market-economics

This book is highly recommended for all investors, as it makes compelling arguments for what the future will be like and where to profit from it. Unfortunately, this future is not bright and rosy as I thought it might be.

The book argues that technology will not continue to increase productivity, which will result in inflation. It shows you how you might capitalize on these trends in the upcoming decade. It includes a model portfolio for conservative and aggressive investors and strategies to help in case of deflation.

The book is well written, easy to understand and hard to put down. It will really make you think.

Though the only negative I see is his recommendation of Enron, and the fact that he doesn't recommend market timing, where his previous book did

This book has none of the typical drivel and conventional wisdom that pervade most investment books. Leeb's analysis of the critical and often overlooked relationship between the investment markets, technology and the economy are fascinating and convincing, and very likely will prove prescient as well. A must read for all long-term investors.

On the recommendation of a friend, I just finished reading a new book by Stephen and Donna Leeb, Defying The Market. This book is amazing - thought-provoking, original, strongly argued, and exceptionally readable. In relatively few pages it packs in an incredible amount of information about everything from computers to medical research to agricultural trends and somehow makes it all understrandable, interesting, and most important, instantly relevant to my investment needs. The authors' main point is that technological progress is slowing down, while strong worldwide economic growth has become a necessity. These trends - which they argue will lead to, among other things, rising inflation, will affect every kind of investment, and they tell you exactly which investments will benefit and which ones will suffer. The book is terrific! In fact, it is one of those rare books that, after you read it, you feel that you will look at the world differently from that point on. Whatever your feelings about technology, if you invest in the market at all, you should read this book!

This book and its concept dwells into the area of the financial markets and how they affect each other. Its theory meshes with various other market theories in that if one market goes up, another may respond differently. This is one of the handful of books i would recommend to anyone beginning to get serious about the financial markets. I first picked this up in a state library, much to my amazement it was brand new and never borrowed, much like a lot of the information in it.

There is very little information out there on Intermarket analysis (see Martin Pring's "All Season Investor" and Murray Ruggiero "Cybernetic Trading Strategies" among the few to offer info in this niche). Turns out the Intermarket form of technical analysis is among the most important in analyzing the economy and the various links between financial sectors. It's a key to deciphering the intermediate and longer term trends (& with Ruggiero, possibly short term trends). Amazingly, nearly all high paid economists and many financial market analysts get it wrong, but the markets collectively don't by definition. (You can't trade an economist, there is no "economic futures index", and the economists generally aren't traders since they don't know how.) Once you have the basics of technical analysis under your belt, this book is a pivotal and necessary step forward in an education towards deciphering the increasingly interrelated worldwide financial markets. A must read, but only for the serious investor. Too complicated and difficult to use for the dilettante. I wish John would do a "year 2000" update just to freshen up the charts, but the basic relationships haven't changed much and the lessons are still totally valid.

Those who were reluctant to accept the benefits of intermarket analysis after reading Intermarket Technical Analysis (1991) will find making the paradigm shift much easier after reading his latest book published in February 2004 called Intermarket Analysis. Murphy has the benefit of some monumental market events in the last three decades to demonstrate his case and he uses them to great effect.

As John pointed out in an interview for Stocks & Commodities magazine I did with him in December 2003, it was his original goal to write the quintessential intermarket book but then found the topic so involved that each chapter could have become a book. There is just so much to discuss. Attempting to cover anything but a small snippet in a review is sheer folly. It is also impossible to do the book justice.

Markets have become so interdependent in the last decade, a correlation that continues to strengthen with time. If those who suffered financial ruin between 2000 and 2002 had read Intermarket Technical Analysis, how many of them could have avoided huge losses and even profited from what occurred? We will never know for sure but is it a risk they anyone can afford to take, especially when considering that the cost of avoidance (cost of the book) is less than $50? For those serious about making money in the market and keeping it, his new book, Intermarket Analysis is an absolute must!

Matt Blackman - Technical writer/review and regular contributor to Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities Mag, Traders Mag (Europe), Working Money, Traders.com Advantage, SFO Magazine

Building Global Biobrands is slated to become an instant classic. This book is nothing short of phenomenal. It gives a comprehensive yet cogent description and assessment of the state of biotechnology and global markets. The authors' conception, approach, and arguments are structured and presented in a manner as innovative and attention-grabbing as biotechnology itself.

Simon and Kotler focus the core of the book on the new marketing models companies need to support the rise of personalized medicine. They illustrate their concepts with a wealth of biotech and pharma cases, from Botox to Viagra.

Executives and analysts in biotech, pharmaceuticals, and information technology, as well as business school professors and students, will find Building Global Biobrands indispensable---now and in years to come.

This is a very smart book: it is valuable for professionals in all aspects of health care who seek an insight into the global pricing and marketing of medical therapies.

