Success and Survival on Wall Street

This book takes the reader on an insider’s tour of the psychology of stock market investing. In more than 3,000 hours of interviews and observations, Smith granted some of the most famous insiders on Wall Street the protection of anonymity to procure their deepest and most frank views on the operation of the market. Their words are heard here in vivid and often surprising detail. What emerges is a startling portrait of how the prejudices of six different types of players—fundamentalists, insiders, cyclists, traders, efficient market believers, and transformational idea adherents—influence the ups and downs of the market. Smith explains how new trends, such as computer trading and mutual and retirement fund investing, interact with these psychologies—drawing a remarkable picture of how market behavior is inherently more human than technical.