Megazines And Book Education

So at my local library I saw a copy of Freakonomics in the “best seller” area. After a bit of a internal debate I decided to pick it up and boy was I surprised. This book was really good! While economics can often be told as a boring subject with graphs and numbers decorating a big board the book mainly emphasizes the motivation behind human action. Many people enjoy saying that humans are only motivated by greed and selfishness and Freakonomics does a good job of showing how this motivation might affect us in our day to day lives. Without spoiling some results the book describes and proves with a lot of detail certain interesting questions such as what do school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?

The presentation of the data and results is one of the major selling points of this book because it is laid out in an enjoyable way while constantly making you want to turn the page and see more mind blowing and humorous details. One of the most interesting topics in the book was how abortion might be a great tool to stop the growth of crime. Once again I don’t want to spoil the reasons the author gives to defend his point but a lot of it is definitely based on solid fact. Another topic that many people will most likely deal in their lives presented in the book is how real estate agents might not necessarily be doing the best job possible selling your house even If they earn a % commission to do so. This topic can be applied to many other jobs where people earn commissions and it is quite interesting to see the author’s opinion, accompanied by a lot of data, on how some things might not be as we believe they are.

As a final note, this is one of the first book that deals with economics that I completely enjoyed. Not only is it informative but it has great humor and subject matters that can be relevant to our lives instead of only the broad economy of x country. This is a must read, even if you think economy is boring you will probably find some of the subjects presented in the book to be of interest to you.

By Alex Trem

Gerald M. Loeb was born in 1899 and started investing in 1921. Loeb would read everything he could on trading, investing and economics. In 1923, Loeb learned a valuable lesson when he took a substantial loss of his overall trading capital. He learned, from that point on, to always cut losses short, meaning to only take small losses when the market goes against you.

Loeb was changed forever after the Wall Street Crash of 1929. He avoided personal loss during the crash, but it greatly affected his trading style. Loeb now believed that holding stocks for the long term was not a sound trading principle. The 1929 crash proved to him that holding onto stocks can have a terrible effect on your portfolio, when you ignore sell signals that the market is in trouble.

In 1935, Loeb wrote his classic book titled “The Battle for Investment Survival”. It was a big seller from the beginning and is filled with superb trading gems. He updated his classic book in 1957, and again in 1965. In 1971, Loeb published “The Battle for Market Profits” as a follow up to his original book. Loeb also wrote columns for The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and Investor Magazine.

Loeb noted that “Some people almost always make money in the stock market”. It is obvious that proper trading knowledge equals success in the marketplace. Loeb described knowledge as the “Ability to interpret information marketwise”.

Loeb understood and implemented proper trading psychology. He stated that “One must acquire the ability to control personal emotions or fear of loss, or greed for a larger profit, which affects most people’s decisions and are very costly”. Never underestimate the importance of trading psychology. It is usually what separates the fairly good trader from a true master.

The golden rule of cutting your losses short is well described by Loeb. He stated that “Losses must always be cut. They must be cut quickly, long before they become of any financial consequences”. “Cutting losses is the one and only rule of the markets that can be taught with the assurance that it is always the correct thing to do”.

Other important observations by Loeb included “The primary factor in securing market profits lies in sensing the general trend”. This is very true since about 75% of all stocks follow the general trend of the market. Loeb believed that diversification is a crutch for ignorance. He stated “The greatest safety lies in putting all your eggs in one basket and watching that basket”. I totally agree. You should only trade the very best opportunities, with as many factors as possible in your favor.

I highly recommend reading “The Battle for Investment Survival”. It is easily one of the top five trading or investing books ever written. Study trading legends such as Gerald Loeb. Learn their methods and principles. Implement what you learn into your own trading. The results will be amazing.

Gary E Kerkow is the founder of Tradingmarkets4u.com. This site provides information to help traders and investors become successful. Kerkow has over 20 years of trading experience including stocks, futures and options. He implements the strategies, methods, techniques, principles and psychology of the world’s best traders and investors. This includes Jesse Livermore, William J O’Neil and others. Visit my website at http://www.tradingmarkets4u.com

By Gary Kerkow