Though not biological scientists, Simon and Kotler impart their treatise with a savvy academic outlook blended with lessons learned in the consulting arena. The authors show an amazing scholarship. They combine knowledge derived from personal acquaintance with key players in the biotechnology and classical pharmaceutical industry with an understanding of the medical applications and implications of drug therapies to weave a rich tapestry of a very complex topic.

Their view ranges from:
·a discussion of the history, politics and costs of biotechnologic research;
·the pricing of new drugs to allow both access and cost recovery (Novartis' introduction of GleevecR);
· the evolution of Big Pharmas' ( e.g. Pfizer, Merck) alliances with smaller bio-tech firms to find innovative therapies,

to the techniques used to maintain brand franchises as patent protection is lost. (Over-the-counter Advil remains a viable brand.)

They are able to keep readers' interest high by providing concise and lively vignettes of many developments in the history of drug introduction and marketing. Among these, they cite:
·Pfizer's promotion of late-entrant LipitorR to become the victor in the statin "races";
·Johnson & Johnson's brilliant recall of TylenolR following deaths due to product tampering and its ability to maintain the brand's prominence for over 30 years; and
·Pfizer's consumer-driven shaping of the market for ViagraR by creating erectile dysfunction as a new clinical entity.

The future appears to be in the realm of biotechnology with strong BigPharma participation. Whatever the new environment, the basic principles of marketing described in this volume will hold true.

Françoise Simon and Philip Kotler provide us a concentrate analyse stressed on key-moving-drivers on the Bio-sector. They gave us a wide overview, from R&D leading trend to Marketing implementation and License & Acquisition Business. The two main strengths of this book are the numerous real case studies exposed and the international insight of the whole study(including Europe and Japan).
This book will interest Executives involved in Business Development, Bio-strategy or smart fox wondering what the Bio-sector will look in the fast coming years. This book is different because exhaustive and balanced between Biotech and Big-Pharmas Business model. A unique tool to keep and read again!

As a trader who had read tens of trading books, I still found this one interesting and helpful. I like its variety of content (that the author introduced a lot sentiment indicators like CBOE Put/Call Parity + Volatility Index, RYDEX Mutual Fund Flows, Volume indicators for QQQ and S&P 500 Depository Receipts), plus the author's writing style and integrity (the author did quoted frequently from other writers). Some technical tools like MACD, ADX were discussed, but only briefly. In fact, I like Chapter 12 about trading psychology and money management, Appendix D favorite quotes the most.

To conclude, if you want to read an intermediate to advanced level trading book, and that you are appreciative of logical and contrarian trading, this one is for you.

p.s. I like Mark Douglas, Bernard Baruch and Jesse Livermore very much. As the author does appreciate these "gurus", I admit that my positive comment may be a little bit biased.

Big Trends in Trading really helps you understand what makes the markets tick. Headley gets right to the bottom line, which is helping investors make more money with a better understanding of the best ways to put your money to work. Headley highlights some key indicators that look beyond the news headlines to gauges of investor sentiment and key sentiment indicators that help you see where the markets are heading over different time frames. And in my experience, that can make a big, big difference in your portfolio. What's more, he also offers some very specific ways to spot the best stock opportunities, as well as stock and option strategies designed to help make money in different market conditions. He definitely doesn't "dumb it down" - the material is detailed, with complete information on results from the various trading strategies spelled out.

Price Headley successfully combines his obviously well-tested market analysis and trading theory with practical step-by-step guidelines in this compact, yet amazingly complete trading treatise. There are so many real gems contained in this small book I can only urge beginning and advanced traders alike to grab a copy and read it...several times over.

Headley introduces a few unique and intuitively appealing indicators for determining market trends, stock selection and entry-exit techniques, as well as his considerable insights on working with more well-known indcators like the VIX, Rydex and put/call ratios.

I was particularly impressed with his work on directional options trading and his superb treatment of the type of money management and psychology that is absolutely critical if one is to develop consistent success at trading. I suspect that even long-term professional traders will find much that is new, or at least refreshing and useful, in these pages and I certainly won't be surprised to see "Big Trends in Trading" join the short list of must read classics in the years to come.

I must say that the book is interesting and well written. Even better, it is not very long. My major problem with it, however, is that it is overly simplistic. In many ways it is similar to Elliot Wave Theory, for whatever value that may still have.

The author takes a basic truism and extends it to illogical conclusions. As anyone who has ever looked at a chart will know, market trends are always marked by countertrend moves. For example, a stock may go up for two weeks, then suddenly go down for 3 days then go back up again. The auther calls this three day swing a reaction swing. So far so good.

He then espouses that, if you count back from the start of the reaction swing to the beginning of the trend, you will learn the exact number of days that the trend will continue after the swing ends, the "reversal date." Further, you can also learn the price where the trend will end or the next reaction swing will occur by subtracting the price at the start of the trend from the price at the start of the reaction swing. Adding that number to the price at the end of the swing will tell you the price where the trend will end or the next reaction swing will begin, and you already know the day on which it will occur.

