Outsmarting the Smart Money : Understand How Markets Really Work and Win the Wealth Game
Forget Almost Everything You've Ever Learned About Investing...Most investors­­despite the fact their hard-earned savings are on the line­­fall victim to human nature and bet their financial futures on hot tips, headlines, and Wall Street spin.Outsmarting the Smart Moneyinstead provides investors with authoritative insights and hands-on lessons for moving beyond emotions and unreliable guesswork to build a portfolio based on market-proven strategies, simple-to-understand analytical techniques, and a history of long-term performance.Praise forOutsmarting the Smart Money..."Individuals too often focus exclusively on the mechanics of investing without considering the mistakes that occur from emotional, but predictable, missteps. Larry Cunningham has done a great service by explaining the psychology of investing in clear and easy to understand principles."­­Robert G. Hagstrom, CFA, Senior Vice President, Legg Mason Funds Management; Author,The Warren Buffett Way"This book is a fascinating account of market psychology, of how professionals lose their shirts because of it, and of how a small investor can profit from it. A fun, useful and readable book."­­Andrei Shleifer, Professor of Economics, Harvard University; Author,Inefficient Markets"Outsmarting the Smart Moneyreveals the many foibles of today's markets, and provides sound strategies the typical investor should pursue to achieve security and profits."­­James D. Cox, Brainerd Currie Professor of Law, Duke University"An exploration of the ways our psyches play financial tricks on us,Outsmarting the Smart Moneywill return its cost many times over."­­Gary Belsky, Author,Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes­­And How to Correct Them"Lucid guidance for investors dealing with the post-bubble investment world, while also preparing them for the next period of irrational exuberance."­­Steve Galbraith, U.S. Equity Strategist, Morgan Stanley"We have met the enemy, and he is us."­­Walt Kelly'sPogoLike it or not, most investors are their own worst enemies. They buy only when glowing reports and rumors have bid stocks to outlandish, unsupported price levels; sell only when bad news has left stock prices at or near their bottoms; and ignore reams of independent research and data to bet thousands of dollars on a coworker's hot stock tip.Is it any wonder that stock investing, which should represent one of the easiest and most straightforward paths to long-term wealth, has instead become a hotbed of wasted hours, lost opportunities, and outright misery?Lawrence Cunningham'sOutsmarting the Smart Moneyoutlines where most investors go wrong and explains how to approach the markets with self-knowledge, intelligence and, most of all, calm.  It examines the cognitive biases that afflict most investors, discusses how professional money managers are trained to take advantage of these biases (and the pricing inefficiencies that regularly result), and reveals how investors can help themselves by steering clear of the "smart money" to adopt a long-term, value-oriented investment philosophy.Outsmarting the Smart Moneyoffers you dozens of easy-to-follow tips and techniques for investing both sensibly and successfully, including:How the marketreallyworks, and why the safest ways to use it to your advantage are actually also the easiestThe folly of investing in initial public offerings­­and how and when IPOs actuallycanpresent valuable opportunitiesAccounting games and gimmicks that managers use to hide information and mislead investorsThe differences between price and value­­and how to ignore the former to focus on the latterTechniques for understanding­­and overcoming­­personal investment biases and shortcomingsThousands of books promise to tell you how to beat the markets by grabbing the low-hanging fruit of fast turnaround profits. But onlyOutsmarting the Smart Moneytells you the truth­­that long-term investment success requires time, self-knowledge, and discipline. Follow its simple step-by-step program to become a more intelligent investor, and construct a sensible long-term portfolio that is solidly constructed, easy to manage, and virtually certain­­given time­­to grow into a sizable fortune.