<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Searching For Alpha
Review: A terrific read! Searching For Alpha is intelligent, well written and very timely. Author Ben Warwick has a gift for weaving people, anecdotes and financial theory into a fascinating history of the investment business. I really enjoyed the chapters describing the rise in popularity of mutual funds and indexing. Also, the sections devoted to managed futures and investors' irrational behavior were particularly worthwhile. The book is easy-to-read yet offers important financial insights that are regularly ignored by the mass media. You won't get rich quick or make a million dollars in real estate with "no money down", but you're bound to become a more savvy and successful investor by reading Warwick's book. Searching For Alpha is simply the best of the myriad of investment books to hits the bookshelves in recent years.
Rating:
Summary: Searching For Alpha
Review: A terrific read! Searching For Alpha is intelligent, well written and very timely. Author Ben Warwick has a gift for weaving people, anecdotes and financial theory into a fascinating history of the investment business. I really enjoyed the chapters describing the rise in popularity of mutual funds and indexing. Also, the sections devoted to managed futures and investors' irrational behavior were particularly worthwhile. The book is easy-to-read yet offers important financial insights that are regularly ignored by the mass media. You won't get rich quick or make a million dollars in real estate with "no money down", but you're bound to become a more savvy and successful investor by reading Warwick's book. Searching For Alpha is simply the best of the myriad of investment books to hits the bookshelves in recent years.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but ultimately frustrating
Review: An easily readable and interesting book about problems and opportunities when trying to exceed average investment performance in a nearly efficient market. As an individual investor, I got a few interesting general insights about the investment climate in which I am competing. But ultimately, I found the book frustrating and rambling. Ideas in one section do not build on or relate clearly to those in other sections. Investment terms (managed futures, arbitrage, value at risk) are discussed in interesting ways but are not defined or explained in enough detail to make them clear or useful. The book seems to be addressed to people who already know most of the investment management concepts discussed, but then it is unclear why concepts like a normal distribution are explained in the simplest terms possible. The book may appeal to math phobics since the author's dismissive references to "quant jocks" makes me think he leaves all the math and precision thinking to others.
Rating: 
Summary: At last - a lighter read on a heavy subject
Review: As a doctoral candidate with special emphasis on hedge funds I found this book superb. I agree 100% with Marc Kritzmans' review. Congratulations it is about time someone came out with this book. Hope the author writes another text, I am sure it will be a hit. Montreal, Canada
Rating: 
Summary: Muddled, wandering, uninformed.
Review: Being in the asset management consulting field I thought this highly recommended title should be as insightful as Swensen's "Pioneering Portfolio Management". I found it directionless, full of unconnected pointless anecdotal comments, as well as giving misleading shallow guidance regarding indexing.
Rating:
Summary: Muddled, wandering, uninformed.
Review: Being in the asset management consulting field I thought this highly recommended title should be as insightful as Swensen's "Pioneering Portfolio Management". I found it directionless, full of unconnected pointless anecdotal comments, as well as giving misleading shallow guidance regarding indexing.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read!
Review: Ben Warwick has done an exceptionally good job at taking a subject (Investment Policy) that to most readers is maybe dry, and unexciting and making it a highly enjoyable subject about which to read. Interlaced among truly entertaining stories and anectdotes ranging from the discoverery of nitroglycerine to the life of Ludwig van Beethoven are well-researched, sound, quite readable discussions and theories about Index-based Investing, Capital Asset Pricing Model, Modern Portfolio Theory, Managed Futures and much, much more. Warwick is incrediblly knowledgeable about the subject of investing, and as an Investment Advisor, my Investment Policy will be greatly enhanced having read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Packed With Knowledge!
Review: By turns technical, analytical and anecdotal, Ben Warwick's expert investment guide takes you on a whirlwind tour of modern investment theory and practice. Accessible enough to reward dabblers in the field, this book at the same time raises serious issues and attempts to, if not explain them completely, at least point you down the path to financial enlightenment. Abstract or downright abstruse concepts are generously illuminated by side trips into the worlds of one-armed oil wildcatters, Beethoven, Dom Perignon and the mathematician who managed to stop Napoleon's invading armies. We [...] recommend this book as one of the finest overviews of financial theory, technique and practice ever to grace our library's shelves.
Rating:
Summary: Searching For Alpha
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Warwick has managed to make an important but esoteric topic accessible through practical and entertaining anecdotes and examples. Initially I read it to inprove my investment knowledge on what is now a critical part of my business, but soon became engrossed in the more quirky side of the book's respites and characters. Frankly, I would have liked to see more of this earlier in the book. There is very little information on this subject out there, especially with with this depth of real life application. I think it is a worthwhile read.
Rating:
Summary: Not a Waste of Time
Review: This a good book for those who are expecting to get rich merely because they already have a strategy. This book provides a lot of examples to describe the strengths and weaknesses of these strategies.
<< 1 >>
| 
