The market in listed options and non-equity option products provides investors and traders with a wealth of new, strategic opportunities for managing their investments. This updated and revised Fifth Edition of the bestselling Options as a Strategic Investment gives you the latest market-tested tools for improving the earnings potential of your portfolio while reducing downside risk—no matter how the market is performing.

Inside this revised edition are scores of proven techniques and business-tested tactics for investing in many of the innovative new options products available. You will find:

• Buy and sell strategies for Long Term Equity Anticipation Securities (LEAPS)
• A thorough analysis of neutral trading, how it works, and various ways it can improve readers’ overall profit picture
• Detailed guidance for investing in Preferred Equity Redemption Cumulative Stocks (PERCS) and how to hedge them with common and regular options
• An extensive overview of futures and futures options

Written especially for investors who have some familiarity with the option market, this comprehensive reference also shows you the concepts and applications of various option strategies -- how they work, in which situations, and why; techniques for using index options and futures to protect one’s portfolio and improve one’s return; and the implications of the tax laws for option writers, including allowable long-term gains and losses. Detailed examples, exhibits, and checklists show you the power of each strategy under carefully described market conditions.

Acquisitions have a poor record of creating value for shareholders. Studies have shown that as many as 70% of mergers and acquisitions fail to meet their objectives. Some even bankrupt the acquiring company. Why is this? Managers often have too little experience with the acquisition process or make acquisitions for the wrong reasons. Smarter Acquisitions will make sure you are part of the 30% that get it right. By following ten key steps you can ensure that you get real value from your acquisitions. It covers the entire acquisition process, from identifying targets through to integrating the new company, providing you with the knowledge you need to lead an acquisition or to participate at any stage. Private equity is now a massive force in the marketplace This book gives you an overview of this recently emerging phenomenon and will help you explore when you could profitably incorporate this option into your acquisitions strategy.

Brian J. Millard uses channel analysis to determine how certain share price cycles, made up of both random movement and predictable cyclical movement, should behave in the near future, giving the investor a powerful prediction tool. A considerable proportion of price movement is random and as such, investors cannot achieve 100% success in predicting price movement. However, cycles are present in share price data, and channel analysis can be used to determine their position. Channel analysis enables investors to: - Rapidly scan a pool of 50-100 shares for new opportunities - Identify the start and end of trends only a few days after the event - Use one of three stop-loss methods as added insurance against extreme random movements The author also discusses how probability analysis allows the investor to attain a better estimation of channel turning points, leading to greater profit potential. 'Millard on Channel Analysis' is an invaluable guide for any investor who wants to make money by looking at share price cycles.

A realistic guide to day trading today's stock market The Truth About Day Trading Stocks is an uncompromisingly realistic look at the challenges involved in becoming a successful day trader. Based on author Josh DiPietro's ten years of experience as a day trader, this book dissects the psychological and strategic pitfalls that cause most aspiring day traders to fail. Written in an engaging and sometimes humorous tone, The Truth About Day Trading Stocks relates his own experiences, and in so doing, provides the reader with valuable lessons. This book is an antidote to trading industry hype that encourages traders to believe that trading is easily learned and is a fast path to wealth. It explains that the conventional route of attending seminars, buying software, and opening an account with a major brokerage house is a path to failure. Instead, a trader must learn hard lessons of self-discipline, consistency, and staying in the game for the long haul to have a real chance of success. The goal of this guide is to slow down the over-eager, over-optimistic amateur day trader by imparting a realistic view of the challenges of day trading and providing tools, techniques, and insights to become a successful trader without losing a huge amount of money in the process. Josh DiPietro (West Dennis, MA and New York, NY) has been day trading stocks for ten years. He operates a Web site, www.daytraderjosh.com, and provides training programs for aspiring day traders.

