Book Description
Take an in-depth, how-to look at Forex trading using the methods, analysis, and insights of a renowned trader, Raghee Horner.
As the fate of the dollar against foreign currency generates both anxiety and opportunities, currency trading has been drawing much interest and a growing following among traders in the United States. The Forex market is particularly attractive because it trades with no gaps and has unlimited guaranteed stop-losses. The liquidity of the Forex market and worldwide participation makes for more reliable and longer lasting trends as well.
Raghee Horner, legendary not only as a top Forex trader but as a master teacher of trading systems and techniques, draws on her winning tools and methods, including classic charting techniques, in this book. She'll enable you, regardless of your skill level as a trader or investor, to understand how the Forex operates and lays out a blueprint for getting starting in this little-understood but high-potential trading vehicle.
Customer Reviews:
Big Title, but nothing in the book..........2007-10-18
I bought three forex books to read, I left this one for last because I think it will be the best because of the title. Other words, the meat and the gravy. After reading the first two books, I could have written this one myslef, the CD don't even work. Big title, but no nitigity detail. I think they should change the title to "Forex For Dummies". If you need a good Forex book, buy Forex Revolution.
Horace,
Beginner's Book.......2007-09-27
Having read more than 6 other beginner books, I must give this 4 stars; 3 for the book and 5 for the CD. It is clearly written, gives a fairly solid foundation but lacks the following;
[] Clear entry and exit points - See Schlossberg
[] Candlesticks - See Pring (Candlesticks)
[] Fundamental analysis - See Jagerson (Profiting with Forex)
[] Basics - Go online or Archer/Bickford book
[] Mental conditioning - have not found a good book yet.
Nowhere in the editorial reviews or the back cover does it say that these topics are missing, so I had to mark the book down for that. The only reason I gave the CD 5 stars is because, once you have read the other books, the CD becomes valuable for beginners wanting to grasp setups that show entry and exit strategies.
Fair Book.......2007-05-23
This was the first forex book I bought,at that time it seemed very interesting,the system seemed very simple at a glance but after playing around with it I realise this was not for me.If you are new to forex it's a good start,not knocking the book it did arouse my interest to seek out other books.The momentum brake out is Raghee favorite pattern,for me the 34 esp.moving average is to far away from the market. A better combo is
8 and 21 SMA knowing how to use this combo will yield better results.
smarmy come-on.......2007-03-13
Have you seen the smarmy come-ons for shonky products? Sometimes advertised on TV or radio. With a free 800 phone number you can call, for free material. Sounds promising, you think. But then when the literature arrives, it's little more than a push to buy the "premium" stuff. That is what Horner's book feels like. She waffles all over the place, with interminable babble about the greatness of her method. Yet a careful parsing of the book shows little substance. All the while "subtly" mentioning her website with the hot stuff. Bait and switch.
Well, you could save some money and avoid this book. But unlike some others who suggested you visit her website and drop $400, I would recommend also avoiding it. Given the vapidness of the book, it is not a good precursor.
A terribly expensive brochure-an affront to financial literature.......2007-03-06
Any other book you buy on forex is going to be better than this one. You'll be left wondering how it is that the author could possibly feel that this is going to benefit anyone (except herself). A real disappointment. If I could have rated it less than 1 star I would have.
Book Description
"Mr. Salov has taken one of my favorite creations – Perfect Profit – and provided an expanded description of his interpretation of it and put it in your hands with the included software. Like I said fifteen years ago, Perfect Profit is an important tool for the trading system developer. See for yourself."
—Robert Pardo, President, Pardo Capital Limited
"A very in-depth reference for programmers that should serve well into the future. The code herein lends itself well to other syntactically similar programming languages such as Java, PHP, and C#."
—Ralph Vince
The goal of trading is to make money, and for many, profits are the best way to measure that success. Author Valerii Salov knows how to calculate potential profit, and in Modeling Maximum Trading Profits with C++, he outlines an original and thought-provoking approach to trading that will help you do the same.
