Books 03 (Dec 09 - Dec 25)

Re: Books 3 (Dec 09 - Mar 10)

Postby millionairemind » Thu Feb 25, 2010 4:04 pm

kennynah wrote:everyone should have a go at this book.... look at it as if it is just a story book, even if you are an atheist....



I did read it in my younger days even though I am not a Christian :D

Its always good to have an understanding of various religions so that one can have a good discussion with one's counterparts, without prejudice.
"If a speculator is correct half of the time, he is hitting a good average. Even being right 3 or 4 times out of 10 should yield a person a fortune if he has the sense to cut his losses quickly on the ventures where he has been wrong" - Bernard Baruch

Disclaimer - The author may at times own some of the stocks mentioned in this forum. All discussions are NOT to be construed as buy/sell recommendations. Readers are advised to do their own research and analysis.
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Re: Books 3 (Dec 09 - Mar 10)

Postby millionairemind » Fri Feb 26, 2010 10:07 am

Read Six Frames: For Thinking About Information by Edward De Bono. I always enjoy his books and find his books concise and interesting.

Available from NLB.

Current reading SPEED MATHEMATICS, FEEL HAPPY NOW and WHY WE MAKE MISTAKES. Will post if they are any good.

Synopsis
Attention is a key part of thinking clearly and productively, and yet we pay very little attention to attention itself. If you see someone lying injured in the middle of the road, for example, your attention would go to that person but, if a bright pink dog wandered past at the same time, your attention would automatically stray to the dog. That is precisely the weakness of attention - it is pulled to the unusual. How much attention do we pay to the usual?

So, what can we do about it? Instead of waiting for attention to be pulled towards something unusual, we can set out frameworks for 'directing' our attention in a conscious manner. Just as we can decide to look north, west or even south-east, so we can set up a framework for directing our attention, and that's where Edward de Bono's 'six frames' come in. Each frame is a direction or method in/with which to look, based on a different shape - triangle, circle, heart, square, diamond, slab.

Today we are literally surrounded by information and it has never been so easy to obtain. Yet, information itself is not enough; it's how we look at it that really counts. Using the 'six frames' technique is the key to extracting real value from the masses of facts and figures out there and, like all de Bono's techniques, it is simple, effective and will utterly change the way you interpret information.
http://www.rbooks.co.uk/product.aspx?id=0091924197
"If a speculator is correct half of the time, he is hitting a good average. Even being right 3 or 4 times out of 10 should yield a person a fortune if he has the sense to cut his losses quickly on the ventures where he has been wrong" - Bernard Baruch

Disclaimer - The author may at times own some of the stocks mentioned in this forum. All discussions are NOT to be construed as buy/sell recommendations. Readers are advised to do their own research and analysis.
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Re: Books 3 (Dec 09 - May 10)

Postby millionairemind » Mon Mar 01, 2010 6:42 pm

Finished up on WHY WE MAKE MISTAKES by Joseph T. Hallinan. Pretty decent book.

If you don't want to page thro' 220 pages of info, here's the synopsis.

http://www.bspcn.com/2009/02/16/7-dumb- ... rs-at-bay/

Here's a book review by Scientific American.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... e-mistakes

I enjoyed the book. :D

Available from NLB.

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"If a speculator is correct half of the time, he is hitting a good average. Even being right 3 or 4 times out of 10 should yield a person a fortune if he has the sense to cut his losses quickly on the ventures where he has been wrong" - Bernard Baruch

Disclaimer - The author may at times own some of the stocks mentioned in this forum. All discussions are NOT to be construed as buy/sell recommendations. Readers are advised to do their own research and analysis.
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Re: Books 3 (Dec 09 - May 10)

Postby kennynah » Mon Mar 01, 2010 7:16 pm

Feb 2010 issue


老夫子 (Master Q)
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Options Strategies & Discussions .(Trading Discipline : The Science of Constantly Acting on Knowledge Consistently - kennynah).Investment Strategies & Ideas

Image..................................................................<A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control-Proverbs 29:11>.................................................................Image
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Re: Books 3 (Dec 09 - May 10)

Postby millionairemind » Mon Mar 01, 2010 7:34 pm

kennynah wrote:Feb 2010 issue


老夫子 (Master Q)


I used to read 老夫子 when I was a kid. It was dry humor and I tot it was pretty funny.

