The Education of a Speculator (ISBN 0471249483)

Amazon.com Review:
What you typically hear about Victor Niederhoffer is that he trades for "the great Soros," that he doesn't wear shoes in his office, that the only newspaper he reads is the National Enquirer, and that a picture of the Titanic hangs in his office. That's all true. But it's the logic behind the eccentricities that is the real story. The Education of a Speculator is a sojourn inside the one-of-a-kind mind of Victor Niederhoffer, a trader in commodities and a keen observer of life. He has trained himself to look at the world in a singular fashion: where the guy on the street sees opportunity, Niederhoffer has scoped out all the downsides and done the contrarian thinking necessary to turn a profit. Niederhoffer draws material from disciplines as varied as biology, music, cards, and sports. His book, written with humor and verve, offers readers a chance to see the world through his lenses. The result is a genuinely new perspective on life (unless you too happened to grow up a speculator). This is a terrific, rewarding book.

Richard Feynman of Finance:
I've worked in physics and am heading for a career in finance. In these fields you occasionally run into that guy. The guy who is either so smart nobody can understand him, or he's a manic-depressive frothing in a mania stage. Either way, "that guy's" nervous system is obviously wired to a higher pitch than mine ever will be; at least without chemical additives or surgury. Reading the book is like talking to that scary smart manic guy. It's always humbling running into "that guy." Niederhoffer is that guy. He ranges wildly from stories of his colorful youth in a working class neighborhood in NYC (which actually did remind me of Feynman's stories) to horse racing, to squash, to trading FOREX. He goes so fast, you can barely keep up with him, even in a leisurely read. Why is he talking about handball? I thought he was just talking about liquidity? Checkers? And how does Jesse Livermore fit in? Read it and see. Niederhoffer is the type of man I admire the most; he has physical courage, he's brilliant, he loves his family and friends, he beats the system with wit and street smarts and he comes from humble means. He managed to get a system for gaming the GPA named after him. He was a world champion at Squash. He was an early pioneer of direct marketing private equity funds. He was an early skeptic of the efficient market hypothesis (what would traders get paid for if the markets were efficient?). He was a professor at U.C. Berkeley. He built (and lost, in a story I hope the next edition of his book documents, and, stunningly, built again) a great fortune. His story is completely mind boggling; the world is a better place for his having lived his story in it, and you'll be a better person for absorbing his insights about the world. Beyond my gushing over his yarn spinning, if you're a careful reader, and you know something about markets, you can pick up some pretty serious insight from his descriptions of his day to day work. The only other book I got a feel for the markets like this was Larry Harris' book on Trading and Exchanges, and that was nowhere near as much fun to read.

Don't buy if you're looking for a daytrading book:
This is just an autobiography filled with tons of boring information about Neidderhoffer. I really expected more. Some insight on how to come up with good ideas, something, anything. No delivery.

Useless rubbish:
Meandering nonsense that tells the reader nothing about how to speculate in anything. The author claims it is in there but between the lines as he cannot give away his secrets. Well, he does not. A waste of money for someone wanting to learn how to trade.

Self-biography of a trader:
If you like biographies and trading, this is probably a book that you should read. It is quite entertaining. Some material is biographical and some more trading oriented. However if trading is more your focus I would strongly recommend first reading the same author's "Practical Speculation". If you like that book you can move onto this book. If you are more into learning about life through reading biographies, I would say that this book is pretty okay. The author have certainly had his ups and downs and that probably makes it easier to draw lessons out of this book. I have written several short reviews on trading books. The best way is to compare the score on the books I've read. Many reviews on amazon.com are just glorious 5 star reviews. I use all five categories; sorry but everything isn't "great". Books rated 5 are very good. Books rated 4 are good solid books well worth reading. Books rated 3 can be bought by some people who read a lot or have very specific needs. Books rated 1 or 2 I would not recommend buying or reading. Naturally all in my humble opinion.

Don't waste your money:
What a disappointment. The book barely qualifies as a book on speculation. Instead, it is a long winded, rambling account of the author's (non-investing) life; after page upon page devoted to a topic other than speculating/investing (e.g. sports) he attempts to draw some parallel between the subject in question (e.g. sports) and speculating/investing. All too often, the analogies/parallels are weak to non-existent. For a book supposedly dedicated to speculating, remarkably little of it actually deals with this topic. There can be no doubt the author has tremendous knowledge; he simply choses not to share it with his readers in this offering. Don't waste your money.