What Would Ben Graham Do Now?

 by Jeffrey Towson

The title of this book suggests that the investment strategy of the late Benjamin Graham can be slightly tweaked and the applied to make profitable investment in the risk-laden, wild swinging investment environment of right now 2011. The author is an international investment consultant with considerable and wide-ranging international experience, so I would expect he would know how value investing should work in various political and foreign climates. Unfortunately, instead of channeling Ben Graham in a modern, international  light, all Mr. Towson really does in this book is tell us that we are investing in a politically charged, international environment (which we know already, because that’s what he tells us early in his book). This fact, says Towson, makes some investments marginal bets, and some marginal bets bad ones. What it all boils down to is, you need to invest in the same kind of value and growth companies, but also compensate for political instability, foreign policies, cultural anomalies, and the like. There are plenty of anecdotes to back up the author’s opinions, and that’s all well and good, but I didn’t see much discussion about what Mr. Graham might actually do, much less why he would. In fact, as I got to the middle of the book (where I stopped reading), the author would go on for ten or twenty pages without so much as mentioning Mr. Graham. Personally, I don’t care enough about Russian politics, Chinese cronyism, Middle-Eastern cultural mores and their slanted perceptions of the west to really apply anything in this book to investing. Of course, there really aren’t any strategies, analysis, methodologies, and or other investing advice and tips to apply anyways. So, I still don’t know what Ben Graham would do now, but I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to put this aside and read Benjamin Graham and the Power of Growth Stocks (which really does channel Ben Graham and is a much better read).

The Trading Book

by Anne-Marie Baiynd

For as complex a subject as it covers, The Trading Book delivers a lot of useful information in a clear, concise, useful manner. If you are a trader, or think you want to become one, this book covers everything from basic chart reading to highly advanced trend analysis. If you always wondered how a Fibonacci sequence applies to stock trading, or wanted to know how candlestick charts are used, or what a Bollinger band signifies, Ms. Baiynd has you covered. And when you’ve got all the hard trading knowledge covered, you can tackle the “soft” stuff, like overcoming psychological shortcomings, keeping a trade journal to analyze your performance, and when to trade (or not) based on nothing more than your base emotions. Even though the technical aspects of this book can be daunting at times, Ms. Baiynd softens the blow with plenty of detailed explanatory charts. Her earthy, at time cornball, sense of humor make the reading a lot easier and absorbing the material was at times, even almost enjoyable. For myself, I think this book gets a little too detailed at times, especially when she starts talking about five minute or fifteen minute interval trades (people do that? Really?), but it is easy enough to skim those sections, glean a few pertinent points, then move on to the sections of more use and interest. And unless you are an incredibly experienced trader or some kind of mathematician, I expect you will have to take the tougher sections much slower in order to get maximum benefit and use from the information. (I don’t think any but the most perspicacious readers could digest this book once through – it will require multiple readings and frequent referencing to insure success.) This book is jam-packed with useful information, great lessons and insight, and buoyant enthusiasm and encouragement. I think this is one of the best books on trading there is, so I give it full marks.