This detailed guide will show you how to effectively calculate the potential profit in a market under conditions of variable transaction costs, and provide you with the tools needed to compute those values from real prices. You'll be introduced to new notions of s-function, s-matrix, s-interval, and polarities of s-intervals, and discover how they can be used to build the r- and l-algorithms as well as the first and second profit and loss reserve algorithms. Optimal money management techniques are also illustrated throughout the book, so you can make the most informed trading decisions possible.
Filled with in-depth insight and expert advice, Modeling Maximum Trading Profits with C++ contains a comprehensive overview of trading, money management, and C++. A companion CD-ROM is also included to help you test the concepts described throughout the book before you attempt to use them in real-world situations.
Customer Reviews:
should have been a short journal article.......2007-06-29
SUMMARY: A potentially useful concept taken to ridiculous extremes.
The main theme is around the concept of *potential profit* offered by a particular market. When building automated trading strategies or evaluating human trader performance, the problem could be decomposed into a product of some intrinsic profit offered by the market and the percentage of that profit that is captured by a particular trader or strategy. This book spends most of its attention on the former factor and various derived performance metrics.
*Potential profit* is defined by an idealized strategy that has *perfect foresight about all future prices over a given time interval*. In addition to the original concept apparently suggested by Robert Pardo, the book's definition is made more realistic by constraining such a strategy with non-zero transaction costs. Although this connection is not made by the author, the concept is related to those used in offline algorithms and competitive analysis (see, for example, Online Computation and Competitive Analysis): in essence, you want to quantify the amount of *regret* you experience comparing your performance to that of a perfect adversary or algorithm that is allowed to solve the offline version of the same problem (with all of the future data available at the outset).
Three iterations of potential profit algorithms are introduced:
1. "r-/l-algorithms": position size is constrained with a given maximum. The perfect strategy can be proven to be pure reversal -- except for initial and final transactions, the maximum profit is obtained by always switching positions between +max_size and -max_size at certain transaction points. Although the underlying problem could be solved using a generic optimizer, Salov introduces a concept of *s-intervals* that makes it easy to see how the global maximum can be computed with a simple linear algorithm. This algorithm offers conceptual elegance of solving its related problem exactly -- the later two are heuristic improvements for less constrained versions of the problem.
2. "first P&L reserve algorithm": strategy remains a pure reversal strategy but position size is allowed to vary subject only to self-financing/account margin/buying power constraints. #2 can improve on #1 due to increases in account buying power after the initial entry/exit transactions.
3. "second P&L reserve algorithm": same as #2 but the strategy is allowed to change existing positions in between the transaction points used by #1 and #2, i.e. the strategy is no longer pure reversal. Again, #3 can improve on #1 due to increases in account buying power during trading.
Since both #2 and #3 consider how account equity grows over time subject to self-financing restrictions, connections to Kelly/Shannon
maximum growth rate formulas arise naturally. In later chapters, all algorithms are used to derive performance metrics and to compare potential profits offered by various markets using real-life price data.
Unfortunately, in my view the author should have stopped at #1 and not gone on for 180 more pages. Granted, the overall approach of comparing your actual performance to that of some idealized benchmark strategy is extremely sound and useful. As a benchmark, a single simple idealized strategy is sufficient. But the author does not emphasize enough that the single biggest advantage the idealized strategy has is the perfect knowledge of future prices. Algorithm #1 already has this advantage built in and there seems to be little practical value in gleaning further incremental benefits by adding optimal account growth heuristics. (Optimizing position sizes can't be done in real-life without simultaneously controlling risk etc.) In fact, the last chapter has a cocoa contract example making 13000% returns in just 5 days! Similarly, in some examples algorithms #2 and #3 manage to grow exponentially into such large position sizes that they overflow a 32-bit integer -- it is surprising that the author does not see the ridiculousness of that and reluctantly suggests that the algorithms should be applied to "short time intervals" or "with high transaction costs".
