Categories
BookReview

Book Review:Where are the customer’s yachts?

This post is in continuation of my book review series (see here)

Where are the customer’s yachts?” is one of those books which come under the category of “Investment Classics”

It was written by Fred Schwed Jr in 1940 and is one of the funniest and yet most insightful books written on the stock market.

The title of the book comes from this beautiful story:

Once in the dear dead days beyond recall, an out-of-town visitor was being shown the wonders of the New York financial district.When the party arrived at the Battery, one of his guides indicated some handsome ships riding at anchor.He said,

“Look, those are the bankers’ and brokers’ yachts.”

“Where are the customers’ yachts?” asked the naive visitor.

 

Its funny how some things never change !!

Would strongly strongly recommend this book for anyone even remotely interested in the stock markets.

Categories
SiteReview

SiteReview:CapitalIdeasOnline

This post is in continuation of my site review series (see here).

CapitalIdeasOnline is a site run by a group of value investors which includes the veteran investor Chandrakant Sampat.

What I like about the site is that it is update quite regularly and contains some interesting articles/posts.

Most of the posts are written by Chetan Parikh who appears to be a voracious reader.He posts about stuff that he finds interesting in the books that he reads .Sample this

 

“In a classic, “The Daily Drucker”, the author, Peter Drucker, writes on innovation and risk taking.

 

I once attended a university symposium on entrepreneurship at which a number of psychologists spoke. Although their papers disagreed on everything else, they all talked about an “entrepreneurial personality,” which was characterized by a “propensity for risk taking.” A well-known and successful innovator and entrepreneur who had built a process-based innovation into a substantial worldwide business in the space of twenty-five years was then asked to comment. He said: “I find myself baffled by your papers. I think I know as many successful innovators and entrepreneurs as anyone, beginning with myself. I have never come across an ‘entrepreneurial personality.’ The successful ones I know all have, however, one thing-and only one thing-in common: they are not ‘risk takers.’ They try to define the risks they have to take and to minimize them as much as possible. Otherwise none of us could have succeeded.”

This jibes with my own experience. I, too, know a good many successful entrepreneurs. Not one of them has a “propensity for risk taking.” Most Successful innovators in real life are colorless figures, and much more likely to spend hours on cash-flow projections than to dash off looking for “risks.” They are not “risk-focused”; they are “opportunity-focused.””

 

Check it out for yourself !!