In his deeply ironic analysis, Charles Smith shows us that the highly specialized milieux of securities markets resemble life in general; mysterious in some ways, unpredictable in other ways, intimately dependent on socially created stories in every regard, yet centered on mundane transactions of sale and purchase. What's more, Smith relates the market's operation to the everyday activities of its uncertain, often worried participants.
Viviana Zeliver, Princeton University Charles Smith x-rays the reasoning behind the behavior of professionals that investors encounter as they navigate the market. Mercilessly stripping away the rhetoric, he gives a spare yet clear and revealing account of six fundamental ways of thinking, and advises investors on how to cope with the sales strategies that correspond to them. An eye-opener for the legions bewildered by their investment advisers, or for any who simply want to understand the ‘mind of the market.'
Mark Granovetter, Stanford University My absolute favorite new investment book should be read by anyone eager to make a million in the market, Success and Survival on Wall Street: Understanding the Mind of the Market. . . . Smith has come up with a taxonomy of the Wall Street species.
Robert Barker
Business Week
Smith's book is a representative of a rare genre: sociology books useful to the general reader.
Contemporary Sociology