Laughing at Wall Street: How I Beat the Pros at Investi… (2024)

Definitely a book that I do not reccommend anyone to read. As I continue to struggle to find a way to become passionate about investing, I saw this book in the library and thought would be an interesting way to look at investing. However, I quickly was disappointed by the book. Sure Chris Camillo has made a phenomenal return on his personal investment account and he writes the book as if the audience is a non-wall street professional who is just looking to learn how to invest their personal money. The strategies he teaches is interesting but still difficult to see how they work as he takes the view point that conducting fundamental analysis that Wall Street does makes no sense given how much more people on Wall Street will know about / able to spend time conducting fundamental valuation than any personal investor ever will be able to. The whole book is about how he is able to get a competitive advantage on investments by finding investment opportunities that are right in front of him that Wall Street is not able to realize yet. For example, he discusses the time when Michelle Obama and her whole family wore all J. Crew apparel during one of Obama's first speeches and how when he went to the mall the line at J. Crew was out the door. He spoke to employees and visited several other J. Crew stores and he realized that they were going to have a strong quarter given how huge these lines were at all these stores and yet Wall Street of course was not out there visiting retail stores so didn't know about the opportunity. Sure enough, the J. Crew stock went through the roof and the company had a great earnings year. Another strategy he discusses is going on to investor blogs and reading through the blogs taking advice from people on there. Again, a lot of smart people on these blogs he argues that can shed a ton of useful knowledge, but you have to be careful with a lot of guys just trying to bid up interest in the stock.

If anything, the lesson one takes from this book is that investing can be as simple as seeing how something is trending and making that investment prior to this being picked up on Wall Street. Again, you have to wonder how many examples there are of this though.

I read this book at my husband’s insistence but I’m glad that I did. I’m not sure that the stock market is ever going to be my “thing” but I do believe that everyone should have a basic understanding of how it works. Even if you have no intentions to begin investing or chose not to follow Camillo’s investment advice, this book is still worth a read. I found the chapter on 401ks really eye opening and relevant. In fact, for that chapter alone I would recommend this book. Also Camilo gives the best, most accessible description of calls and puts that I have read, have been read to me, or have had described to me. For that I am grateful to the author for this book and his easy to read, down to earth style. Overall, I enjoyed this book and felt like I learned a lot. I may read it again and take some notes.

It's like a highly simplified and modern version of One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch
Basically he argues that the average person can know more than a Wall Street Investor by making critical observations in their every day lives. E.g. We all saw the rise of Apple and Facebook, because we were all consumers of it, but none of us bothered to invest in the companies. He teaches us to look at our every day lives with investor-glasses.

Here are my notes below:

The early bird gets the worm. You need an informational advantage.
When do I enter a position?
> Upon discovery of game changing information not yet known by Wall Street
When do I exit a position?
>When the game-changing information becomes widely accepted as fact by Wall Street.

Information arbitrage: Enter during information imbalance, exit during information parity.

Wall Street is mostly old men, so they have a hard time keeping up with female/youth/low-income trends.

When Michelle Obama wore J.Crew on the day of her inauguration, the website crashed from so many sales and the stock continued to rise until Wall Street was writing all about it.

This is the power of observation. You go to the amusem*nt park and see everyone wearing crocs, could this be a massive shift in trend? You spend your holiday playing a certain video game, could this become a cultural phenomena?
How about seeing everyone using iPhones and talk about it like a cult phenomena?

Every thing that happens has a cause and effect. The causes are only valid if they will cause a major impact on the companies sales, for example Jay-Z did not impact Cristal significantly. But Run DMC had a huge impact on Adidas. The Atkins diet had a huge impact on bread sales.

Once you have discovered you think Wall Street doesn't know, just go check! Log onto Yahoo Finance and read headlines. For 3 years straight all analysts said that the iPhone was going to be a flop. If you have an informational advantage, most analysts will disagree. Then by 2010 analysts reported it as the best selling phone ever. That was time to sell.

Chapter 8
Leverage your network, your family, friends all know something you don't. What everybody is writing about on social media serves as a weak signal.
Use stock boards. They definitely have an informational advantage over wall street.

