Leon Levy

Rare Insight from a Seasoned Professional

If you are looking for a secret formula to accumulate wealth in the stock market, don’t buy this book.

Leon Levy, a founder of Oppenheimer Funds, Odyssey Partners and legendary investor, reflects on his more than 50 years of investing experience to explain why the market confounds so many. He borrows from his avocations, psychology and archaeology, for perceptive insights into the financial landscape.

Success in finance, he says, is an art form, not a science. It relies on the vagaries of the human condition. Readers who search this book for a secret wealth formula will be disappointed. The only door, Levy says, that leads consistently to wealth, is access to privileged information. As many have recently discovered, this path is fraught with peril.

Yet, if investing is an art form, it can be learned. The best way is to put yourself on the line. Take a position. Players outperform professors. Recognize your weaknesses. Seek to control them.

I was particularly interested in Levy’s insights into the collapse of Savings and Loans, the hedge fund Long Term Capital Management and the Internet Bubble.

This book does not belong in the class bad books written by bored billionaire investors, too many of whom have confused luck with insight. Although these individuals have a high regard for themselves, clarity, coherence and conciseness are not among the qualities which contributed to their success.

Leon Levy is likeable, incredibly informed and nothing short of brilliant. Investors for generations to come will be grateful he finished his discourse on of greed’s perils and the market’s mysteries.… (mehr)

A mix of autobiography, financial history, basic economic theory and wall street tales. The chapters are in a roughly chronological order but at times the topics seem a bit random.

If not for some of the concise wisdom sprinkled here and there in easily quotable format, a 2-star may have sufficed.

Got summary here if you dont feel like reading the book (which can feel too long) http://wikisummaries.org/The_Mind_of_Wall_Street… (mehr)