The Battle for Investment Survival (A Marketplace Book) 
asked by sumbuddy on November 10, 2006 2:02 PM
Wall Street wizard Loeb presents a collection of witty, straightforward investment insights that are entertaining and informative. Contains 78 succinct chapters covering such investment fundamentals as market timing, portfolio selection, hedging losses, switching stocks and everything else investors need to know to succeed in today's markets.
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I loved this book it's practical and incisive a must have for every investor.
reviewed by runningscared on November 18, 2006 11:45 PM
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As a professional money manager for nearly two decades, Loeb's classic is among the top twelve books in my reference library.
reviewed by theriver on November 24, 2006 5:08 AM
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Gerald Loeb, stockbroker and financial writer for over 40 years, first published "The Battle for Investment Survival" in 1935 with 14 years experience in the stock market. The book has been revised 3 times since, and this edition contains the text of the 1965 revision. Loeb is distinguished by being an investor who opposed the buy-and-hold philosophy, which wasn't popular in his day anyway, but it sets him apart from many popular investment pundits today. Most of the book's contents are intended for "the average inexperienced investor", although I think a novice would be hard-pressed to make sense of Loeb's advice.
Loeb's investment philosophy can be summed up neatly: Base stock purchases on fundamentals, but keep your eye on price movement and sell when it goes down. Loeb was an investor with some of a trader's sensibility. He advocates holding onto a security only 6 months to a year and a half. The trouble is that "The Battle for Investment Survival" is poorly organized, repetitive, sometimes contradictory, and burdened by overloaded, awkward prose. Loeb is a poor writer. He makes simple concepts seem utterly labyrinthine. He has one basic philosophy and about a dozen "dos and don'ts" to offer. Instead of giving us a dozen straightforward chapters, "The Battle for Investment Survival" has 33 short, overlapping, convoluted chapters.
"The Battle for Investment Survival" is only 153 pages long. The second half of the book, chapters 34-78, is miscellaneous articles by Loeb in which he offers further investment advice, comments on a variety of financial topics, and shares his opinions on American architecture and "How an Ice-Cream Soda Should Be Made". These articles are more colorful, as well as more readable, than the main text of the book, though less essential. Chapter 64, "I Don't Sell -People Buy From Me", is an interesting account of Loeb's early days working at brokerage houses in San Francisco. In sum, I've nothing against old investment or trading books. They sometimes offer keen insight and have interesting stories to tell. There is nothing wrong with Gerald Loeb's principles. But "The Battle for Investment Survival" presents them poorly, and there are plenty of other books out there that do it better.
Loeb's investment philosophy can be summed up neatly: Base stock purchases on fundamentals, but keep your eye on price movement and sell when it goes down. Loeb was an investor with some of a trader's sensibility. He advocates holding onto a security only 6 months to a year and a half. The trouble is that "The Battle for Investment Survival" is poorly organized, repetitive, sometimes contradictory, and burdened by overloaded, awkward prose. Loeb is a poor writer. He makes simple concepts seem utterly labyrinthine. He has one basic philosophy and about a dozen "dos and don'ts" to offer. Instead of giving us a dozen straightforward chapters, "The Battle for Investment Survival" has 33 short, overlapping, convoluted chapters.
"The Battle for Investment Survival" is only 153 pages long. The second half of the book, chapters 34-78, is miscellaneous articles by Loeb in which he offers further investment advice, comments on a variety of financial topics, and shares his opinions on American architecture and "How an Ice-Cream Soda Should Be Made". These articles are more colorful, as well as more readable, than the main text of the book, though less essential. Chapter 64, "I Don't Sell -People Buy From Me", is an interesting account of Loeb's early days working at brokerage houses in San Francisco. In sum, I've nothing against old investment or trading books. They sometimes offer keen insight and have interesting stories to tell. There is nothing wrong with Gerald Loeb's principles. But "The Battle for Investment Survival" presents them poorly, and there are plenty of other books out there that do it better.
reviewed by rob33 on November 24, 2006 11:56 PM
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Anyone interested in pursuing a career in investing/speculating or wishing to improve their money management skills should read this book. You'll notice that most of the wisdom, insights, and advice from Market Wizards or books about Buffet generally all appeared before in this classic. There is no secret, its all about hard work and making good risk/reward investments over a period of time. This book explains typical mistakes that are so grounded in human nature, but after reading this if you can learn to pyramid rising positions instead of trimming them or selling them out, then the return on this book will be tremendous. I also enjoyed his views on the segments of life and the importance of spending money as well as making it. If I could only keep one investment book to read over and over, this would be the one.
reviewed by crick on November 29, 2006 9:15 AM