Rule the Freakin' Markets: How to Profit in Any Market, Bull or Bear FROM OUR EDITORS
The Barnes & Noble Review
If you've ever been taken for a ride by the stock market, then this book might be your best revenge. Although his style isn't for the faint of heart, expert trader Michael Parness, a former victim of Wall Street's whims, offers pugnacious and, most important, sound advice on how to take advantage of market fluctuations and trends.
Parness, who lost his life savings in a bad investment and then came back to amass a $7 million fortune, isn't interested in making long-term investments. In his view, companies don't care about you -- they only want your money -- so why should you be loyal to their stock, thereby tying up your capital for years? Instead, why not be a perpetually active trader, constantly exploiting the market to obtain a faster return?
Early in his book, Parness offers exercises to see if you're trader material and whether you have the time, energy, and nerve to go at it effectively. If you can bear to hold onto a stock for just a few days -- or even just a few minutes -- without cracking, then you're a potential trader. Of course, trading stocks needn't be that extreme, but the dedicated trader will execute fast-moving trades without remorse or hesitation. Parness wants to make trading fun as well as profitable, but he also recommends research and careful preparation.
How can profits be assured in any market, particularly a volatile and uncertain one? Parness dissects the broad psychology of the market and reveals effective methods for responding to fluctuations: Although he acknowledges that no one can accurately predict which way a particular stock is going to go, he reveals the trends that provide some fodder for predications. If you can master the underlying psychology, you can profit in the market -- even when it's in a bearish phase.
For all his bravado and winner-take-all attitude, Parness has amassed a lot of smart rules to help traders help themselves to avoid financial disaster. This book is for anyone who sees the market as a psychological game but has the self-discipline not to get pulled into it. (Holly McGuire)
Holly McGuire is a book editor and consultant based in Chicago, Illinois.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
In 1998 Michael Parness Was a struggling playwright and screenwriter who was leaving the stability of his successful sports memorabilia business to write full-time. Following the advice of a stockbroker, he invested his nest egg of $150,000. But the October 1998 crash gutted his portfolio by 80 percent and his stocks failed to recover. With virtually no income and no financial cushion, he found himself in a tiny lowrent apartment with time to think about what had happened and, eventually, how to enact financial revenge. In January 1999 he opened an online brokerage account and set out to get his money back. And in fifteen months Michael Parness turned $33,000 into seven million dollars, started the online trading Web site, where thousands of traders Rule the Freakin' Markets with him, and had his life story optioned by a major Hollywood producer! With its lively tone and refreshing approach to trading and investing, Rule the Freakin' Markets is an essential guide for online traders and investors alike.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
An erstwhile playwright/screenwriter who became a multimillionaire through online trading, Parness provides a Gen-X view of the stock market. His loss of working capital owing to "expert" help and his success in doing it on his own temper his views. In truth, Parness covers little new territory this is Investing 101. Leslie Masonson (Day Trading on the Edge), who outlines the pros and cons of day trading, goes several steps beyond Parness. While Parness does make a number of well-founded recommendations, explaining that investors must learn from loss and understand the cyclical nature of the market, he offers little beyond the "Motley Fool" newspaper columns (and web site) by Tom and David Gardner. Libraries with other recent investment guides can readily do without this book. Not recommended. Steven Silkunas, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Philadelphia Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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