Chapter 9 Multiply gains with options
A call option that has a strike price that is higher than the current stock price is 'out of the money' and therefore more expensive. The intrinsic value is currently 0

A call option that has a strike price that is lower than the current stock price is 'in the money' and therefore cheaper. The only way it will expire worthless is if the price declines below the strike price.

The more time left in a contract, the more costly.

I typically buy options with a strike price=current market value since defining exact price targets is hard. I then buy options with a 6-9 month expiration since that is enough quarters to announce sales and earnings.

I expected more from this book but was disappointed at the vague information provide. Although he did explain his own success story he did not really get into detail on what he did to achieve it other than mention some stocks he invested in.

You would think that it’s too simple to really work. You would be wrong.

Chris Camillo is an absolute genius. But unlike most other smart people, he never tries to impress you and is never self-aggrandizing. By reading this book and following simple techniques in investing, you will outperform the vast majority of “professional investors”. Of that am very confident.

In addition to that, after reading this and applying it successfully, you will find finance shows on channels such as CNBC hilarious. So don’t think the title of the book is anything but apt.

5 stars for Chris

Wow!! I've read a few investment books before that talk about formulas and expert methods. I've seen the infomercials about getting rich quick with a tried and true method for picking stocks. It's all mickey-mouse magic in my opinion....as well as in the opinion of the author of Laughing at Wall Street (LWS). Chris Camillo explains his method--which when you step back and think about it is perfectly logical and based on reality, not voodoo--of using his own observations of the world around him, and to leverage friends and family (through for example facebook) to find the next big money making stock (or losing stock, for those into short trading). He provides through clear writing and easy to understand explanations a new way of looking at investing in the stock market. How to use Wall Streets own short comings to grasps opportunities they have missed. The section on call and put options is a little tough to understand at first, but when you read it a second time its much clearer. Chris boils this seemingly complex trading method down so it is easier to understand. It is a new form of trading for some but is worth understanding in this book as anyone can do it to maximize profits.

One of the biggest point in LWS to take away is Chris's insistence that you do not use your retirement fund, 401(K) or other retirement plans to invest. You look at your current budget and find the few things you can live with out (Starbucks coffee) or delay purchasing (the next big electronic purchase that will be hundreds of dollars cheaper next year) to fund you investment account. Do not risk what you can not afford to do with out. Its such a simple idea, but one often not stressed in other investment books, which if you think about it is just insane. The idea is to better you life financially, not risk sinking your entire family....and Laughing at Wall Street hits the nail on the head with a very logical, simple (to understand) method, that still require hard work and effort, but which is not beyond the normal woman or man.

Read this book for a fresh look at the complex world or stock trading and investing.

NOTE: I received this book through goodreads Giveaways. It is an ARC copy. I have not been provided any incentive for my review.

This isn't really a traditional investing or finance book as there is almost 0 analysis whether that be fundamentals or technical. Or any kind of specific systems trading strategy.

That doesn't mean there is nothing of value here. In fact the book is about the most basic approach to investing. Buying a emerging trend. Like the people who were buying internet companies during the dotcom bubble even though they had no revenue. Or how people in 2020 are buying clean energy, cloud computing, 5g and many other trends that will be fully realized in the future.

His technique, if you can call it that, is to buy a really hot trend before it gets noticed by Wallstreet or if Wallstreet hates it. There is a contrarian element to it which is normally great for most mid to large cap stocks.

He doesn't really go into specifics other than you should just look for emerging trends or behavior shifts in your social circle or society in general. One easy example of this trend anyone on this site could have noticed but not realized it's investible information is the trend of Ebooks and how they impacted brick&mortar book retailers like Barnes Nobles, which was negatively. You could have "shorted" Barnes&Noble stock which was on a freefall before it was bought out a capital management firm..

Anyhow it is a very basic book about investing and anyone who knows how to find growth stocks or come up with investment thesis should know the basics of this. But this for a shorter timeframe and often with a catalyst.

I think I learned something in the first 100 pages but after that it was very basic stuff which is skippable. I would have given it a 2 star but it's a very fast read and I follow Chris on Twitter, he is a cool dude so extra's for that.

