When the stock market booms--as it did through most of the 1990s--relatively inexperienced investors like to believe there's a new paradigm at work. That's why it's refreshing to take a look occasionally at how investors survived previous booms--and busts. What did the founders of Moody's, Value Line, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average think about the markets they were analyzing and attempting to quantify?

Thus, when Charles Dow writes in an essay titled "Booms and Busts" that "There is a pronounced difference between bull markets that are made by manipulation and those that are made by the public," you perk up. Sure, he was writing all this in the Wall Street Journal in 1899, but he could just as easily be talking about day traders and 401(k) savers in 1999.

Essays by more current investment gurus appear, too. Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, and Abby Joseph Cohen pitch in, as does George Soros in a must-read section called "Crash and Learn". Not all investing involves the stock market, so even Donald Trump makes an appearance, with an essay called "Trump Cards: The Elements of the Deal."

You won't find hot stock tips here, but you will find the greatest investors of the past century or so discussing the principles that governed or govern their decision-making. And since those decisions created some of the greatest fortunes of all time, it's a vital read. --Lou Schuler

From Library Journal
This collection of speeches and articles provides sound investment advice. The contributors, well-respected experts, include Peter Lynch, who suggests buying stocks in a field you know through personal experience; Mario Gabelli, who discusses how world economic growth expands opportunities for American investors; and Martin Zweig, who explains the merits of selling stocks short. The weakest feature of these tapes, which are well narrated by Richard Poe, is the lack of new information for experienced investors; the strongest point is that the opinions given are solid. Recommended for most public libraries. Mark Guyer, Stark Cty. Dist. Lib., Canton, OH Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
The editor summarizes recent books by 10 well-known Wall Street legends. Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, George Soros, and Martin Zweig are in the group, along with some lesser-known experts on such things as cultural stock predictors, futures trading, and contrary thinking. The program is very well done and gives a nice range of current opinion on today's investment opportunities. The material here may be outside the comfort range for the investor who just wants to own good stocks, but it's interesting nonetheless and worth listening to. T.W. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Book of Investing Wisdom is an anthology of 46 essays and speeches from the most successful, well-known investors and financiers of our time. In their own words, these legends of Wall Street share their best investment ideas and advice. You'll hear from Bernard Baruch on stock market slumps, Peter Bernstein on investing for the long term, Joseph E. Granville on market movements, John Moody on investment vs. speculation, Otto Kahn on the New York Stock Exchange and public opinion, William Peter Hamilton on the Dow theory, and Leo Melamed on the art of futures trading, to name just a few. Offering practical advice, strategic wisdom, and intriguing history, The Book of Investing Wisdom will inspire and motivate everyone from the professional money manager to the do-it-yourself investor to the business student.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

This collection of speeches and articles provides sound investment advice. The contributors, well-respected experts, include Peter Lynch, who suggests buying stocks in a field you know through personal experience; Mario Gabelli, who discusses how world economic growth expands opportunities for American investors; and Martin Zweig, who explains the merits of selling stocks short. The weakest feature of these tapes, which are well narrated by Richard Poe, is the lack of new information for experienced investors; the strongest point is that the opinions given are solid. Recommended for most public libraries. Mark Guyer, Stark Cty. Dist. Lib., Canton, OH Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile

The editor summarizes recent books by 10 well-known Wall Street legends. Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, George Soros, and Martin Zweig are in the group, along with some lesser-known experts on such things as cultural stock predictors, futures trading, and contrary thinking. The program is very well done and gives a nice range of current opinion on today's investment opportunities. The material here may be outside the comfort range for the investor who just wants to own good stocks, but it's interesting nonetheless and worth listening to. T.W. ￯﾿ﾽ AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

The Economist