Sorry, life is just not that simple. The diffieulty is demonstrated by the fact that even in the author's carefully selected examples, his "reverse count," the count back from the beginning of the reaction swing, often goes back to a differing places. Sometimes it goes back to the beginning of the previous reaction swing, other times to the beginning of the trend and still others to the beginning of a reaction swing in a previous trend.

As I read this book, I was often asking myself, without any apparant answers, "Why is he counting back to there?"

I've got to say that if this really works, I am extremely jealous because everyone except me is getting outrageously rich without doing any work. One can easily spot a "reaction swing" or countertrend movement. Image how great it would really be if all one had to do was wait a day or two into the main trend's resumption, and know with confidence that the new trend will last 11 days and will rise or fall respectively, esactly 10 points.

Anyway, if it works for you "Congratulations."

I would like compliment Mr. Crane on the clarity with which he explains the "Action/Reactiion" phenomena in commodities and stocks. I have found this book to be most illuminating and it has greatly improved my understanding of the manner in which one should identify segments of a market move. I have studied the Delta system and learned from Joe DiNapoli and both are extremely good, but I can honestly say neither gives me the confidence and or the trigger points as well as this method. I find his unique method of combining Time, Price and Pattern can strengthen the predictability of future market moves. In my opinion this is probably the single best trading book I have ever read on technical analysis. It's a real "where the rubber meets the road" type book that I think most traders will find credible.

Something I read, in the first part of this boo, really made me think. Mr. Crane said "If 80% of traders lose money, I don't want to look at the markets in the same way they do." All these years I have been studying and using the same indicators as everyone else, but I never really understood the market behavior...until I read Advanced Swing Trading. I found Elliott Wave to be confusing and Gann too subjective. While techincal indicators served me well, I was always entering the market late and exiting early. "Advanced Swing Trading" opened my eyes to a whole new understanding of how to trade the market. John Crane's method of projecting Time and Price, is precise and very easy to understand. And then he adds the confirming patterns to tie it all together. While I am primarly a short-term trader, I was amazed by the accuracy of the long-term projections as well. I have been trying to master the art of swing trading for the past two years and have had marginal success...until now. Since I learned to use John Crane's Reaction swing technique, the results have been stunning. I highly recommend this book to any trader, whether you look for long-term moves or short-term swing trades, this book has it all!

Like the first edition, the new SECOND EDITION simply, clearly and completely explains all the technical market indicators that are used in examining stock trends. At more than 800 pages, this book is double the size of the first edition and COMPLETELY updated. I bought three copies of the Second Edition as soon as it came out, and I gave two copies to my friends. This book tells what the indicators measure, what their components are, how they are formulated, and what exactly they purport to indicate. It describes their various realms of usefullness and their limitations. The book is packed with charts and examples and is very, very interesting to read. I bought the first edition about six years ago and have found it the only useful reference of its type. The Second Edition is entirely updated and expanded and is ESSENTIAL for understanding Technical Market Indicators and stock trends. I recommend that EVERYONE in the industry and all serious independant traders and researchers get the new SECOND EDITION of this book.

The best technical analysis and indicator encyclopedia. Comprehensive, best refernce.The only book yoy will ever need. Not a dictionary of indicator, complete analysis and trading models explained.

A must for the serious investor. A concise and easy to understand examination of technical market indicators. Mr. Colby's book is invaluable when determining the usefulness of indicators. This book is about as close as you can get to a "one stop shop" for technical research.

(...) It gives a lot of general info on a lot of different Fixed income topics. It's a good ref. for people just getting involved with fixed income. However if you are looking for focused material, you should look into one of Frank's books on that area. Good overall intuition on Fixed income markets and products.

If you are in the financial world dealing with fixed income directly or indirectly, just entering into the fixed income world, or looking for a great FI reference, go no further. This is it. Very broad with heavy MBS influence as well as the basics of fixed income. This is for novice to intermediate FI users. Academics and advanced portfolio managers might find this general. But, for the large population this is the spot.

This book has been around for years and new editions are lapped up by fresh generations of bond geeks. You will find a copy on pretty much every fixed income desk in the industry (including mine). Why all the hoopla? Because there is simply no other book like it. Because it is simply the most comprehensive survey of the various fixed income markets in print. For a basic understanding of the structure and institutional aspects fixed income securities, Fabozzi is the inevitable first stop. All this being said, it is important to understand the book's weaknesses. There is relatively little depth in terms of analytics and if you want formulae you will have to look elsewhere. But for basic overviews, structural details and the orientation that is a precondition for deeper study, the Handbook is in a class by itelf.