Activist investors have sent shockwaves through corporations in recent years, personally targeting directors and executives at some of the world's largest companies. No longer satisfied with operating on the fringes of business, they are now a firm fixture in the boardroom. Up to a quarter of public companies could be targeted by activist campaigns in the coming years, with directors and executives at those corporations threatened with losing their jobs. The trend, which began in corporate America, has spread to the UK, Europe and Asia, taking in several high profile companies. Barbarians in the Boardroom tells a compelling story of boardroom bust ups, dumped CEOs triumphant activists and pared back companies. It reveals real-life examples and interviews with executives and investors to explain why and how activist investors have managed to storm Wall Street and tear down City citadels. Owen Walker provides an insight into the way activists think, how they decide to target a company and how directors and executives could possibly work with them rather than against them. 'A terrific book about the personalities, strategies, and tactics of high-profile activist investors. The stories are fascinating about the activist game plan and how it is changing...' Robert J. Swieringa, Professor and Dean Emeritus, Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University 'Excellent overview of activist hedge funds - it tells readers how these funds brought about significant changes in corporate boardrooms.' Robert C. Pozen. Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School, former Chair of MFS Investment Management "A great guide to how activist investors work - essential for corporate directors, investors and anyone with a passing interest. Filled with insights into a number of the most high-profile personality clashes and boardroom battles." Barry Parr, Co-Chair of Pension Trustees AMNT and Non-Exec Director of CrowdBnk Ltd "Barbarians in the Boardroom is an excellent forensic analysis of the new era of activist investing and the first to cover campaigns that have ousted S&P 500 boards, promoted giant mergers and permanently changed the roles played by boards of directors." Josh Black, Editor-in-Chief, Activist Insight 'The rise of shareholders activists is one of the great capital market stories of the day. Packed with riveting tales from the activist battlefront, Owen Walker's book does it full justice.' John Plender, Financial Times Columnist

Since around the turn of the millennium there has been a general acceptance that one of the more practical improvements one may make in the light of the shortfalls of the classical Black-Scholes model is to replace the underlying source of randomness, a Brownian motion, by a Levy process. Working with Levy processes allows one to capture desirable distributional characteristics in the stock returns. In addition, recent work on Levy processes has led to the understanding of many probabilistic and analytical properties, which make the processes attractive as mathematical tools. At the same time, exotic derivatives are gaining increasing importance as financial instruments and are traded nowadays in large quantities in OTC markets. The current volume is a compendium of chapters, each of which consists of discursive review and recent research on the topic of exotic option pricing and advanced Levy markets, written by leading scientists in this field.

"In recent years, Levy processes have leapt to the fore as a tractable mechanism for modeling asset returns. Exotic option values are especially sensitive to an accurate portrayal of these dynamics. This comprehensive volume provides a valuable service for financial researchers everywhere by assembling key contributions from the world's leading researchers in the field."
-- Peter Carr, Head of Quantitative Finance, Bloomberg LP

"This book provides a front-row seat to the hottest new field in modern finance: options pricing in turbulent markets. The old models have failed, as many a professional investor can sadly attest. So many of the brightest minds in mathematical finance across the globe are now in search of new, more accuratemodels. Here, in one volume, is a comprehensive selection of this cutting-edge research."
--Richard L. Hudson, former Managing Editor of "The Wall Street Journal Europe," and co-author with Benoit B. Mandelbrot of "The (Mis)Behaviour of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin and Reward"

Forecasting Financial Markets provides a compelling insight into the psychology of trading behaviour and shows how "following the herd" can have disastrous results. It demonstrates how your ability to make money in the world's financial markets depends critically on your ability to make decisions independently of the crowd. Given the impact of the global credit crunch, it has become even more essential to be able to distinguish between short-term and longer-term trends at a time when panic selling and 'fire-sale' purchases are common. Forecasting Financial Markets details the three dimensions essential to achieve successful trading, including an ability to understand the forces at work in logical terms, recognize (and neutralize) any emotional responses to market fluctuations, and design an investment process or trading system that generates objective 'buy' or 'sell' signals. Taking the author's latest research into account, this important book provides you with an in-depth assessment of the phenomenon of cycles, patterns of economic and financial activity, and how to use cycles as a forecasting tool - including the author's forecasts for when the global economy will emerge from its current downturn.