Other book shortcomings that seemed glaring to me:
- only deterministic strategies are considered. Real-life strategies have to incorporate uncertainty modeling in their decisioning. Furthermore, deterministic-only strategies can't reach Nash equilibria for some problems.
- only two commission cost models are considered: fixed per transaction and cost as a function of instrument price. Something like cost/share would invalidate much of the discussion.
- because they have perfect price foresight all idealized algorithms unavoidably go wild on max'ing out position sizes. In real life, risk management constraints on open positions can kick in sooner than margin constraints, unless you are diversified across many positions (situation not considered in the book).
- after observing how much the transaction costs can impact these idealized strategies, the author nonetheless goes on and makes very ballpark guesses about slippage etc -- it seems incongruent after all that energy spent on perfecting those strategies.
15 years is not enough: a new market property.......2007-02-25
I am a professional mathematician with a personal interest in mathematical finance and I know the author. I did not expect Dr. Salov to be writing a book but eventually I became one of the first readers. The book focuses on modeling and calculation of the potential profit - a new and fascinating market property. It also contains a gentle introduction explaining basic trading, financial and programming terms and helping better to understand the main topic. Therefore, the book should be interesting for all market participants: trading system developer, trader, theoretician working on finance or someone who wishes to learn the field of trading systems and quantitative finance.
It is interesting that the potential profit, as introduced by Robert Pardo, corresponds to a classical notion of a total variation of a function, the function being the time sequence of prices of a commodity. Computation of the potential profit in the presence of e.g. transaction costs becomes a sophisticated mathematical problem which Dr. Salov solves using the newly suggested r- and l-algorithms. In a systematic way, the author introduces s-function, s-matrix, polarity, s-intervals and proves their properties, producing an effective r- and l-algorithms.
While Robert Pardo introduced potential profit as a new concept, Valerii Salov brings this concept to a substantially higher level. He considers the maximum profit as a market property, which must be combined with a sequence of trading actions - trading strategy. He systematically comes the way from simple market and trading systems performance measures to a powerful and automatic tool filtering the most critical price events. This becomes possible because he takes into account transaction costs such as commissions, slippage, and others. A motivation for each decision leading to the complete software, new algorithms, or money management is carefully explained.
I highly recommend reading this book for anyone interested in development of trading systems and who wants to understand better the work of markets.
Book Description
While Mac OS X is becoming more and more stable with each release, its UNIX/BSD underpinnings have security implications that ordinary Mac users have never before been faced with. Mac OS X can be used as both a powerful Internet server, or, in the wrong hands, a very powerful attack launch point.
Yet most Mac OS X books are generally quite simplistic -- with the exception of the author's Mac OS X Unleashed, the first book to address OS X's underlying BSD subsystem.
Maximum Mac OS X Security takes a similar UNIX-oriented approach, going into significantly greater depth on OS X security topics:
- Setup basics, including Airport and network topology security.
- User administration and resource management with NetInfo.
- Types of attacks, how attacks work, and how to stop them.
- Network service security, such as e-mail, Web, and file sharing.
- Intrusion prevention and detection, and hands-on detection tools.
Download Description
While Mac OS X is becoming more and more stable with each release, its UNIX/BSD underpinnings have security implications that ordinary Mac users have never before been faced with. Mac OS X can be used as both a powerful Internet server, or, in the wrong hands, a very powerful attack launch point. Yet most Mac OS X books are generally quite simplistic -- with the exception of the author's Mac OS X Unleashed, the first book to address OS X's underlying BSD subsystem. Maximum Mac OS X Security takes a similar UNIX-oriented approach, going into significantly greater depth on OS X security topics: Setup basics, including Airport and network topology security.User administration and resource management with NetInfo. Types of attacks, how attacks work, and how to stop them. Network service security, such as e-mail, Web, and file sharing. Intrusion prevention and detection, and hands-on detection tools.