This is a primer on how to invest in stocks based on your own experience, observations and monitoring of current culture and trends. The author's message is that Wall Street experts overlook plenty of information that is obvious to Moms, teens, suburbanites, and others. The book explains step-by-step how to buy stocks and options and where to look for trends that will affect the future of stock prices. This book describes the way the stock market works in a very entertaining manner. I received this book through the Goodreads First Reads program.

Talks about information arbitrage, observation and due diligence and using a straightforward rating aggregation index to decide if you go long on a stock. Great insight. The part of promoting online bulletin board system isn’t really very interesting. Fun read.

The whole book can be summarized in about 5 pages, but the 5 pages are worthy for the finance non-professional who wishes to invest in public equities.

Laughing at Wall street by Chris Camillo teaches you an interesting approach to be a confident investor. He starts by advising you to create a subaccounts called the "Big Money Account" which essentially is designed to invest money that you are not worried about losing. The technique he introduces is called "information arbitrage" which is about spotting game changing information (new products or ideas) that can propel a stock higher. He coaches you to become observational of certain future trends as to what may enrichen a company. He advises you to believe your own instincts and not what financial pundits tell you. Then research these observations with scientific rigour. feel sure that ths "game changin information will likely propel a stock higher and this information is unknown on Wall Street he advises that you to buy. When this game changing information becomes more widely known to the large investors its time to sell. Using stock option contracts to increase your profits. He advises you to think of cash as not as it's current worth but potential worth.

The book is interesting along the lines of "One up on Wall Street" by Peter Lynch. If the investment world interests you. This book is well worth a read. Unlike Lynch's book Camillo gives you a road map of how to go about investing in these observations.

Having read quite a few books on the topic written by finance professionals over the past years including Benjamin Graham’s “Intelligent Investor” and Phil Fishers “Common Stock, Uncommon Profits”, I was a little skeptical of the authors claims - to say the least. Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised. Overall it's a light and relatively jargon-free intro for finance novices.

For me, some of the key takeaways were as follows:

Understanding Information Arbitrage (information imbalances vs. information parity)
Observation (awareness of your daily reality and it’s link to game-changing
Hypothesis development
Consensus scoring (using the list a/b approach sourced from earnings calls and analysts reports to identify instances of information arbitrage. A score < 2.0 is generally indicative of information imbalance)

Subjective and unscientific, the approach avoids technical and fundamental financial statement analysis that many may have learned in business school, yet his results are somewhat telling of the methodologies effectiveness

Will Camillo’s methodology stand the test of time?

I would give it 4 stars for content but let us be honest, this author is a bit misogynist because he uses "he" for most of the time but when he was talking about a bad behavior like bad user on online forum he switch to "she" immediately. I have no idea what he uses to determine which gender pronounce to use but this definitely makes me uncomfortable & offensive.

Chris Camillo was interviewed by Jack Schwager in the recently launched Unknown Market Wizards and had an impressive track record.

This book, however, was perhaps written too soon in Camillo's investment career (2010) as the text is a dull comparison between technical, fundamental and some sort "street" analysis of a company, with , of course, the latter winning the battle.

Insightful, concise, concrete

Entertaining and filled with practical, rock-solid tips on how an ordinary, retail investor can crush market returns and the performances of so-called Wall Street experts. Even someone with zero investing experience and very little
Money can easily implement the strategies in this book.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. A philosophy definitely not in line with a traditional “value” approach, but still very interesting. Maybe I’ll throw 5-10% of my investment portfolio towards these ideas and see what comes of it.

Good advice on how to spot trends.

Excellent start

This is an excellent book for starters, will give you a few tips, but if interested in the theme you can really study the matter before dipping in the stock market.

New and interesting approach to investing.

100/10

Read it

If you’re interested in finance, economics, and social trends this is the middle of the Venn diagram and a holy grail of a book. Thanks Chris

Interesting book about information arbitrage investing.

A book for someone who would like to get started in stock market investing.

Agree with the premise on trend investing and dd. But lots of garbage filler text, lack of entries/exit guidance and just plain wrong information.