Praise for Algorithmic Trading "Algorithmic Trading is an insightful book on quantitative trading written by a seasoned practitioner. What sets this book apart from many others in the space is the emphasis on real examples as opposed to just theory. Concepts are not only described, they are brought to life with actual trading strategies, which give the reader insight into how and why each strategy was developed, how it was implemented, and even how it was coded. This book is a valuable resource for anyone looking to create their own systematic trading strategies and those involved in manager selection, where the knowledge contained in this book will lead to a more informed and nuanced conversation with managers." DAREN SMITH, CFA, CAIA, FSA, Managing Director, Manager Selection & Portfolio Construction, University of Toronto Asset Management "Using an excellent selection of mean reversion and momentum strategies, Ernie explains the rationale behind each one, shows how to test it, how to improve it, and discusses implementation issues. His book is a careful, detailed exposition of the scientific method applied to strategy development. For serious retail traders, I know of no other book that provides this range of examples and level of detail. His discussions of how regime changes affect strategies, and of risk management, are invaluable bonuses." Roger Hunter, Mathematician and Algorithmic Trader

An insider's look at security analysis and business valuation, as practiced by Wall Street, Corporate America, and international businessesTwo major market crashes, numerous financial and accounting scandals, growth in private equity and hedge funds, Sarbanes Oxley and related regulations, and international developments changed security analysis and business valuation substantially over the last fourteen years. These events necessitated a second edition of this modern classic, praised earlier by "Barron's" as a "welcome successor to Graham and Dodd" and used in the global CFA exam.

This authoritative book shows the rational, rigorous analysis is still the most successful way to evaluate securities. It picks up where Graham and Dodd's bestselling "Security Analysis" - for decades considered the definitive word on the subject - leaves off. Providing a practical viewpoint, "Security Analysis on Wall Street" shows how the values of common stock are really determined in today's marketplace. Incorporating dozens of real-world examples, and spotlighting many special analysis cases - including cash flow stocks, unusual industries and distressed securities - this comprehensive resources delivers all the answers to your questions about security analysis and corporate valuation on Wall Street.The "Second Edition" of "Security Analysis on Wall Street" examines how mutual funds, private equity funds, hedge funds, institutional money managers, investment banks, business appraisers, and corporate acquirers perform their craft of security analysis and business valuation in today's highly charged environment. Completely updated to reflect the latest methodologies, this reliable resource represents the most comprehensive book written by someone who has actually worked as an investment banker, private equity executive, and international institutional investor.Shows the methodical process that practitioners use to value common stocks and operating companies and to make buy/sell decisions Discusses the impact of the two stock market crashes, the accounting and financial scandals, and the new regulations on the evaluation process Covers how Internet and computing power automate portions of the research and analytical effortIncludes new case study examples representative of valuation issues faced daily by mutual funds, private equity funds, hedge funds, institutional investors, investment banks, business appraisers, and corporate acquirers Is a perfect tool for professors wishing to show their MBA students the essential tools of equity and business valuation

Security analysis and business valuation are core financial disciplines for Wall Streeters, corporate acquirers, and international investors. The "Second Edition" of "Security Analysis on Wall Street" is an important book for anyone who needs a solid grounding in these critical finance topics.

How two former traders of William J. O'Neil + Company made mad money using O'Neil's trading strategies, and how you can, too

From the successes and failures of two William O'Neil insiders, "Trade Like an O'Neil Disciple: How We Made Over 18,000% in the Stock Market in 7 Years" is a detailed look at how to trade using William O'Neil's proven strategies and what it was like working side-by-side with Bill O'Neil. Under various market conditions, the authors document their trades, including the set ups, buy, add, and sell points for their winners. Then, they turn the magnifying glass on themselves to analyze their mistakes, including how much they cost them, how they reacted, and what they learned.Presents sub-strategies for buying pocket pivots and gap-upsIncludes a market direction timing model, as well as updated tools for selling stocks shortProvides an "inside view" of the authors' experiences as proprietary, internal portfolio managers at William O'Neil + Company, Inc. from 1997-2005

Detailing technical information and the trading psychology that has worked so well for them, "Trade Like an O'Neil Disciple" breaks down what every savvy money manager, trader and investor needs to know to profit enormously in today's stock market.