Customer Reviews:
Security for the truly paranoid Mac owner.......2004-04-06
Security has long been a concern for Unix administrators who find themselves connected to the sometimes dark and dirty world of the Internet. With the advent of personal operating systems with file sharing, remote login and built-in web servers, and the spread of broadband networks with their always-on connectivity, it should now be a concern for everyone.
It really didn't concern me until one day when I was checking the logs on my Mac OS X box while developing a web app and discovered dozens of entries from all over the globe probing my box to see if it was an insecure IIS server. I then decided I needed to pay attention to security alerts and the help of a book like Macintosh OS X Maximum Security to help me understand and fix any holes.
The Good
The book is divided into four sections. Part 1 is about learning to think about security, covering such topics as physical security and protection from your users and bad guys. Part II, `Vulnerabilities and Exposures,' covers the various sorts of attack such as password attacks, trojans and worms, sniffers and spoofing. Part III, `Specific Mac OS X Resources and How To Secure Them,' covers just that, the various servers such as FTP, mail, Apache and SSH and how to go about making them safe. The final part covers attack prevention, detection, reaction and recovery with topics such as firewalls, alarm systems, logs and disaster planning.
Macintosh OS X Maximum Security is a large, extremely comprehensive volume. For the average person who wants to protect a small home network the information it provides is probably overkill. To make matters worse, the style is fairly verbose, particularly in the first section. Of course, if you want to secure a company network then you may need to know all the information -- and so all this background material is useful, if only so you can reach the right level of paranoia and suspicion.
The book is not a `recipe' book that tells you "take these steps and you will have a secure machine"; rather it takes you through the possible holes and how to fix them. This approach seems much better for security, since it teaches you a respect for the places you have to open up and a methodical approach to doing so that will hopefully carry over beyond the specifics addressed. Any recipe is bound to have flaws since the operating system and the services are all changing, I'm hoping the methods and style this book have imparted to me will last beyond any changes.
The book also deals well with all the Macintosh-specific stuff, informing you well about such topics as Rendezvous, Apple Remote Desktop, using NetInfo and the like. One aspect that isn't well covered is Airport; securing an 802.11 network is barely touched on.
The Bad
The information provided in all areas of the book is quite detailed, and includes many links to further places to look for more (and more recent) information. Once again, for a book in an ever-changing field like security, this is a huge benefit. I would have appreciated some sort of a small website devoted to the book with the links mentioned gathered together and perhaps some notes on how things may have changed since the book's publication. Unfortunately the Sams Publishing site has a broken link to the book and while the authors say "we are creating a security section for the www.macosxunleashed.comwebsite," no such section exists as I was writing this review. Frankly I am disappointed at this, I think with a book on this sort of topic it behooves either the publisher or author to provide a place for errata, discussion and notes.
My only real complaint with the book itself is the huge size, and the long-winded nature of some of the material. I found the first two sections in particular almost tedious and definitely lecturing in tone. I would have rated this book higher if the editors at Sams had taken a large red pencil to slabs of the first section. Overall, I'd say that while not a `must buy,' this book will have to do till I find something better, and I expect to loan my copy to several friends.
Bedtime Stories from the 'dark side of the net'..........2003-12-30
review originally for the Lower East Side Mac Unix Users Group,
http://lesmuug.org
OVERVIEW
--
If you like scary stories, lucid mindbending complexity, and epic tales of freaky proportion, this one's for you; (and it makes a terrific reference book to boot).
Enter a world where your arp tables are poisoned, zombie daemon processes run unnoticed by root-kitted servers, IP addresses are merely ghosts of the servers they say they are- you are not entering the twilight zone, you are entering the internet. Muahahahaahahaha. Ahem
.
Experience Level: Basic UNIX/OSX understanding, an acrobatic and open mind required- (i.e. if you were able to follow the Matrix movies without skipping a beat, you'll be fine with this book).
ABOUT THIS BOOK
--
The general conceptual Tone of the book is great, as it doesn't ever assume that ANYTHING is bulletproof, like some foolhardy security texts and whitepapers can blindly promise.