A good book on how to create your own type of investing philosophy using events around you to read how the market (or a company) may be turning. The book should not be the first investing book that you ever read, a familiarity with investing in stocks is needed to understand some of the material cover in the book. Still the book covers some basic ideas (such as being aware of things happening around you) and how to analyze that data. These skills are always helpful to any investor.

Blurb from Goodreads

$20,000 to $2 million in only three years— the greatest stock-picker you never heard of tells you how you can do it too

Chris Camillo is not a stockbroker, financial analyst, or hedge fund manager. He is an ordinary person with a knack for identifying trends and discovering great investments hidden in everyday life. In early 2007, he invested $20,000 in the stock market, and in three years it grew to just over $2 million.

With Laughing at Wall Street, you’ll see:
•How Facebook friends helped a young parent invest in the wildly successful children’s show, Chuggington—and saw her stock values climb 50%
•How an everyday trip to 7-Eleven alerted a teenager to short Snapple stock—and tripled his money in seven days
•How $1000 invested consecutively in Uggs, True Religion jeans, and Crocs over five years grew to $750,000
•How Michelle Obama caused J. Crew’s stock to soar 186%, and Wall Street only caught up four months later!

Engaging, narratively-driven, and without complicated financial analysis, Camillo’s stock picking methodology proves that you do not need large sums of money or fancy market data to become a successful investor.

My Review

If I had to use one word to describe this book it would be interesting which really suprised me. I don't normally read books like this and was hesitant to agree when the author approached me with an ARC. However I am glad I did.

The story isn't just numbers and figures or mind numbing droll like that, Chris has taken a subject that us non investors can find hard to grasp and dull and explained it in simple terms and made even enjoyable to read. Chris tells us how it all started for him during his childhood and how he made his own ways of being successful at a really (I think) risky business.

He does go over some numbers and figures and when it came to the percentages I was wavering with losing interest as I have never been big on that side of maths however I stuck with it and it was interesting to see how this whole thing works. I now know about financial boards and where I would go if I wished to purse more information on investing.

Some of his tips and "events" that have helped him are really general and basic things anyone can do but until it is pointed out you wouldn't even think about it. I liked how through out the book he put his own personal stories in so it wasn't just a how to book but you actually felt like it was someone you knew talking you through how to do this stuff. He also uses everyday things like magazines etc to explain about trends or something that would give you the edge with items in our everyday life.

I found it really interesting, even the few bits that were above me and I am not comfortable workig with but have a better understanding of it and the whole investment process. I think it is a great book if investing is your thing as it will open you up to avenues you may have over looked. And for your average non invester person like me it is a great and easy way to learn about this kind of stuff. For me it's a 3/5 for this one.

Thank you so much to the author for giving me an ARC to review and introducing me to the whole investing scene and his work.

As always all opinions are my own, I was not paid or influenced to write my views. The book is available on Amazon.co.uk for £15.29 or Amazon.com for $15.50 If you purchase a copy today you can help support an amazing cause. Please check out the link to read more http://www.laughingatwallstreet.com/p...

Laughing at Wall Street is an investment book that is not based on complicated financial analysis, charts or statistics. It’s written in plain, easy to understand language without a lot technical jargon and geared toward the new investor.

I’ve read more than a few books on how to invest, pick stocks or analyze the market and most have been confusing or boring. This book isn’t like that. The author makes it interesting by explaining investing using a friendly, narrative style. He tells personal stories and gives examples to explain how he turned $20,000 into $2 Million in three years.

Studies have shown over and over that there is no correlation between financial knowledge and the ability to pick winning stocks. The secret is to be able to spot trends. The author gives us a few examples. After Michelle Obama mentioned on the Jay Leno show that her dress was from J.Crew, shoppers flooded the web page causing it to crash. That news should have been an alert to research the company as a potential investment. Months later, the stock did rise dramatically. And then there’s the story of Uggs boots. It seemed like every young girl was wearing a pair last winter. Even I should have seen that one coming. But I didn’t. The stock ultimately rose through the roof.

I’m sure a few readers are thinking that this is a nice idea but wondering where they will get the extra cash to invest. The author addresses that too. You don’t need a lot of money to get into the stock market and you should only use what he calls “Other People’s Money”.