This book is aimed at providing simple quantitative strategies that individual investors can implement with little work using simple, free or cheap tools and services.

Discover the best ways to build, protect, and sustain family and business wealth across generations! Wealth is the world's most valuable guide to wealth management for individuals, families, business owners, and the "upwardly affluent." In the six years since Stuart Lucas first wrote this book, however, the financial world has changed dramatically. Throughout the financial crisis and beyond, Lucas has led the University of Chicago's Private Wealth Management program, teaching more than 500 members of the world's wealthiest families. Now, he brings together extraordinary insights and constructs informed by this experience. Wealth, Updated and Revised Edition retains its core advice, which has been tested and proven by the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. However, Lucas has updated his exclusive Strategic Wealth Management Framework to help even more individuals, families, and entrepreneurs aspiring to wealth or seeking to protect it. Lucas highlights key value drivers - family purpose, the economic engine, and leakage management - that mark the difference between family enterprises that succeed for generations and those that fail. He offers updated, sage advice on making financial decisions, evaluating "expert" advice, running a family business office, tax/estate planning, philanthropy, wealth preservation, and more. Since developing a family's human capital is the best antidote to Wall Street excess, this edition adds even more robust and actionable guidance for building a culture of Entrepreneurial Stewardship: one that enables and encourages all family members to flourish, and improves the odds that families can sustain wealth. This book is for all successful business owners and anyone who possesses (or aspires to own) substantial financial assets, whether earned or inherited. It will also be of keen interest to investment advisors, business consultants, business brokers, wealth industry practitioners, lawyers, accountants, tax advisors, and others who counsel the wealthy (and upwardly affluent) about wealth management.

Overcome psychological obstacles to increase trading success Successful traders need to be well-versed and skilled in a wide range of business and economic areas. But now, in addition to effective trading strategies and sound money management techniques, traders need to possess the know-how to handle the mental and emotional challenges of working in a highly volatile environment. Trade Mindfully is a unique resource that applies cutting-edge psychological techniques to trading skills, allowing readers to improve their mental outlooks and maximize the potential of their trading strategies. This book draws upon recent psychological research in behaviorism to teach new approaches that call for better focus, more confidence, and more positive perspectives and outcomes. One of the key concepts covered in the book is mindfulness, a state of mind traditionally touted in the East for its ability to reduce stress and increase perspective, useful qualities for traders looking to rise above emotional obstacles and the poor results they cause. The author also discusses the importance of High Value Trading Actions (HVAs), specific actions that are under a trader's control. With this guide, trading professionals will be able to form solid strategies based on a combination of these notions and practices, leading to higher levels of trading performance. * Applies sound psychological practice and evidence-based research to the trading profession * Covers the psychological perspectives and mental skills needed to succeed in today's trading world * Focuses on key concepts that lead to deliberate practice, specific trading activities, and increased awareness and focus * Designed to help traders deal with the emotional challenges that come with uncertainty and risk Trade Mindfully touches on the most essential concepts for anyone intrigued by what trading psychology has to offer, and delivers the best strategies for achieving the right mental skills for peak performance.

Critical Praise… "In my interviews with over 30 of the best traders of our time, there were some questions that I raised in each conversation. One of these was: Are there any books that you found particularly valuable and would recommend to aspiring traders? By far, the most frequent response was Reminiscences of a Stock Operator—a book that was over 70 years old!" —from the Foreword by Jack Schwager Author of Market Wizards and The New Market Wizards "Although Reminiscences…was first published some 70 years ago, its take on crowd psychology and market timing is as timely as last summer’s frenzy on the foreign exchange markets." —Worth magazine "The most entertaining book written on investing is Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, by Edwin Lefèvre, first published in 1923." —The Seattle Times "The best book I’ve read is Reminiscences of a Stock Operator. I keep a supply for people who come to work for me." —Martin Zweig "After 20 years and many re-reads, Reminiscences is still one of my all-time favorites." —Kenneth L. Fisher Forbes Offering timeless lessons about the market and investor psychology, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator has enriched the lives of generations of investors and continues to be the most widely read and celebrated investment book ever written.