A while back, I gave a very positive review for lesmuug.org, of 'Mac OS X Security' (Published by New Riders).
This book, 'Mac OS X, Maximum Security', (Published by SAMS) as a great extension/companion to that book.
'Mac OS X, Maximum Security', weighs in at over 2 inches thick, and as much as it provides a great overview to running secure and trusted systems, it goes into WAY more depth than the New Riders book; which can be good and bad- if your trying to get a general overview of secure systems, this book may be overwhelming.
Throughout reading this SAMS book, I found myself digging back into the New Riders book, to refresh my mind on general topics. Then my brain could better scale into the horrifying detail in this 'Maximum' book.
Some of the topics discussed are ridiculously frightening, insomuch as it clearly discusses why and how everything can be hacked, with counter-measures, and hacks to circumvent the counter-measures.
It's really fun if you like that kind of thing.
All of this info, kept me in awe the entire time with just how powerful Mac OSX really is under the hood, and how seriously Apple has taken security.
BOOK SUMMARY
--
The book's table of contents is fairly intense. Chapters are dedicated to a single security concept, and various technologies are adressed in detail as sub-sections of each chapter. I'd say that the chosen topics covered are
While each section of every chapter makes for a nice scary bedtime story, they also proves tremendously useful in practical use.
For various softwares and systems discussed in 'Mac OS X, Maximun Security', enough information to get the focus of that section installed and/or running is excellently presented.
Each section has great references to current online information.
For each topic discussed, the authors try to take you right up to the edge of basic understanding and use- with some great tips thrown in for advanced users. This is great, as some topics have entire volumes dedicated to them.
There are absolutely TONS of general and special-use security tools and softwares discussed, and this text will sanely get you started with most of them.
This text gets you right up to the point where you have installed and are running a given software/system, and the only place to go for more information is online, in it's manual, or another book dedicated just to it. This is a key feature of 'Mac OS X, Maximun Security' to me, as it gets a person going can get going in the right direction using various tools, effectively lessening the learning curve with a new software.
CONCLUSION
--
So with that, if you run any services which are available from the public internet from your Mac, browse this book and stick it book on your shelf for when you need it.
If you just like to read scary stories, or you are really paranoid and want a good in-depth reference for Mac OSX Security, I believe 'Mac OS X, Maximun Security' will rock you.
Book Description
Tired of your non-descript, platinum-colored PC case? Want to show your individuality and make your friends green with envy? Interested in wringing out every ounce of performance that your timid PC can produce? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, then The Maximum PC Guide to Extreme PC Mods is for you! We show you how to reach PC mod nirvana step-by-step, including choosing (or making) the perfect case, cutting custom windows, painting cases, turning everyday, ordinary objects into fully functional PCs, installing neon/cold cathode lighting, liquid cooling and more. Then, we show you how to drain every last drop of performance from your PC - from simple settings within your BIOS and Windows, to more fringe overclocking techniques. If you want to pimp out your rig, then this book is a must-have. No other book combines PC mods and overclocking into one, indispensable book. Best of all, this book was written by the two top voices in PC hardware technology - Maximum PC and Que!
- First, we show you to cook up your idea, spec it out, gather the tools for the job, prepare your workshop and complete your mod without injuring yourself or setting your workshop ablaze.
- For beginners, we’ll first show you how to choose the best off-the-shelf enclosures for "simple" modding projects, and later we’ll show you how you can let your imagination run wild, creating kick ass mods from the most unusual objects.
- Along the way, we show you - with hundreds of full-color photos - how to cut case windows, paint your rig at home, add trick fans, install dazzling interior lights, install custom cables, and how to mod your PC’s front-panel.
- Once you have all of the hardcore skills down, we dive into three mod projects, which show you, step-by-step, how to build a mod from an everyday, garden-variety PC case, to creating a mod from an object you found around the house or at the hardware store, to building a mod from scratch. Each of these projects is explained in fine detail, with full-color photos that show you exactly how to do it.