OPM is money that under normal circ*mstances you would spend, but instead choose to save due to its future potential investment value.

I love this concept and it’s something I’ve been doing and didn’t realize someone had a name for it. For example, put aside the money you save by using coupons, or by brewing your own coffee, or by taking your lunch to work if you usually go out, or washing your own car, etc. Put this in a separate fund. This is the money you would risk in the stock market. He emphasizes that one should never jeopardize money you need to live on.

Towards the end of the book the author explains how to leverage your money by trading on margin. This is probably the only way to achieve a few million in three years. You need to have a little risk tolerance for this but he points out that the money he is using is OPM money, separate from retirement and other accounts. And even if you don’t push it that far, there is still a great return on the initial investment.

Today more than ever people need to take control of their financial future. The book is filled with practical advice and readers should come away with a firm grasp of the basics and be on their way to successful investing. I am now looking at the world around me differently, hoping to spot the next big trend!

The main point of this book is just to notice the things going on around you in order to make stock picking decisions. It was an idea that I'm familiar with. I think it's a good way to determine whether or not a particular stock has market power. That's typically how my husband and I have picked stocks in the past. We've gone with stocks based on our own observations about what's going on in the world and we've done okay. It doesn't do a lot of good to listen to talking heads in my own opinion.

This book is really geared towards people who are afraid to jump into the market for the first time (and who wouldn't be a little nervous with the roller coaster that's been the stock market recently) or are relatively new to the stock market or just needs a little reassurance that you don't have to know a whole lot about Wall Street in order to get your feet wet. If you're not new to the stock market, this book is probably not going to have a whole lot of new information for you.

Camillo relies a lot on anecdotal stories to make the idea of investing in the stock market a little more friendly. It's definitely a good leaping off point for newbie investors. One part I was really confused about was the chapter that covers online forums in all their gory detail. His point was that you can learn a lot about stocks from online forums. True but do people reading this book really need to learn about what trolls are? I'm not too sure about that. The whole chapter didn't seem to fit well with the rest of the book.

I gave this 4 stars for being thorough. If you're thinking about investing, or already at it, it's a helpful tool. It doesn't take long to see once you study the market, that what Camillo says is true. Stock market analysts and experts speculate with as much accuracy as a blind archer. He gives good common sense advice on how to use their ignorance to your advantage, figure out for yourself which way the market might flow and go with it for optimum return. A lot of it seemed redundant and overstated, but that might be more my grab-it-on-the-run absorption rate than his writing ability. If I knew nothing at all about the market, I might appreciate that he reiterated points already made, especially Apple's astounding success in spite of being dogged by market analysts. Word count could be cut considerably, unless you think it's better to prove your point too well than not well enough.

Es un libro de cabecera para todos aquellos quienes aún no saben como enfrentar o encarar el mundo de las finanzas. Chris lo que hace a lo largo del libro es animarte para empezar HOY tu carrera, construir tu portfolio y hacer inversiones.

¿Porque recomendaría? No tiene lenguaje técnico pero aún así es muy claro toda idea que exponga; sus anécdotas hacen mucho más llevadera la lectura mientras al paso explica como él utilizó información que todo el mundo tiene a su alcance para construir una inversión y basandose en su experiencia le fue bastante bien. No digo que sea el DIGNO ejemplo a seguir pero de que tiene todas las herramientas, las tiene y si bien podes estar en desacuerdo en varias partes, las ideas son bastantes claras y consisas.

Si sos de los que le gustaría hacer un extra pero no sabe como empezar a hacer finanzas, este libro yo diría que es el ideal para empezar.

Laughing at Wall Street was an easy read with no advanced financial jargon. In all, it took me about 4 hours to read. As someone that does not have a financial background, I found it easy to understand Camillo's unique methodology behind turning $20K into over $2 million. The book shows how those that are off Wall Street can recognize emerging product trends in every-day life and replicate the author's success story in their own lives. After reading this book I found myself looking at products and trends in my life not just as the coolest or latest thing, but as an opportunity to win big. I am incredibly skeptical of anyone that might think they hold the key to success, but this collection of investment stories from the author are absolutely empowering and seemingly attainable.