The easy way to get started in stock charts Many trading and technical analysis books focus on how to use charts to make stock trading decisions, but what about how to actually build a chart? Stock Charts For Dummies reveals the important stories charts tell, and how different parameters can impact what you see on the screen. This book will explain some of the most powerful display settings that help traders understand the information in a chart to find outperformance as its beginning. Stock Charts for Dummies will teach you how to build a visually appealing chart and add tools based on the type of trading or investing decision you're trying to make. It will also introduce you to the pros, cons, and best practices of using three key types of charts: Candlesticks, Bar Charts, and Line Charts. Build and use technical chart patterns Increase profits and minimize risk Track and identify specific trends within charts A unique guide for beginning traders and investors, Stock Charts for Dummies will help you make sense of stock charts.

With the right broker, and just a few hundred dollars or pounds, anyone can become a leveraged trader. The products and tools needed are accessible to all: FX, a margin account, CFDs, spread-bets and futures. But this level playing field comes with great risks. Trading with leverage is inherently dangerous. With leverage, losses and costs - the two great killers for traders - are magnified. This does not mean leverage must be avoided altogether, but it does mean that it needs to be used safely. In Leveraged Trading, Robert Carver shows you how to do exactly that, by using a trading system. A trading system can be employed to tackle those twin dangers of serious losses and high costs. The trading systems introduced in this book are simple and carefully designed to use the correct amount of leverage and trade at a suitable frequency. Rob shows how to trade a simple Starter System on its own, on a single instrument and with a single rule for opening positions. He then moves on to show how the Starter System can be adapted, as you gain experience and confidence. The system can be diversified into multiple instruments and new trading rules can be added. For those who wish to go further still, advice on making more complex improvements is included: how to develop your own trading systems, and how to combine a system with your own human judgement, an approach Robert has nicknamed Semi-Automatic Trading. For those trading with leverage, looking for a way to take a controlled approach and manage risk, a properly designed trading system is the answer. Pick up Leveraged Trading and learn how.

The Defensive Value Investor presents a simple and comprehensive strategy for building and managing a share portfolio. Defensive investing focuses on strong, steady companies that produce decent rates of income and capital growth, but with risk often coming from a lofty share price. Value investing on the other hand is focused on buying companies on the cheap, but the danger is that these companies are cheap for a reason. Defensive Value combines the two and involves buying relatively defensive companies at value for money prices. John Kingham explains how to screen for shares with the best combination of quality, value, income and growth, how to conduct a thorough qualitative analysis, when to buy, when to sell, and how to combine your investments into an easily manageable portfolio to reduce risk and increase returns. He also illustrates the method throughout with the help of real-life examples. Each step of the process has a simple "rule of thumb" to make it easy to remember what you should do. When these rules are put together they provide a checklist of straightforward, actionable statements for the Defensive Value Investor to follow. You may choose to adopt the full Defensive Value approach, or you may prefer to incorporate some of the techniques into your own share analysis. Either way, this comprehensive book is an essential addition to the library of every investor.

This classic study of German creditbanks was first published in 1930 and even now deserves its place as a fundamental text on banking in Germany. It is a valuable comparative study of one important type of financial institution and represents a detailed survey of Joint Stock Banking in Germany in the pre-war, war and post-war periods upt o 1928.

The efficient market hypothesis (EMH) maintains that all relevant information is fully and immediately reflected in stock prices and that investors will obtain an equilibrium rate of return. The EMH has far reaching implications for capital allocation, stock price prediction, and the effectiveness of specific trading strategies. Equity market anomalies reflect that the market is inefficient and hence, contradicts the EMH. This book gathers both theoretical and practical perspectives, by including research issues, methodological approaches, practical case studies, uses of new policy and other points of view related to equity market efficiency to help address the future challenges facing the global equity markets and economies. Information Efficiency and Anomalies in Asian Equity Markets: Theories and evidence is an insightful resource that will be useful for students, academics and professionals alike.

