How the Really Smart Money Invests: A Brief History of Investing

With opening remarks along the lines of "market dynamics are very confusing to people" and "it's basically impossible to beat the market" (tell that to Warren Buffett; just not this year), it doesn't take a John Maynard Keynes to see where this "history" of investing is headed. What's pleasantly surprising is that when the other financial shoe drops at the end of the tape and people are reminded that it's important to have an advisor, the expected full-blown advertisement never materializes. On the contrary, this cautionary monetary fable, told by professors and professionals, paints a familiar and timely picture of GRQ (get rich quick) mentality, from "rolling the bones" (dice) to determine which Neanderthal would go out and bring home the bacon (or whatever mastodon was called), to the contemporary speculator that buys 5,000 shares of a $2 stock with the hopes that it will double to $4. (I actually did buy a $2 stock, which I sold a few months later at $12.50; but it's not fair to tell that story without mentioning the fact that I also own a stock purchased at $14.50, which is now trading at under $5.) While the "history" is a little threadbare (we do learn that George Washington was an avid gambler, and that the original 18th century Wall Street stockbrokers sold stocks over draughts in taverns, but not much else), and viewers will not learn diddly about how to arrange their portfolios according to risk tolerance, this inexpensive title still offers a solid reality check for those would-be Masters of the Universe, as Tom Wolfe aptly named them, who think they can--folly of follies--accurately predict the patterns of millions upon millions of buyers and sellers. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (R. Pitman)