I did not realize that its still being published 25yrs after I stopped reading it. :D
"If a speculator is correct half of the time, he is hitting a good average. Even being right 3 or 4 times out of 10 should yield a person a fortune if he has the sense to cut his losses quickly on the ventures where he has been wrong" - Bernard Baruch

Disclaimer - The author may at times own some of the stocks mentioned in this forum. All discussions are NOT to be construed as buy/sell recommendations. Readers are advised to do their own research and analysis.
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Re: Books 3 (Dec 09 - May 10)

Postby sidney » Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:20 am

I loved master q:) I still have 1 last copy at home
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Re: Books 3 (Dec 09 - May 10)

Postby millionairemind » Sat Mar 27, 2010 7:23 am

Time to update this thread :D

Read The Complete Secrets of Happy Children: A Guide for Parents by Steve Biddulph & Sharon Biddulph.

Decent book. Devoid of jargon and has lots of decent parenting tips. It also explains Y TIME OUT alone is NOT a good method for discipline (which I agree). He does believe in positive discipline but he could probably dive in more detail in that respect.

A good book to read if you have kid(s).

Available from NLB.

Summary
Child psychologist Steve Biddulph tells parents everything they need to know about raising happy, healthy, confident children from babyhood to teens. This book shows parents how to be true to themselves while also bringing up secure children who feel loved and respected, with self-esteem and responsibility. The book is aimed at a wide age group - from babies and toddlers to older children and teenagers. Authoritative yet accessible, it is full of case histories and familiar conversations and scenarios, as well as cartoons, that help parents relate to Steve's message. The book covers all the key issues in parenting, including: how and why negative language affects children; stopping tantrums before they start; curing shyness - "soft love"; why touch, praise and time are vital - and "firm love" - disciplining through teaching and being involved, rather than punishment.
"If a speculator is correct half of the time, he is hitting a good average. Even being right 3 or 4 times out of 10 should yield a person a fortune if he has the sense to cut his losses quickly on the ventures where he has been wrong" - Bernard Baruch

Disclaimer - The author may at times own some of the stocks mentioned in this forum. All discussions are NOT to be construed as buy/sell recommendations. Readers are advised to do their own research and analysis.
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Re: Books 3 (Dec 09 - Jun 10)

Postby millionairemind » Sun Apr 04, 2010 6:01 pm

Wrapped up a book on value investing called Investing Against the Tide: Lessons from a Life Running Money by Anthony Bolton. Here's abit about the author from wiki.

Anthony Bolton (born 7 March 1950) is one of the UK's best known investment fund managers and most successful investors, having managed the Fidelity Special Situations fund from December 1979 to December 2007. Over this 28-year period the fund achieved annualised growth of 19.5%, far in excess of the 13.5% growth of the wider stock exchange, turning a £1,000 investment into £147,000


Few people have heard of him. He made his name in UK as a value investor and is up there with the greats like Peter Lynch.

He is to value investing what Peter Lynch is to growth stock investing.

Finally, a famed value investor who uses CHARTS!!!!

He uses charts to back up his fundamental analysis and he says both are complementary to each other.

I highly recommend this book to any value investor who scorns at chartists.

Available from NLB.

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"If a speculator is correct half of the time, he is hitting a good average. Even being right 3 or 4 times out of 10 should yield a person a fortune if he has the sense to cut his losses quickly on the ventures where he has been wrong" - Bernard Baruch

Disclaimer - The author may at times own some of the stocks mentioned in this forum. All discussions are NOT to be construed as buy/sell recommendations. Readers are advised to do their own research and analysis.
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Re: Books 3 (Dec 09 - Jun 10)

Postby millionairemind » Thu Apr 22, 2010 2:51 pm

Wrapped up on 3 books this week: Bozo Sapiens: Why to Err is Human by Michael Kaplan and Ellen Kaplan, The Economic Naturalist's Field Guide: Common Sense Principles for Troubled Times by Robert H. Frank (Author) and Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely.

Bozo is a boring read... material's too dry. Economic Naturalist deals alot with American political issues and is very US-centric. If you don't follow the news closely, the reader will find it difficult to put things in context.

Out of the 3, Predictably Irrational is the best read. You will be surprised when you find out how the advertisers out there is trying to "trick" your brain into making decisions by providing context and contrast.

Here's a detail book review from the IHT. All three books are available from NLB.

BOOK REVIEW: DAVID BERREBY ON DAN ARIELY’S ‘PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL’
20th March 2008, 10:41 am


By David Berreby
Published: March 14, 2008

For years, the ideology of free markets bestrode the world, bending politics as well as economics to its core assumption: market forces produce the best solution to any problem. But these days, even Bill Gates says capitalism’s work is “unsatisfactory” for one-third of humanity, and not even Hillary Clinton supports Bill Clinton’s 1990s trade pacts.


Another sign that times are changing is “Predictably Irrational,” a book that both exemplifies and explains this shift in the cultural winds. Here, Dan Ariely, an economist at M.I.T., tells us that “life with fewer market norms and more social norms would be more satisfying, creative, fulfilling and fun.” By the way, the conference where he had this insight wasn’t sponsored by the Federal Reserve, where he is a researcher. It came to him at Burning Man, the annual anarchist conclave where clothes are optional and money is banned. Ariely calls it “the most accepting, social and caring place I had ever been.”

