Content Synopsis:

The subtitle of this book is “How I beat the investment professionals (by reading tabloids, shopping at the mall, and connecting on Facebook) and how you can too.” This is a good summary of what this book is about.

The author, Chris Camillo, is considered one of the most successful hobby investors in the world. His claim is that from September 2007 until the book came out in April 2010 his self-managed investment portfolio appreciated from $83,752 to $2,388,311. A schedule of that performance is available on his website, chriscamillo.com.

Camillo’s method is to closely observe the fashion trends and products seen in shopping malls, in the Internet media, and in what he sees on television and in tabloid publications. The idea is that demand for a particular product or service can skyrocket for reasons that Wall Street is often unaware of and that if you buy the shares of the company involved before Wall Street is aware of the trend and sell as soon as Wall Street see the trend you can make a significant profit. Camillo demonstrates in the book in some detail how he has done this to grow his portfolio so impressively.

It tells us that the traditional, mostly white, male, and middle-aged Wall Street types are not connected to the popular trends driving this type of market demand. They are based on corporate reports and conventional financial news reports, neither of which report these trends until they are old news.

He offers examples including observations of a hot new shoe he spotted on the beach before it became famous in financial circles and a brand of clothing worn by Obama’s first family at the inauguration that sparked a shopping spree that sent stock prices rise rapidly.

Camillo pays some attention to traditional fundamental and technical trading methods and tells us how and why they are not dependent. He then analyzes how this popular trend watch is superior. His method requires a lot of observation, web surfing, and a form of due diligence to make sure that the trend he suspects he’s seeing is genuine and that the stock market doesn’t already know it on Wall Street. He then dives in, buys this stock, and waits for it to peak when it becomes common knowledge.

The appeal of Camillo’s approach is that it does not require any specialized knowledge of stocks, the market as a whole, technical trading techniques, or fundamental analysis of business management for which Warren Buffet is famous. This method can be performed by anyone who is observant and disciplined and willing to do the required legwork. A high school student could and has done it.

As with any method of making money, this one requires a lot of time and effort. This isn’t really a get-rich-quick scheme, although Camillo has shown remarkable performance trading it using it. It’s not day trading either, he waits until he identifies a genuine potential money maker, buys and holds stocks until they take off and market demand ends the bullish journey, then sells before it goes back down once everyone else has it. they know.

It should also be noted that the author is a professional market researcher by trade, this is what he does for a living, and in that he watches market trends for a living, he starts off with some advantage over the novice.

This method is clearly not for everyone. It takes time and commitment to the methodology and some awareness and understanding of market trends for a specific product or service that are not yet common knowledge. However, it seems to offer a unique and very accessible method of beating the market odds for someone willing to do the job in the way you illustrate. For anyone with the time and willingness to learn this method, there is clear potential to outperform index fund averages.

This book is a must read for anyone looking for an accessible and relatively simple method of capturing market profits.

Utility:

For the person with some money to invest and the time and self-discipline to apply this method, this book is an excellent introduction to a new and promising way to increase returns on capital investments.

Disclaimer: All investment methods carry some risk, including this one. This review should not relate to professional investment or financial advice. Consult a professional financial adviser for professional advice.

Readability/Writing Quality:

The book is very entertaining and easy to follow. It is well organized.

Notes on the author:

Chris Camillo is a market researcher who has not been impressed with more traditional stock trading methods and has used his own powers of observation to beat the market averages.

Three great ideas you can use:

1. If traditional market analysis isn’t for you and you don’t want to leave the management of your investment portfolio in the hands of a professional manager, there is a method almost anyone can use to learn about promising stocks before they take off.

2. This method requires continuous time of observing and learning about products and services and emerging market trends that can be observed at the local mall, on Facebook, and in many other places. It then requires some due diligence to ensure that you have observed a genuine large-scale trend that will increase the value of the stock.

3. If you follow a proven method while taking care to do your homework, you can improve your odds with actions. However, you should read the book for the details of how it’s done.

Release Information:

Laughing at Wall Street by Chris Camillo

Copyright 2011 by Chris Camillo. Published by St. Martin’s Press