by Arthur Jr Levitt
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| Lowest New Price: | $7.91 |
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Product Description
Investors today are being fed lies and distortions, are being exploited and neglected. In the wake of the last decade’s rush to invest by millions of households and Wall Street’s obsession with short-term performance, a culture of gamesmanship has grown among corporate management, financial analysts, brokers, and fund managers, making it hard to tell financial fantasy from reality, salesmanship from honest advice.
In Take on the Street, Arthur Levitt—former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission—shows how you can take matters into your own hands. At once anecdotal (names are named), informative, and prescriptive, Take on the Street expounds on, among other subjects: the relationship between broker compensation and your trading account; the conflicts of interest inherent in buy-hold-or-sell recommendations of analysts; what exactly happens—and who gets a piece of the action—when you place an order; the “seven deadly sins” of mutual funds; the vagaries and vicissitudes of 401(k) investments; how accountants engage in sleight of hand to fake impressive company performance; how to find the truth in a company’s financial statements; the real reason for the Street’s hostility to full disclosure; the crisis in corporate governance, and, given these shenanigans and double-dealings, what specific steps you can take to safeguard your financial future.
With integrity and authority, Levitt gives us a bracing primer on the collapse of the system for overseeing our capital markets, and sage, essential advice on a discipline we often ignore to our peril—how not to lose money.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Title is more aggressive than the content., 2007-03-26
The book is full of inside stories of corrupt corporations and the SEC's involvement to correct them. As far as any portfolio use, chapter ten is 26 pages of 401(k)tips. Otherwise there was nothing truly useful for investing. I am self-employed, so this one chapter was of no help to me either. No disrespect to Arthur Levitt and his understanding of the market but this is more of a non-fiction or autobiography than a guidebook to "Take On The Street." If you like direct and helpful books such as the "All About ...." series of books by Richard A. Ferri or William Bernstein's style, you should overlook this one and it's similarly named clone.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 Should be Required Reading for Every American Investor, 2006-02-03
"Take on the Street" should probably have been titled: The Most Corrupt Industry in America. Over the last 100 years (and more), the brokerage industry in America has to comprise the most corrupt bunch of crooks of any industry past, present, and hopefully in the future. Because of deception played upon investors with the full knowledge and intent of the major brokerage houses, individual investors lost trillions of dollars they had invested in the stock market. All the major brokerage houses practiced the art of recommending stocks to their 'customers' while knowing full well those stocks were already vastly overpriced.
Arthur Levitt has intimate knowledge of the situation having been the Chairman of the SEC. He pulls no punches in telling the secrets of the industry, even naming names of the biggest culprits to this travesty. When you read how these companies swindled their investors, you will get sick just wondering how the government could let them get away with this for so long. But, of course, significant political contributions by the brokerage houses have a way of making the government look the other way.
Are all of the abuses now in the past? It's doubtful, although Levitt is to be highly praised for his accomplishments in getting things at least to their current level of open information sharing for all investors. But, after you read this, you will think twice before you ever think about trusting a stock broker again.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
The Pitfalls of Wall Street & How the Average Investor Can Avoid Them., 2005-12-08
Arthur Levitt was the longest-serving chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), 1993-2001, the regulatory agency that oversees many aspects of the stock market. Coming from a background of 28 years on Wall Street as a broker and chairman of the American Stock Exchange, Levitt joined the SEC as the bull market of the 1990s was getting underway and would remain through the bust of the technology stock bubble, leaving the agency shortly before the accounting scandals of Enron, WorldCom, et al exploded into the public eye -just the sort of accounting deception he had fought to prevent during his years at the SEC. "Take on the Street" is a memoir of Levitt's years at the SEC and an argument for his philosophy of investor-friendly regulation. But, more than that, it is a how-to guide for small investors that explains the "web of dysfunctional relationships among analysts, brokers, and corporations" and how to avoid falling victim to them, whether you research and buy stocks yourself or invest in the market through mutaul funds or a 401(k).
