The Wolf of Investing

May 1, 2023

Subject of the hit movie The Wolf of Wall Street, investment expert Belfort offers a guide to mastering the stock market with The Wolf of Investing. Prepub Alert.

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October 1, 2023
The author of The Wolf of Wall Street offers a blustery argument for evading the fast-buck parasites of the finance world in favor of long-term investment. In this overlong, anecdote-filled text, Belfort draws a sharp line between smart investing and dumb speculation. It's ironic that in a book that decries snake-oil salesmen, the author writes early on that he "will show you how to deploy your hard-earned money in a safe, secure, and highly deliberate way that will allow you to...consistently beat 95 percent of the top-performing hedge fund managers and mutual fund managers in the world." Studded with most of George Carlin's seven forbidden words, Belfort's narrative delivers a good amount of valuable information for readers seeking to bypass financial advisers and do the work themselves. The author explains in detail how an ordinary investor can learn to properly value a stock, understanding that value to be a function of many variables that Wall Street claims to be insider knowledge but that can be found with a minimum of searching of public sources; and understanding the numbers on the stock tickers to be expressions of the familiar laws of supply and demand. A key takeaway: "Wall Street, as a whole, [is] completely full of shit and [does] not deserve all the fees they [are] charging," since anyone can outperform the majority of investment advisers by following some simple rules. It wouldn't be sporting to reveal them here, and Belfort's book is well worth reading just to get at sharply pointed adages such as this: "Both history and mathematics have proven that passive, long-term investing is a far better investment strategy than active, short-term trading." NSFW, to be sure, but a useful handbook for those planning their financial futures.

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October 15, 2023
Using his in-laws' unfortunate personal investing circumstances as an example, Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street, 2007) leads readers through the ins and outs of managing their own investments. The winding path includes delving into the history of Wall Street and the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and exploring the impact of heavy hitters such as Jack Bogle, Warren Buffett, and even Joe Kennedy. Eager investors will receive concrete insights and advice for learning how to maximize returns, identify the best stocks (diligent prospectus reading), and develop a portfolio. Avoiding pitfalls, such as investing heavily on a tip from a friend or a ""feeling,"" is also covered. With a full disclosure of his past, illegal dealings, along with a prison sentence, Belfort focuses his deep understanding of Wall Street on developing individual investors to become independent and successful. Whether readers know of Belfort from his previous books or the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, there is sure to be high demand for this book in both academic and public library collections.

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