"Take on the street" by Arthur Levitt
In take on the street, Arthur Levitt, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission for eight years under President Clinton, provides the best kind of insider information: the kind that can help honest small investors protect themselves from the deliberately confusing ways of Wall Street. IMO, just ask shareholders of E-Bay, almost 20% crash in two days and dragging our beloved tech sector and the Dow down big time with it.
All for missing earnings forecasts by a lousy PENNY!
This guy literally shows you the "behind the scenes" look at the workings of corporate America and just how much our politicians DO NOT care about us honest citizens. The guy even has the cajones to name names! These corporate execs and investment bankers and bigwigs of trading houses and politicians will make you want to puke as you learn just how much they broke the law every day, all the while getting a slap on the wrist or paying a chump change fine, yet they still continue their shenanigans to some extent today!
I HIGHLY recommend this book, it will keep you glued for hours as your mind boggles at how people can get away with such things today in this great nation. It's too bad President Bush did not let him continue on in his administration, but with the emphasis on corporate profits and earnings (money) in today's age, my guess is Bush does NOT want Levitt even near the chairman's spot again as he was really on a roll in making the playing field open to ALL investors, not the "millionaires club." IMO, had Levitt been in charge today we might have seen the end to pre-market and after-market trading, a loophole that only the rich can use. Need proof? Check the market news for a story like this morning before market, Mays retail may be bought out, and I watched (before the market opened) as the price per share peaked at almost 4 a share above yesterday's closing price, all this before you and I could even get in on it. Had I called a broker and told him I wanted to buy in pre-trade hours, he or she would have just laughed and told me "You are joking, right? Do you have millions to do business with me and my trading firm?"
A good magazine to have this year is the Fortune Investor's guide 2005, it has some tips on taxes, how to get started in real estate, and many other goodies. Just do not listen to the hype about 2005 being "the year" for the market. Already Jan has cost us dearly, and has broken a time tested pattern in the history of our markets, as it went WAY DOWN nstead of way up, and the investment of new capital is paltry compared to past Januarys. It may be a good year in the market, but we sure have a lot of ground to make up.
Some small caps to watch that are just about affordable for EVERYONE on the forums that have blown January's losses away so far and look promising:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=AVII&t=3mhttp://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=AVIIhttp://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=ASTM&t=5dhttp://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=ASTMhttp://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=VIACYes, VIAC is an IPO, but I imagine it will boom just like the others did, as stem cell research is getting up to steam.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=CYTR&t=5dhttp://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=CYTRI will be ordering a newsprint that deals with companies like these and other small stocks that can break out big, and will share any info that might benefit people. Their track record is astounding, predicting companies like ELAN when it was 1 dollar a share, now it's in the 20's two yrs later, CarMax superstores, KMX at 1.56 which hit 39.30, BDY at 1.03 and hit 31.43, and Petsmart, 2.50 and it hit 43.84 and MANY other numerous start ups that smashed the big competition, all without manipulating investors as your smaller stocks seem to be more honest.
Topic: A good book to read if you invest (Read 836 times)