- We then attack more performance-oriented hardware hacking, such as installing exotic cooling, overclocking your CPU frequency, and tweaking your BIOS and video card settings.
- Throughout the book, we highlight some of the best mods from Maximum PC readers.
Customer Reviews:
Absolutely amazing.......2007-05-12
Excellent book with plenty and colourful images. Easy to do mods that give your computer an amazing appearance
Maximum PC Guide to extreme PC Mods.......2006-03-20
I was in the process of building a new computer for myself and shopped Amazon.com for some books to help with my build, Maximum PC hit the mark with a book that walked me threw the whole process.Not only was I so impressed with this book, I came back and purchased two more of Maximum PC's books. Thier books are bright full colored and easy to read. You can't go wrong with any of thier books.
great fundamental modding book.......2005-10-26
This book covers all the basics that a beginning modder would need to know. He also branches out into modding a computer out of found objects, using a swiss hard shell backpack as a working example. There are plenty of high quality, color photos that clearly illustrate all the processes he describes.
But my favorite aspect of this book is Paul's teachings of the proper mindset for a modder. Adventurous, inquisitive, creative, always looking for a new and/or better way to do things. He not only gives very practical advise about this mindset, but demonstrates it in the working projects he goes through in the book. It is refreshing to have the author show how he learns from his own work, instead of seeming to sit on a high throne from his 20+ years of experience.
Great Book.......2005-04-28
For any computer nerd with a sense of self this book is a great guide on how to turn your favorite machine into a personalized spitting image of yourself. I found this book very easy to follow, and the instructions were easy to follow, with colour images and step by step instructions
What a great book!.......2005-01-28
This is a great book! The entire book is printed on glossy paper with full color printing - really, a quality book. The book has good, clear photographs on almost every page, and the writing clear and easy to understand. I've read most of the boks on PC modding, and in my opinion, this is the best one.
Book Description
TIME ON THE INSIDE will bring an awareness of Why So Many Women Are Going To Prison and What Goes On Inside If You're One Of Them --Why the Penal System promotes comfortability rather than rehabilitation--Why inmate deaths occur often--Why it's important for society to care about prisoner's rights and compassion and How Life can be renewed while in and after prison.
Customer Reviews:
The Most Realistic Book Ever Written By A Female Inmate in California .......2007-05-14
If you want your daughters to stay out of a life of crime, then buy this book and highlight all the pages where Marshall details what it's really like to endure a body cavity search in a room filled with other inmates and male prison guards. Or what it means to have a toilet in the middle of a cell, with no privacy at all. There's nothing f--ing glamorous about getting locked up.
English Majors Beware!!!.......2007-05-08
When I ran across this book, I rushed to order it because I was so excited! Here was someone presenting a first-hand account of the physical, emotional, and sexual abuses that take place "behind the walls" of women's correctional facilities and I could barely wade my way through the grammatical errors and run-on sentences. It makes sense that the author also published the book because no self-respecting publishing company would generate such an editorial nightmare! The errors, unfortunately, overshadow the content of the book.
On the Inside.......2006-07-11
Unless you have actually experienced being behind bars, you do not truly know nor understand the daily interactions of prison life. This "Insider's View" of a Maximum Security Women's Prison delves into the life of author Donna Ann Smith-Marshall as she rehashes the almost beastly way she was treated on the inside. What should have been rehabilitation ended up being cruel-like punishment.
Being a hardworking professional, Mrs. Smith-Marshall managed to get herself in trouble and leave her young children virtually motherless while she paid for her crime. Undergoing a lengthy process, she was finally on the "inside." Being ridiculed with embarrassing searches of her body and verbally abused by emotionless guards, she realized that her life would never be the same. While watching others go through emotion after emotion, she soon could not keep hers in check and fell prey to the ideals and options of prison life.
