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Rating: 
Summary: Make Restitution
Review: After reading this book, I feel "Anonymous" should take all the royalties received from this book and pay back those clients he stole from, maybe that's why he chooses to remain anonymous so his past will not come back to haunt him. Dumb is not an excuse and since this person passed the qualifying examimnations to call himself a "stockbroker", he should have realized what he was doing was not ethical, and probably illegal. It is a real tragedy that unknowing investors put their faith in this dirt-bag only to have most of their funds go to him in commissions so he could enjoy the fast life in NY. When the regulators finally discover the illegal activities at these small chop-shops, the brokers scatter like roaches to another firm only to continue their illegal activites, as with the "Dirty Dozen". Thank god the regulators are today fining, suspending, barring, and jailing these brokers who took part in these scams, whereas in the past only management of the firm was targeted. The capital markets that were once available to small start-up companies has literally vanished due to the abuses of people like the author but it has created opportunities for small venture funds that do the proper due diligence for their investors. The changing regulatory environment has made it difficult for these type of scam artists to survive, and with the increases in technolgy, i.e. the internet, investors are becoming educated. With the new order handling rules and the OATS system that the NASDR is implementing, brokers can no longer sit on orders and wait for larger spreads, as "BS" did. In general, spreads have decreased in recent years, saving investors money. I wonder if "Anonymous" would have been able to survive if he was compensated as portfolio managers are today, 1-2% of assets under management and the only way to increase personal income is to have the best interests of the client at heart by increasing the value of their portfolios. "Anonymous" should not be allowed to work in securities industry--so he wasn't caught--I guess if he really let the world know who he was, the SEC and NASD would be on him like flies on ----. Do the right thing and make restitution with all those clients you stole from in the past--don't think this book will ease your conscience.
Rating: 
Summary: Scant value
Review: Although this book does offer you some insights on how brokers work, what needs to be told is already said in the first few chapters of the book. This is very dissappointing reading, because you are expecting to learn more about how brokers work as you continue on reading. Another annoying thing is that Anonymous has a very big EGO. All you read throughout the entire book is how great this guy is in everything he does (which probably does fit the self-portraited image of a Wall Street broker). But of course there is one good point this book makes: Never confuse a broker with a money manager! A broker earns his salary with turnover, buying and selling stocks. Regardless whether his customers make money, a broker always does. A money manager gets it earnings by sharing part of your revenue, which he has to generate for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Financial Opportunism Masquerades as a Profession
Review: Every once in a while, one of the rapacious cretins inhabiting the brokerage houses of Wall Street has a twinge of conscience and a need to confess, and so he writes a mea culpa to cleanse his soul. The anonymous author, now a modest financial advisor in a small town, manages to look like a hero with a human heart while exposing the compromised nature of the securities business. If you have any illusions left about the goodness of humanity, don't read this book. You'll lose them. Part confessional, part cautionary tale, this first person narrative makes Wall Street brokers look like the dregs of humanity. If this sensational and rather novelistic tale is to be believed (and it is) then even lawyers and used car salesman tell fewer lies and steal less than Wall Street brokers.License to Steal is the latest in a genre that goes back to at least the robber-baron days of the 19th century and probably to the earliest days of capitalism in renaissance Italy. One of my favorites is the very entertaining Where Are the Customers' Yachts? (1940) by Fred Schwed Jr. In that little book, studded with New Yorker cartoons, an innocent asks a broker the title question and is told, naive fool that he is, that the customers don't have any yachts. Only brokers and officers of the brokerage firm have yachts. According to the authors, today's breed of white collar crook doesn't spend his ill-gotten lucre on anything so romantic as a yacht, preferring German motor cars, cocaine and Cuban cigars, floozies, French champagne and blackjack. The degenerate get more degenerate it would appear. I had a broker myself, back in the days of my naiveté, and I recall she told me one day that she was hoping the market would plunge a hundred points (that was in the days when a hundred-point swing meant something). I was momentarily stunned since I was a client with some serious money in those stocks that she was hoping would plunge. But she had forgotten herself for the moment and was talking to me as she would to one of her fellow brokers. THEY wanted a plunge so they could stir up some action and make some money on commissions. And therein lies what the authors of License to Steal call on page 265 the "basic conflict of interest" in "the securities business," namely that what is good for the broker is to move "clients in and out of positions to generate commissions" (and to take advantage of the spread), while what is good for clients is just the opposite, to pay a minimum for commissions and to get trimmed by the spread as seldom as possible. This conflict is still with us although, by trading over the Net without a broker, the commissions are much cheaper and the danger of getting trimmed by in-house spreads is lessen considerably. Nonetheless, the industry as a whole still has a vested interest in churning the accounts of investors. We see this in the frequent upgrades and downgrades issued by brokerage firms, recommendations that encourage a lot of buying and selling. The only way this conflict is going to be eliminated is for brokers to gain only when their clients gain. I wouldn't hold my breath for that reform however, since it would have the effect of sending the vast majority of brokers back to telemarketing or to selling aluminum sliding. If you like License to Steal, and I think you will, since it is very hard to put down with the lurid picture of piggy greed and human stupidity it paints, you will also like F.I.A.S.C.O.: Blood in the Water on Wall Street (1997) by Frank Partnoy. Partnoy's book is about derivatives sales people who are as morally degenerate as the characters in License to Steal. The only substantive difference in the books is that Partnoy's book is not anonymous and neither are the firms he worked for.
Rating: 
Summary: No wonder brokers don't like it
Review: No wonder the reviewers who are brokers didn't like this book. True, the bad guys in the book are only a small percentage of the business, but the book also tells a lot about the basic conflict of interest between all brokers and clients. Like the bit about hidden commissions. I'd never known about that, but now it makes sense. My broker, back when I had a broker, never told me about that. They just want to make money for themselves. If they make money for you, fine, but they look out for No. 1.
Rating:
Summary: CASH RICH
Review: THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ. I TOOK THE BOOK ON VACATION AND REALLY COULD'NT PUT IT DOWN. IM USUALLY NOT A DILLIGENT READER BUT THIS BOOK REALLY HELD MY INTEREST. I MISS IT NOW THAT IM FINISHED WITH IT. ANYONE WHO TRADES STOCKS OR LIKES THE STOCKMARKET, SHOULD LOVE THIS BOOK!
Rating:
Summary: Eye Opener
Review: This book is educational and at the same time highly entertaining. It is an eye opener to the potential conflicts between brokers and their clients, and reveals the wheeling-and-dealing that goes on in those very plush penthouse offices. I have been investing for years and I always wondered why my (former) broker had this huge house and fancy cars but always manged to give me stock "tips" that turned out to be dogs. Now I know why.
Rating:
Summary: The Underworld of Wall Street
Review: This book provides a sneak peek into the seedy underworld of drugs, sex, gambling, and outright theft of Wall Street. This book is a very easy and quick read, but is very entertaining and informing. Read this book before you blindly listen to brokers, or buy into an unknown small cap.
Rating:
Summary: Scant value
Review: This book provides scant new insights into how Wall Street works, and the few that it provides are of limited credibility, because the author and "co-author" fictionalized everything. It is pale in comparison to the recent Enron books and to Born to Steal, which covered much the same ground but in much more vivid and exciting ways, with a powerful narrative that named names.
Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: Very interesting book!!! exciting at times and reveals many things the ur broker does not want u 2 know.
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