Synopses & Reviews
"Once I picked it up I did not put it down until I finished. . . . What Schwed has done is capture fullyin deceptively clean languagethe lunacy at the heart of the investment business."
From the Foreword by Michael Lewis, Bestselling author of Liar's Poker
". . . one of the funniest books ever written about Wall Street."
Jane Bryant Quinn, The Washington Post
"How great to have a reissue of a hilarious classic that proves the more things change the more they stay the same. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent."
Michael Bloomberg
"It's amazing how well Schwed's book is holding up after fifty-five years. About the only thing that's changed on Wall Street is that computers have replaced pencils and graph paper. Otherwise, the basics are the same. The investor's need to believe somebody is matched by the financial advisor's need to make a nice living. If one of them has to be disappointed, it's bound to be the former."
John Rothchild, Author, A Fool and His Money, Financial Columnist, Time magazine
Review
Synopsis
Where Are the Customers’ Yachts exposes the folly and hypocrisy of Wall Street in a very humorous and entertaining manner. The title refers to a story about a visitor to New York who admired the yachts of the bankers and brokers in New York Harbor. Naively, he asked where are the customers’ yachts. Of course, there were no customer yachts. The book contains a number of other stories about Wall Street predictions, customers, mutual funds, speculators, and the wild bull market of the 1920s. Schwed believes the best way to make money is buy after the market has crashed and sell when everyone is euphoric about the market. While the contrarian philosophy has much merit, the real value of the book is in opening the eyes of investors to how Wall Street makes money and why the vast majority of investors lose money over time.
Synopsis
Humorous and entertaining, this book exposes the folly and hypocrisy of Wall Street. The title refers to a story about a visitor to New York who admired the yachts of the bankers and brokers. Naively, he asked where all the customers' yachts were? Of course, none of the customers could afford yachts, even though they dutifully followed the advice of their bankers and brokers. Full of wise contrarian advice and offering a true look at the world of investing, in which brokers get rich while their customers go broke, this book continues to open the eyes of investors to the reality of Wall Street.
About the Author
Fred Schwed Jr. was a professional trader who got out of the market after losing a bundle in the 1929 stock market crash. Years later, he published a bestselling children's book entitled Wacky, the Small Boy, and then went on to write Where Are the Customers' Yachts?
Table of Contents
Introduction by Jason Zweig.
Foreword to the 1995 Edition by Michael Lewis.
Introduction to the 1955 Bull Market Edition.
I. Introduction—"The Modest Cough of a Minor Poet".
II.. Financiers and Seers.
III.. Customers—That Hardy Breed.
IV. Iinvestment Trusts—Promises and Performance.
V. The Short Seller—He of the Black Heart.
VI. Puts, Calls, Straddles, and Gabble.
VII. The "Good" Old Days and the "Great" Captains.
VIII. Investment—Many Questions and a Few Answers.
IX. Reform—Some Yeas and Nays.
About the Author.