An analysis of the investment approach of the world's top investors, showing how to achieve market-beating returns. It is possible to beat the market. Taking this as a starting point, Excess Returns sets out to explore how exactly the most famous investors in the world have done it, year after year, sometimes by huge margins. Excess Returns is not a superficial survey of what investors have said about what they do. Rather, Frederik Vanhaverbeke applies a forensic analysis to hundreds of books, articles, letters and speeches made by dozens of top investors over the last century and synthesises his findings into a definitive blueprint of how exactly these investment legends have gone about their work. Among the legends whose work has been studied are Anthony Bolton, David Bonderman, Warren Buffett, Philip Carret, David Einhorn, Benjamin Graham, Joel Greenblatt, Seth Klarman, Peter Lynch, Jim Rogers, Walter Schloss, George Soros, John Templeton and many more.Among the revealing insights, you will learn of the striking similarities in the craft of great investors, crucial subtleties in their methods that are ignored by many, and the unconscious errors investors commonly make and how these are counter to successful investing. Special attention is given to two often overlooked areas: effective investment philosophy and investment intelligence. The investing essentials covered include: finding bargain shares; making a quantitative and qualitative business analysis; valuation methods; investing throughout the business cycle; timing buy and sell decisions; and much, much more! Excess Returns is full of timeless and practical insights, presented in a unique style, to help investors focus on the most promising opportunities and lead the way to beating the market.

An analysis of the investment approach of the world's top investors, showing how to achieve market-beating returns. It is possible to beat the market. Taking this as a starting point, Excess Returns sets out to explore how exactly the most famous investors in the world have done it, year after year, sometimes by huge margins. Excess Returns is not a superficial survey of what investors have said about what they do. Rather, Frederik Vanhaverbeke applies a forensic analysis to hundreds of books, articles, letters and speeches made by dozens of top investors over the last century and synthesises his findings into a definitive blueprint of how exactly these investment legends have gone about their work. Among the legends whose work has been studied are Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Anthony Bolton, Peter Lynch, Charles Munger, Joel Greenblatt, Seth Klarman, David Einhorn, Daniel Loeb, Lou Simpson, Prem Watsa and many more.Among the revealing insights, you will learn of the striking similarities in the craft of great investors, crucial subtleties in their methods that are ignored by many, and the unconscious errors investors commonly make and how these are counter to successful investing. Special attention is given to two often overlooked areas: effective investment philosophy and investment intelligence. The investing essentials covered include: finding bargain shares; making a quantitative and qualitative business analysis; valuation methods; investing throughout the business cycle; timing buy and sell decisions; and much, much more! Excess Returns is full of timeless and practical insights, presented in a unique style, to help investors focus on the most promising opportunities and lead the way to beating the market.

This is the classic work on Elliott Wave and market cycles returned to print. During the 1930s, R. N. Elliott undertook the painstaking procedure of attempting to classify share price movements for the preceding 80 years on Wall Street. It was during the course of this seminal work that Elliott discovered a definable basic rhythm in share price movements which he felt had forecasting value when correctly applied. In 1938 Elliott published his findings in a series of articles with the overall title "The Wave Principle". After publication, Elliott's work drifted into obscurity, until Robert Beckman's 'Supertiming' introduced it to a new audience. In this renowned work, Beckman sets out with three main objectives: to clarify obscurities and grey areas of The Wave Principle that were present in Elliott's original writing; to incorporate the work of other analysts in order to allow the Wave Principle to have a broader application; and to show the correct conceptual approach that should be used with the Wave Principle so that one can apply it with confidence and consistency.If you are willing to approach the subject of stock market behaviour with an open mind, who have faith in the fundamental laws of economics and the consistency of human nature, and who would like to avoid the pitfalls that have deluded the investment community for decades, this is the book for you.