"Take on the Street"'s 10 chapters are each dedicated to one issue -usually a conflict of interest- in some stage of the investment game, which can cost the investing public a great deal. Levitt explains each issue in detail, with examples, as well as what the SEC tried to do to remedy the problem when he was in office. And he always includes advise on how to avoid the pitfall in question. The first chapter is about brokers. The second addresses the "Seven Deadly Sins of Mutual Funds". Chapter 3 reveals the conflicts of interest faced by many analysts. Chapter 4 discusses Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD) in detail, which prevents analysts from getting earnings information before it is announced. Chapter 5 addresses the issue of accounting standards, which would come to a boil shortly after Levitt left the SEC, including his crusade to prevent accounting firms from providing both consulting and auditing services to the same company. Chapter 6 is a lesson for investors in how to read company financial statements or 10-Ks. Chapter 7 explains how stock orders were placed and filled on the NYSE and the NASDAQ. (Note that this is not up-to-date, as the NYSE just converted to a computerized system.) Chapter 8 talks about the role and failures of corporate governance boards (boards of directors). Chapter 9 is about Levitt's experiences with the powerful business lobbies and their influence on Congress. The last chapter, "Getting Your 401(k) in Shape", tells investors what they need to do to get the most out of their 401(k) retirement plans.
"Take on the Street" offers a lot of useful advice for the average investor. Even those who know little about their investments and prefer that others manage their money will find the chapters on mutual funds and 401(k)s invaluable. They just might save you a lot of money. Arthur Levitt is opinionated and is sometimes accused of advocating over-regulation. But he is, above all, an advocate of transparency, without which the stock market and all of its participants are ultimately imperiled. As in any memoir, Levitt takes the opportunity to grind his axe against his foes: the politicians who opposed the SEC's regulatory agendas during the 1990s. In Chapter 9, he says just who opposed Regulation FD, auditor independence rules, and expensing options -many of whom had to eat their words in the wake of the Enron scandal. But "Take on the Street" is mostly a book for the average American investor, whose cause Arthur Levitt always champions, if not always flawlessly.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
 Explains what's wrong with wall street and why it gonna change soon, 2005-10-15
Book has some fluf, but it's interesting.
The book give some insight into how courupt Wall Street and many brokers are.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Levittation, 2004-09-16
Arthur Levitt's "Take on the Street" is a worthwhile read for both those familiar and unfamiliar with the inner workings of investment banks, "numbers games" played by public companies to smooth earnings, and the role of regulators. All three are imperfect. Levitt exposes many of the abuses that have been known to most public market insiders. He has done much, helped by the market meltdown in 2000-02, to rectify some of these abuses.
He provides extensive background, from his point of view, on the difficulty of making the markets more transparent and consumer (retail) friendly. He details his butting heads with Wall Street chieftains, corporate CEOs, the high tech industry, and the very agencies and oversight boards charged with insuring fair markets.
There are many gems that are instructive. For instance, I was surprised to learn about the matching of buyers and sellers within a single organization, like Schwab, that increased profits...but to the detriment of customers. Now that there are new rules on this, I understand why Schwab and others are struggling with profitability and must redefine themselves. Schwab's success initially was derived from a rules change Charles Schwab supported, and now its difficulties are derived from a rules change the firm fought.
Levitt also shows regulatory zeal in areas requiring much more discussion and debate to insure the public good. Single-minded regulators, while they can do good, can also inflict great harm. While stock options may need a change in accounting treatment, we must make sure that we understand the "how" to insure that we do not drive a stake into development stage companies that have led the world in innovation, job creation, and value creation. Levitt's single-mindedness on this issue is scary.
He showed ignorance about development stage companies and the role of stock options. He frequently used companies like Cisco, Microsoft, and Intel as examples in his discussion. These are growth companies but they are no longer development stage companies. Stock options are a critical tool for the growth and survival of a true development stage company. Most, if not all, development stage firms only offer healthcare benefits, non-matching 401k plans, and an opportunity to fail (80% fail). Stock options provide an off-set to the personal and career risk one takes to join a start-up.
Development stage companies have proven crucial to the health of the US economy with jobs, and global leadership in areas like health and high-tech. We are the envy of the world. We as country must make sure that we do not throw the baby out with the bath water.
Those who are interested in these subjects and controversies will enjoy getting a behind the scenes view, courtesy of Arthur Levitt. A good book to complement "Take on Wall Street" is Andy Kessler's "Wall Street Meat" - a first hand account of a Wall Street analyst on the abuses Levitt moved to correct. These two books could serve as bookends!
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