Fred Schwed – Where are the customers Yachts? Book review

In a nutshell (208 pages), this book is a major dig at Wall Street, what it represents, and what it claims to represent. The book is also very funny. Most investors won’t really learn anything new or particularly useful, but it’s a light read about a subject pretty much anyone can appreciate, and it’s a well-written account of geniuses being foolish and taking honest people for fools.

What I got out of it

The author had enough Wall Street experience himself to offer an inside view of what the Wall Street machine is really like and, as the title suggests, he points out the fact that for an industry meant to make people rich, it doesn’t seem to enrich the right people. He translates the experience of being a Wall Street customer to other fields like medicine where a patient knows he’s been cured and pays for the service, but in finance, a customer pays for the service and doesn’t get wealthy.

What was difficult

I’m confident that the author's limited Wall Street experience is a point of contention for anyone inclined to defend the position of Wall Street. That in itself doesn’t take away from the book for the average reader, though. The book could have been a bit shorter.

Recommendation

If Wall Street interests you at all or if you wonder why Insiders seem to all get so wealthy (they don’t) and why so many customers get mediocre results at best, blown up financially at worse, then this is a good light read for you. Just put the book away if it seems to get redundant and know that you’re not going to miss too much if you think you got the point.