The national bestseller!

The Oakland Athletics have a secret: a winning baseball team is made, not bought.

I wrote this book because I fell in love with a story. The story concerned a small group of undervalued professional baseball players and executives, many of whom had been rejected as unfit for the big leagues, who had turned themselves into one of the most successful franchises in Major League Baseball. But the idea for the book came well before I had good reason to write it—before I had a story to fall in love with. It began, really, with an innocent question: how did one of the poorest teams in baseball, the Oakland Athletics, win so many games?

With these words Michael Lewis launches us into the funniest, smartest, and most contrarian book since, well, since Liar's Poker. Moneyball is a quest for something as elusive as the Holy Grail, something that money apparently can't buy: the secret of success in baseball. The logical places to look would be the front offices of major league teams, and the dugouts, perhaps even in the minds of the players themselves. Lewis mines all these possibilities—his intimate and original portraits of big league ballplayers are alone worth the price of admission—but the real jackpot is a cache of numbers—numbers!—collected over the years by a strange brotherhood of amateur baseball enthusiasts: software engineers, statisticians, Wall Street analysts, lawyers and physics professors.

What these geek numbers show—no, prove—is that the traditional yardsticks of success for players and teams are fatally flawed. Even the box score misleads us by ignoring the crucial importance of the humble base-on-balls. This information has been around for years, and nobody inside Major League Baseball paid it any mind. And then came Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland Athletics.

Billy paid attention to those numbers —with the second lowest payroll in baseball at his disposal he had to—and this book records his astonishing experiment in finding and fielding a team that nobody else wanted. Moneyball is a roller coaster ride: before the 2002 season opens, Oakland must relinquish its three most prominent (and expensive) players, is written off by just about everyone, and then comes roaring back to challenge the American League record for consecutive wins.

In a narrative full of fabulous characters and brilliant excursions into the unexpected, Michael Lewis shows us how and why the new baseball knowledge works. He also sets up a sly and hilarious morality tale: Big Money, like Goliath, is always supposed to win...how can we not cheer for David?

"A brilliantly told tale....Michael Lewis's beautiful obsession with the idea of value has once again yielded gold...Moneyball explains baseball's startling new insight; that for all our dreams of blasts to the bleachers, the sport's hidden glory lies in not getting out."—Garry Trudeau

"Anyone who cares about baseball must read it."—Newsweek

"An extraordinary job of reporting and writing."—San Jose Mercury News

"Amazing anecdotes...an entertaining, enlightening read."—Baseball America

"Ebullient, invigorating...provides plenty of action, both numerical and athletic, on the field and in the draft-day war room."—Time

"One of the most enjoyable baseball books in years."—The New York Times Book Review

"[Lewis's] descriptive writing allows Beane and the others in the lively cast of baseball characters to come alive."—Publishers Weekly

"Lewis...is playing at the top of his game....[he] has hit another one out of the park."—The New York Times, Janet Maslin

The classic book that introduced the investment industry to the concept of trading psychology. With rare insight based on his firsthand commodity trading experience, author Mark Douglas demonstrates how the mental matters that allow us function effectively in society are often psychological barriers in trading. After examining how we develop losing attitudes, this book prepares you for a thorough "mental housecleaning" of deeply rooted thought processes. And then it shows the reader how to develop and apply attitudes and behaviors that transcend psychological obstacles and lead to success. The Disciplined Trader helps you join the elite few who have learned how to control their trading behavior (the few traders who consistently take the greatest percentage of profits out of the market) by developing a systematic, step-by-step approach to winning week after week, month after month. The book is divided into three parts: * An overview of the psychological requirements of the trading environment * A definition of the problems and challenges of becoming a successful trader * Basic insights into what behavior may need to be changed, and how to build a framework for accomplishing this goal * How to develop specific trading skills based on a clear, objective perspective on market action "A groundbreaking work published in 1990 examining as to why most traders cannot raise their equity on a consistent basis, bringing the reader to practical conclusions to go about changing any limiting mindset."-Larry Pesavento, TradingTutor.com