Moving Mountains, The Art of Letting Others See Things Your Way, Henry M Boettinger

As the kids say nowadays, "OMG!"  Its been a long time since I last finished reading a book.  This is a good book, written in 1969, and its principles are still relevant today.  Smart man, this Boettinger fellow.

How to Get and Hold Attention or Creating Sleeplessness (quoted verbatim)

Everyone subjected to a presentation  brings with him several unseen retainers.  Kipling calls them his "six honest serving men" : Who, What, Where, Why, How, and When?

Like six unruly children, each of these will tug at your audience's minds until they get satisfaction -- or at least a lollipop.  They are not nasty kids, but inquisitive, and their presence furnishes the basic structure of any presentation on any subject.  The order in which they are answered  depends on your own inclination, taste, and the style appropriate to the subject.  They don't need equal time, but every one demands some recognition.  Not one can be assumed safely asleep, no matter how sophisticated the audience.

Persons listening wants to know your answer to each one somewhere in your story.  Every successful presenter has his mind divided into the six compartments.  They are used in the composition stage like six  file folders for accumulating your basic ingredients : facts, opinions, and methods.

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Edwin Lefevre

Some passages from the book.

• I admit that I do get irresistible impulses at times to do certain things in the market. It doesn't matter whether I am long or short of stocks. I must get out. I am uncomfortable until I do. I myself think that what happens is that I see a lot of warning-signals. Perhaps not a single one may be sufficiently clear or powerful to afford me a positive, definite reason for doing what I suddenly feel like doing. Probably that is all there is to what they call "ticker-sense" that old traders say... 

• The training of a stock trader is like a medical education. The physician has to spend long years learning anatomy, physiology, materia medica and collateral subjects by the dozen. He learns the theory and then proceeds to devote his life to the practice.

• It really isn't automatism. It is that he has diagnosed the case according to his observations of such cases during a period of many years; and, naturally, after he has diagnosed it, he can only treat it in the way that experience has taught him is the proper treatment. You can transmit knowledge that is, your particular collection of card-indexed facts but not your experience.

• The principles of successful stock speculation are based on the supposition that people will continue in the future to make the [same] mistakes that they have made in the past.

• History repeats itself all the time in Wall Street.

• ... no man can consistently and continuously beat the stock market though he may make money in individual stocks on certain occasions. No matter how experienced a trader is the possibility of his making losing plays is always present because speculation cannot be made 100 per cent safe.

An example of how brokers screw us over:

It often happens that an insider goes to the head of a brokerage concern and says: "I wish you'd make a market in which to dispose of 50,000 shares of my stock."

The broker asks for further details. Let us say that the quoted price of that stock is 50. The insider tells him: "I will give you calls on 5000 shares at 45 and 5000 shares every point up for the entire fifty thousand shares. I also will give you a put on 50,000 shares at the market."

Now, this is pretty easy money for the broker, if he has a large following and of course this is precisely the kind of broker the insider seeks. A house with direct wires to branches and connections in various parts of the country can usually get a large following in a deal of that kind. Remember that in any event the broker is playing absolutely safe by reason of the put. If he can get his public to follow he will be able to dispose of his entire line at a big profit in addition to his regular commissions.

Leadership and Self-Deception, The Arbinger Institute

"Self-betrayal"

• An act contrary to what I feel I should do for another is called an act of "self-betrayal".
• When I betray myself, I begin to see the world in a way that justifies my self-betrayal.
• When I see a self-justifying world, my view of reality becomes distorted.
• So -- when I betray myself, I enter the "box". [this "box" is a paradigm of skewed thinking and perception that drives how I act and think]
• Over time, certain boxes become characteristic of me, and I carry them with me.
• By being in the "box", I provoke others to also be in their boxes.
• In the "box", we invite mutual mistreatment and obtain mutual justification [to continue to behave/think selfishly].  We unknowingly collude in giving each other reason to stay in the "box".

For the good of a relationship (be it in social, or in business), we need to get out of the "box".  To get out of the box, we need to see people as people, not objects that need to be cajoled, or manipulated to serve our needs.  We need to see others as important as well.

How is this important in business?  Well, we work together to achieve results.  If we are in the "box", we won't be thinking for the common good, but for our own selves.

