Rule the Freakin' Markets: How to Profit in Any Market, Bull or Bear

by Michael Parness and Kirstin Peterson

Book Overview

In 1998, Michael Parness was a struggling playwright and screenwriter who was leaving the stability of his successful sports memorabilia business to write full-time. Following the advice of a stockbroker, he invested his nest egg of $150,000. But the October 1998 crash gutted his portfolio by 80% and his stocks failed to recover. With virtually no income and no financial cushion, he found himself in a tiny low-rent apartment with time to think about...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312282567
• ISBN13: 9780312282561
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 246 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.8" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

This Book is OK!!!

I'm looking at the wall in my office. It has 2 shelves on it that are 10 foot long. Both shelves are packed end to end with investment books and tapes and videos. There are several popular computerized trading program instruction booklets mixed in to boot. I have read them all and tried to use most of them for something or other. I've got stock books, mutual fund books, commodity books, trading books and investment books. If you are like me you probably have something similar. I have been in the investment/trading thing ever since the crash in 1987 when under someones advice I got out of the market at the top. I saw a lot of people get creamed there, including some friends. Then I heard small stories of people making some fortunes from that crash. That really sparked my interest in trading. I mean where DID all that money go? Someone had to take it. It just didn't disappear. Someone did take it! I thought that if they could do it so could I. So ever since, I have been reading and studying. So out of all those books and things, I can look at only a few where I got some solid advice that I can make money with. I am going to add this book to the short list of keepers. The piece of information I mean exactly is what to do during the first 1/2 hour of the day. Most traders tell you to avoid the first hour or so and I have listened. I have also seen it demonstrated in real time data. Now Waxie had a way of explaining it like no one else. He put everyones advice plus his own wisdom and explained it like no one else ever did. The open is a dangerous place to trade, but Waxie straightened it out for me like no one else ever did. He actually made it a place to make money, which I never expected. I guess I am hard headed and need it hammered in. I think that is what Waxie calls "your inner knuckelhead". So I can say in truth that if I had gotten something this useful knocked into my knuckelhead from all those other books I would be pretty wealthy. So like I say this is a keeper the other 90% only hint at subtle things that are not as useful. I hope it helps you too.bob

Excellent Book!

One of the best reads on the stock market and the nonsense that takes place on Wall Street that I've ever come across!Not only is the writing FUNNY, the information is jammed packed in an easy to access manner that makes me want to trade even more than I do now.I'm a sucessful trader for the last 3 years, but this book makes it even clearer to me that I should and WILL make more using some of the simply steps outlined here.All in all, a wonderful book on a hard to make interesting subject. 5 Star rating!

More than just luck - Great Book

The author tells how he was down to $33,000 after taking a beating in the markets and then turned that around to make over $7.7 Million in the next 18 months. This is a great book on the psychology of trading and advice that many could have benefitted from circa March 2000.Anyone who thinks the author was lucky or that anyone who made money during the last bull market was lucky, ask any Compaq or Lucent shareholder how they felt as their stocks tanked during the biggest bull market in history.This is a great book and a must read for any serious investor. I also recommend Wall Street Money Machine #3 and Retire Young, Retire Rich.

Refreshing viewpoints and an honest appraisal...

...Of the market make this book on trading a new 'classic'. I've read many books on trading, and though some of the information is trading basics 101, the key component for sucess, a trading mindset, is handled in a unique and focused manner, making this book a must read by newbies who wish to break in to trading, and/or sucessful traders who need to maintain their winning edge. The writer's street lingo gives the book an almost comic appeal as well, making it not only enlightening, but entertaining as well. This is no dry stock market guru book, this is the real deal. A job well done!

A must read for the "buy and hold" ...

Finally a real book about stock market trading in the post-bubble era. Street smart Mike Parness is a refreshing antidote to the simple minded buy and hold complacency of Motley Fool, Suzy Orman and the endless parade of supply side used-car salesman on CNBC. The author comes from the Mean Streets of New York and his awareness of danger is an obvious asset in rough and tumble markets. Parness cites Freud, and he understands the dark, aggressive side of Wall Street as well as inner destructiveness that exists within traders...How refreshingly honest--just look at their records. I don't think most Americans, raised comfortably in the suburbs, can understand just how corrupt the market is. Even after Enron, the typical investor remains astonishingly trusting and optimistic. Waxie will set you straight, and takes the novice into the intricacies of short selling, which is a necessary skill for anyone serious about making money. He is not a permabear by any means, and will also teach you how to ride rallies without getting caught at the top.Do yourself a favor and turn off Bubblevision and the sociopaths selling while you are buying. Waxie GETS IT. You cannot make money by following the crowd or listening to touts on TV who are only trying to leave you holding the bag.