my preferred order) The Bourne Identity, The Materese Circle, The Holcroft Covenant, and The Aquitaine Progression. -GODLY GADFLY

this was my first ludlum book and it certainly will not be my last.dont read any negative reviews of this book.action packed...fast ...racing couldn't ask for more.trust me.it is a very good book about the world war 2.