A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing 

Good read. Gets into specifics unlike other books which can be vague as hell.

Lots of good antedotes, but too cynical at times.

Quick read marred by being elementary but gave it away to someone who was convinced by christian radio that he had a sure-fire way to make money at options trading. one born every etc.

Interesting. Worth the read

For general knowledge or to complement your academic course. A clear path to understanding the stock market and its history.

It was meant to be pristine, but it was not. Still, an OK quality. Approved!

Must read.

To clear up what some readers misconceive, I found the author’s summary at the end of Ch. 4 helpful: “Probably more so than any other chapter in the book, this review of the Internet [sic] bubble seems inconsistent with the view that the stock market is rational and efficient. The lesson from this chapter, it seems to me, is not that markets occasionally can be irrational and, therefore, that we should abandon the firm-foundation theory. Rather, . . . in every case, the market did correct itself. The market eventually corrects any irrationality . . . .” So in short, Malkiel acknowledges the market temporarily becomes irrational but eventually corrects such irrationality; thus, the market eventually acts rational.

In my view, even if the market eventually acts rational, the market acts inefficiently as Malkiel admits: “markets occasionally can be irrational.” As Malkiel points out, the market acted irrationally for years by over valuing internet stocks during the late 1990’s. A market that fails to rationally value companies for years acts inefficiently.

So far, I like the book and take away its points. However, that does not mean I changed my thinking. As I pointed out in the example above, Malkiel’s points strengthen by view: at times, the markets act irrational. Because at times, the markets acts irrationally, the market is inefficient. Because the market is inefficient, investors who understand the inefficiency can consistently produce a return greater than the market. Read the Market Wizard series where Jack Schwager interviews investors who have done so.

Burton’s philosophy that the market is un-tradeable has long been disproven. When Burton first wrote this tome, he did not have the computing power we have today. He lifted weekly prices from the Wall St. Journal and tested a few stocks on mainframes running punch cards. Burton never knew the secrets of successful trading, and therefore never knew how to test for it and trade like a seasoned professional. So, like a poor sport, he declared it could not be done and published this depressing book. But in the last 33 years, books like Market Wizards, One Up on Wall St, How to Make Money in Stocks by O’Neil, and scores of traders who have consistently won the US Investing Championships have provided audited evidence that technical analysis indeed does work and that Burton’s claims are false. Traders can and do beat the market on a regular basis, and many have made tens of millions and some hundreds of millions (Richard Dennis, William Ekhart, with audited results). Burton’s buy and hold methods are passable if you just want to keep pace with the market and don’t want to do any work. It’s called passive investing and you’ll get out of it as much as you put into it. And that’s fine. But don’t believe him when he says technical analysis doesn’t work. Years ago, James Randi, the famous debunker of fraudulent paranormal claims, showed the weakness of PhDs. He proved a group of Ph.D’s who had validated Uri Geller and authenticated he could read minds and bend keys with his brain were indeed tricked by Geller. The PhDs didn’t know the craft of the illusionist, and were unable to detect his tricks. It’s the same with PhDs claiming technical analysis doesn’t work, but in reverse. They don’t know the craft of trading, which takes years to learn. They run a few unskilled back-tests with sloppy exit rules, get sour results, then proclaim it can’t be done. When the evidence of the many successful traders appears, they disingenuously dismiss their success by saying that a few players are bound to win. Nonsense. Not the same people in repeated trading, year after year after year, accumulating fortunes. My advice to you is after reading this depressing, uninspiring and deflating book, pick up Market Wizards by Jack Schwager, and get inspired again. I’ve become a millionaire twice in the stock market. If I can do it, you can too.