There are way too many negative examples in this book - case studies of what stupid or weak-willed people did wrong, in the author's opinion. She does have a lot of insight into how to build a niche, but she delivers her knowledge with a sharp-edged know-it-all attitude that I could not take after a while. Despite being a marketing consultant who wanted to recommend this book to clients, I could not finish reading the book, I found it so offensive in tone.

If you're wanting to start a business and be smart about it or if your current business lacks vision with purpose, then this is the jumpstart you need to success! Dr. Falkenstein's 9-step process is highly intelligent, has common sense, and will save you from endless entrepreneurial myopia once you engage with NicheCraft. The biggest mistakes most businesses (and service professionals) make are trying to be all things to all people and having no sense of focus. Dr. Lynda's NicheCraft model prevents those mistakes from happening if you work with (not follow) them with much due diligence. If you don't know a thing about marketing, you will learn some strategies here that cost next to nothing--which can save you a lot of money in having to hire someone else to do it all for you. I used this book as the basis for my own company--CREATIVE VISIONS CONSULTING--and had fantastic results in using this book! Whether you're a coach, a photographer, a doctor, or anyone who's ever had a good idea for a business but don't know how to execute a plan, then this is the BEST BOOK EVER to get you on the path to having a special and lucrative niche!

This book has changed the way I think about my business. Dr. Falkenstein offers a step-by-step guide for identifying and developing your unique niche. As a speaker and author of "Liberate the Leader: Giving Every Woman the Guts to Lead", I am concerned about reaching the audience that is most likely to benefit from my message. "Nichecraft" has helped me identify my audience, clarify my message and tailor my marketing strategies to grow my business. Have your highlighter in hand as you read this book!

If you're a conservative investor searching for alternatives that don't involve gambling or sticking with the conventional wisdom of stock market investing you'll love this book. I've made some changes to my investments as a result of information I learned from reading this well researched book. It was actually entertaining as well! 5 Stars Loved It!

If you are a big company executive or a stockbroker you're going to hate this book. The author really rips into the big brokerage firms and corporations and how they take advantage of the little guy. If everyone practiced what was recommended in the book there would be a lot less left on the table for big business to glean from the small investor. 1 Star I'm sure they hate it!

It seems that all the books on low risk investing emphasize picking good companies or funds and keeping them for a long period of time. Blind Faith is different.

I'd love to be stress or worry free but traditional Cd's and money markets pay so little and I certainly don't believe that corporate America has cleaned up its act. This book taught me another investment strategy and discussed in detail investments that I never heard of before like market-linked CDs.

I enjoyed the authors cynical approach and found the book to be entertaining as well as enlightening.

Finally, a book that speaks to concerns that I've had about investing since I read my first investment book but that no one seems to talk about.

The author covers topics that are taboo in most investment texts, such as how the investment industry is rigged against the individual investor (corporate structure, taxes, investment banks, government regulation, etc.), and what you can do to protect yourself from market risk. Diversification doesn't help when the whole market collapses after a catastrophic event like 9-11 or in a deep recession.

If you want to take advantage of up markets and hold onto your gains in down markets, then read this book.

This book seems to have written to cash in on the fame of the authors and the stampede in academia and industry towards financial econometrics.

The book already assumes you are proficent in basic and advanced econometrics, derivatives pricing, fixed income, microstructure, neural networks etc. If you already familiar with those fields, why do you need this book? For example, Chapter 10 on Fixed Income Securities covers a grand total of 28 pages beginning with "Basic Concepts" and ending with "Yield Spreads and Interest Rate forecasts". Meanwhile there are whole tomes devoted to every one of those sections in Chapter 10. Nonparameteric Estimation merits a grand total of 9 pages and Neural networks merits 7 pages in Chapter 12.

The chapter on Microstructure, virtue of the book being published in 1997 is thoroughly dated. Even for its 1997 publication the chapter is thoroughly lacking. It is neither a survey nor a exposition of theory or practial uses of microstructure theory. Today there are excellent theoretical and practical books devoted to every topic covered in this book.

Save your money for one of those.

It is a good book, but there are some aspects which I find lacking in the book which could be helpful. For example, brief outline answers to some of the problems at the end of the chapter will help most readers no doubt. Also, a more comprehensive cover on the rational bubbles and GARCH type models for asset returns will help no doubt, as well as problems that may arise during implementation. This book is aimed at the advance graduate student who is pretty proficient in theoretical finance and advance econometric issues already.

This is really a classic book on financial econometrics. I like the design of the book. The content is also pretty up-to-date. A little bit advanced - requires solid background in econometrics, analysis, statistics, and some stochastic calculus. The only problem I have is the authors did not provide background data, so it's really hard for people to do self-study like me. If the authors could include a preferred computer program (i.e. Matlab, GAUSS, EViews, etc.) with codes and data, that will make the book a true bible of financial econometrics.