Works in relationships as well.  If you ever had mixed feelings about your spouse's attitudes, this book is for you.  Read it.  Will be good for you.  Helped me think though a number of issues with my biz partner.

Inside the House of Money, Steven Drobny

"A fantastic book, in both content and execution." Bloomberg News

"Loved ... [the] book -- its' on my nightstand!" Bill Gross, MD, Pimco

Yup, so I bought it.  Read it.  And then thought, "what a load of crap".  Its a bunch of people who talked about their experiences about how well they did, and some of the lessons they learnt.  Drobny could have just summarised the whole book on one page.  They were just lucky.

But then again, I'm neither Bill Gross nor Bloomberg, so what do I know, eh?

The Warren Buffet Portfolio, Robert G Hagstrom

• Buffet suggests focusing on five to ten stocks.
• Why Munger and Buffet are not in high-tech investments : "...we'd rather deal with what we understand.  Why should we play a competitive game in a field where we have no advantage -- maybe a disadvantage -- instead of playing in a field where we have a clear advantage."
• "Each of you will have to figure out where your talents lie," counsels Munger, "and you will have to use your advantages.  But if you try to succeed in what you're worst at, you're going to have a very lousy career.  I can almost guarantee it."
• "Learning is simply a matter of observing what is going on around you."  Buffet
• The Kelly Optimization Model.
• There is a formula:  2p -1 = x (where p is the probability of winning expressed in fractional percentage, and x = percentage of your bankroll to bet).
• To receive the benefit of the Kelly model, you must first be willing to think about buying stocks in terms of probabilities.
• You must be willing to play the game long enough to achieve its rewards.
• You must avoid using leverage, with its unfortunate consequences.
• You should demand a margin of safety with each bet you make. 
• Benjamin Graham's approach to stock investing:
• Look at stocks as a business.
• Have a margin-of-safety.
• Have a true investor's attitude toward the stock market.
• Do not be stampeded by other people's misjudgment.
• When it comes to money and investing, people frequently make errors in judgment.
• In investing, ... we need to understand basic accounting and finance...statistics and probabilities.  But once of the most important fields to learn from is psychology.
• People put too much emphasis on a few chance events, thinking they they spot a trend.  
• Behaviorists have learnt that people tend to overreact to bad news and react slowly to good news.
• Thaler's notion of investor myopia -- shortsightedness lead to foolish decisions, and is driven by our innate desire to avoid loss.
• Risk-taking propensity is connected to two demographic factors -- age and gender.
• Successful focus investors need a certain kind of temperament.  The road is always bumpy, and knowing which is the right path to take is often counter-intuitive.

Great book.

Meme: Save Yvonne's Sight

I don't normally do this meme thingy. Heavens, I only have a total sum of 4 distinct visitors to this so-called blog. I'm embarrassed to even call this blog a 'blog'. But, there you have it.

But for a good cause, and because I was tagged by one spunky lady, and so, let me introduce you to Yvonne Foong. She's 22 years old, and have her whole life ahead of her. But she will soon lose her eyesight because of neurofibromatosis type II if she doesn't get surgery help. This surgery and hospital stay is expensive, but if everyone pitches in a little, it is doable.

She is trying to raise the needed funds for the surgery through sales of her book I'm Not Sick; I'm Just a Bit Unwell. The book, in English and Chinese versions, is available in Malaysian bookshops and from her web site here. She is also selling T-Shirts and now, mooncakes!

Yvonne Foong is in danger of losing her eyesight thanks to neurofibromatosis (NF). Please find out how you can help her by visiting her blog at http://www.yvonnefoong.com/.

In GOD We Doubt, John Humphrys

1. I have always thought it quite ridiculous to expect someone to believe in God without having had any experience of him. Rather like telling someone to believe in bananas without ever tasting one.
2. What believers and athiests agree on is that our actions are influenced by any number of factors: upbringing; environment; custom and tradition; fear of consequences. Both sides also acknowledge the presence of the still, small voice. But for believers its origin is divine and for athiests it is the voice of reason. As for me, it is difficult to understand the existence of conscience without accepting the existence of something beyond ourselves.