Laughing at Wall Street by Chris Camillo – A Book Review
Contents synopsis:
The subtitle of this book is “How I Beat the Investment Professionals (Reading the Tabloid, Shopping at the Mall, and Logging in on Facebook) and How You Can Too. This is a good summary of what this book is about.
The author, Chris Camillo, is considered one of the most successful amateur investors in the world. His claim is that from September 2007 until the book came out in April 2010, his portfolio of self-managed investments appreciated from $ 83,752 to $ 2,388,311. A schedule of that performance is available on their website, chriscamillo.com.
Camillo’s method is to keep an eye out for trends and fashion products seen in shopping malls, in the internet media, and what he sees on television and in tabloid publications. The idea is that demand for a particular product or service can skyrocket for reasons often unknown to Wall Street and that if you buy the shares of the company involved before Wall Street is aware of the trend and sell as soon as Wall Street see the trend, you can make significant profits. Camillo demonstrates in the book in some detail how he has done it to grow his portfolio so impressively.
It tells us that traditional Wall Street types, mostly white, male and middle-aged, are not connected to the popular trends that drive this type of market demand. They rely on corporate reports and conventional financial news reports, neither of which reports on these trends until they are old news.
He offers examples including observations of an attractive new shoe that he observed on the beach before it became known in financial circles and a clothing brand that the first Obama family wore to the inauguration, sparking a shopping spree that it drove stock prices up quickly.
Camillo pays some attention to traditional technical and fundamental business methods and tells us how and why they are unreliable. Then analyze how this observation of popular trends is superior. His method requires a lot of observation, web browsing, and a form of due diligence to make sure that the trend you suspect you are seeing is genuine and that the stock market is not yet aware of it on Wall Street. Then you dive in, buy these stocks, and wait for them to peak when they become public knowledge.
The appeal of Camillo’s approach is that it doesn’t require any specialized knowledge of stocks, the market as a whole, technical tread techniques, or fundamental analysis of the company management that Warren Buffet is famous for. This method can be done by anyone who is observant and disciplined and willing to do the required leg work. A high school student could and has done it.
As with any method of earning money, this one requires a lot of time and effort. This isn’t really a get-rich-quick scheme, although Camillo has shown remarkable performance in his trade using it. It’s not about intraday trading either, wait until you identify a genuine potential money maker, buy and hold the stocks until they take off and market demand finishes the upward journey, then sell before it goes down again once everyone knows. .
It should also be noted that the author is a professional market researcher by trade, this is what he does for a living, and since he makes a living by observing market trends, he begins with some advantage over the newbie.
This method is clearly not for everyone. It takes time and commitment to methodology and some awareness and understanding of market trends for a specific product or service that are not yet common knowledge. However, he seems to offer a unique and highly accessible method of beating the odds of the market for someone who is willing to do the job the way he illustrates. For anyone who has the time and the will to learn this method, there is clearly the potential to outperform the index fund averages.
This book is a must read for anyone looking for an accessible and relatively simple method of capturing market gains.
Utility:
For the person with some money to invest and the time and self-discipline to apply this method, this book is an excellent introduction to a new and promising way to increase returns on capital investments.
Disclaimer: All investment methods carry some risk, including this one. This review should not be viewed as professional investment or financial advice. Consult a professional financial advisor for professional advice.
Readability / Writing quality:
The book is very readable and easy to follow. It is well organized.
Notes on the author:
Chris Camillo is a market researcher who has not been very impressed with more traditional stock trading methods and has used his own powers of observation to beat the market averages.
Three great ideas you can use:
1. If traditional market analysis is not for you and you don’t want to leave the management of your investment portfolio to a professional manager, there is a method that most people can use to learn about promising stocks before they take off. .
2. This method requires continuous time to observe and learn about products and services and emerging market trends that can be observed at the local mall, on Facebook and in many other places. Then some due diligence is required to make sure that you have observed a genuine large-scale trend that will increase the value of the stock.
3. By following a proven method by being careful about doing your homework, you can improve your odds with actions. However, you should read the book to know the details of how it is done.
Publication information:
Laughing at Wall Street by Chris Camillo
Copyright 2011 by Chris Camillo. Published by St. Martin’s Press
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