Obviously, this sly and lucid book is not about your grandfather’s dismal science. Ariely’s trade is behavioral economics, which is the study, by experiments, of what people actually do when they buy, sell, change jobs, marry and make other real-life decisions.

To see how arousal alters sexual attitudes, for example, Ariely and his colleagues asked young men to answer a questionnaire – then asked them to answer it again, only this time while indulging in Internet pornography on a laptop wrapped in Saran Wrap. (In that state, their answers to questions about sexual tastes,, violence and condom use were far less respectable.) To study the power of suggestion, Ariely’s team zapped volunteers with a little painful electricity, then offered fake pain pills costing either 10 cents or $2.50 (all reduced the pain, but the more expensive ones had a far greater effect). To see how social situations affect honesty, they created tests that made it easy to cheat, then looked at what happened if they reminded people right before the test of a moral rule. (It turned out that being reminded of any moral code – the Ten Commandments, the non-existent “M.I.T. honor system” – caused cheating to plummet.)

These sorts of rigorous but goofy-sounding experiments lend themselves to a genial, gee-whiz style, with which Ariely moves comfortably from the lab to broad social questions to his own life (why did he buy that Audi instead of a sensible minivan?). He is good-tempered company – if he mentions you in this book, you are going to be called “brilliant,” “fantastic” or “delightful” – and crystal clear about all he describes. But “Predictably Irrational” is a far more revolutionary book than its unthreatening manner lets on. It’s a concise summary of why today’s social science increasingly treats the markets-know-best model as a fairy tale.

At the heart of the market approach to understanding people is a set of assumptions. First, you are a coherent and unitary self. Second, you can be sure of what this self of yours wants and needs, and can predict what it will do. Third, you get some information about yourself from your body – objective facts about hunger, thirst, pain and pleasure that help guide your decisions. Standard economics, as Ariely writes, assumes that all of us, equipped with this sort of self, “know all the pertinent information about our decisions” and “we can calculate the value of the different options we face.” We are, for important decisions, rational, and that’s what makes markets so effective at finding value and allocating work. To borrow from H. L. Mencken, the market approach presumes that “the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

What the past few decades of work in psychology, sociology and economics has shown, as Ariely describes, is that all three of these assumptions are false. Yes, you have a rational self, but it’s not your only one, nor is it often in charge. A more accurate picture is that there are a bunch of different versions of you, who come to the fore under different conditions. We aren’t cool calculators of self-interest who sometimes go crazy; we’re crazies who are, under special circumstances, sometimes rational.

Ariely is not out to overthrow rationality. Instead, he and his fellow social scientists want to replace the “rational economic man” model with one that more accurately describes the real laws that drive human choices. In a chapter on “relativity,” for example, Ariely writes that evaluating two houses side by side yields different results than evaluating three – A, B and a somewhat less appealing version of A. The subpar A makes it easier to decide that A is better – not only better than the similar one, but better than B. The lesser version of A should have no effect on your rating of the other two buildings, but it does. Similarly, he describes the “zero price effect,” which marketers exploit to convince us to buy something we don’t really want or need in order to collect a “free” gift. “FREE! gives us such an emotional charge that we perceive what is being offered as immensely more valuable than it really is,” Ariely writes. None of this is rational, but it is predictable.

What the reasoning self should do, he says, is set up guardrails to manage things during those many, many moments when reason is not in charge. (Though one might ask why the reasoning self should always be in charge, an assumption Ariely doesn’t examine too closely.) For example, Ariely writes, we know our irrational self falls easily into wanting stuff we can’t afford and don’t need. So he proposes a credit card that encourages planning and self-control. After $50 is spent on chocolate this month – pfft, declined! He has in fact suggested this to a major bank. Of course, he knew that his idea would cut into the $17 billion a year that American banks make on consumer credit-card interest, but what the heck: money isn’t everything.
"If a speculator is correct half of the time, he is hitting a good average. Even being right 3 or 4 times out of 10 should yield a person a fortune if he has the sense to cut his losses quickly on the ventures where he has been wrong" - Bernard Baruch

Disclaimer - The author may at times own some of the stocks mentioned in this forum. All discussions are NOT to be construed as buy/sell recommendations. Readers are advised to do their own research and analysis.
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Re: Books 3 (Dec 09 - Jun 10)

Postby LenaHuat » Thu Apr 22, 2010 7:11 pm

Hi MM :D
Your avatar is so captivating. It tells a story :!:
Please be forewarned that you are reading a post by an otiose housewife. ImageImage**Image**Image@@ImageImageImage
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