Admittingly Mrs. Smith-Marshall understands that she must pay for her mistakes, she wants us as readers to understand and stand up for women dealing with life on the inside. Though I liked the concept of the book, it felt more like a biography and not the novel that I was looking for.
Reviewed by: LaDonna
Book Description
Gresham Sykes wrote the book at the height of the Cold War, motivated by the world's experience of fascism and communism to study the closest thing to a totalitarian system in American life: a maximum security prison. The book is remarkably short--just 150 pages--but bristles with ideas. Sykes argued that many of the psychological effects of modern prison are even more brutal than the physical cruelties of the past. The trauma of being designated one of the very worst human beings in the world left prisoners with lifelong scars. It also inspired solidarity among prisoners and fierce resistance to authorities as strategies for rejecting those who rejected them. His analysis called into question whether prisons genuinely were, as many believed, "total institutions," where every facet of life was rigidly controlled. Sykes showed that the stronger the bonds among prisoners, the more difficult it was for prison guards to run the prisons without finding ways of "accommodating" the prisoners.
The book set the stage for Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish, among other works. Since it appeared in 1958, it has served society as an indispensable text in coming to terms with the nature of modern power.
Customer Reviews:
Important Precursor to Goffman and Foucault.......2003-10-04
No reviews for this book? Hard to believe given the number of used copies available. Surely many have read "Society of Captives"?
Sykes uses the sociological framework of Talcott Parsons to analyze the "life of prison" in terms of its effects on the inmates. Sykes was obviously a key reference point for Goffman's work in "Asylums". Sykes works around the idea of describing a maximum security prison as a "total institution", but fails to really nail the concept down.
He makes some interesting observations about the conflicting motives of guards on the front line of the prison. I found troubling his conclusion that the level of control sought to be imposed upon the prisoners was ever elusive. This seemed, to me, to be a justification for the behavior that goes on behind prison walls.
His interesting discussion of prison riot and rebellion prefigures some of Foucault's analysis in "Discipline and Punish". In fact, I picked up my copy of Discipline and Punish immediately after (and during) reading this book and found the effect to be akin to a light bulb going on in my head.
While Sykes lacks the conclusions of Foucault, his simplified analysis of the structure of prison makes reading Foucault's "Discipline and Punish" about 100% easier.
Here is not the place for a more detailed comparison between the two books. None the less, any committed reader of Discipline and Punish should feel compelled to digest this book: After all, it only costs a buck and can be read in a single afternoon!
Average customer rating:
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Maximum Security (Cherub)
Robert Muchamore
Manufacturer: Simon Pulse
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The Recruit (Cherub)
ASIN: 0689877811 |
Book Description
CHERUB agents are all seventeen and under. They wear skate tees and hemp, and look like regular kids. But they're not. They are trained professionals who are sent out on missions to spy on terrorists and international drug dealers. CHERUB agents hack into computers, bug entire houses, and download crucial documents. It is a highly dangerous job. For their safety, these agents DO NOT EXIST.
Two hundred eighty child criminals live in the sunbaked desert prison Arizona Max. One of them is the son of a weapons dealer who has been selling U.S. missiles to terrorists. If CHERUB can get the kid, they can get the parent. Over the years, CHERUB has put plenty of criminals behind bars. Now, for the first time ever, they've got to break one out....
Customer Reviews:
teenage book.......2007-03-27
I purchased this book for my 14-year old son. He loves this series. Read each book in a couple of days because he couldn't set it down.
Book Description
In this rare firsthand account, Lorna Rhodes takes us into a hidden world that lies at the heart of the maximum security prison. Focusing on the "supermaximums"--and the mental health units that complement them--Rhodes conveys the internal contradictions of a system mandated to both punish and treat. Her often harrowing, sometimes poignant, exploration of maximum security confinement includes vivid testimony from prisoners and prison workers, describes routines and practices inside prison walls, and takes a hard look at the prison industry. More than an exposé, Total Confinement is a theoretically sophisticated meditation on what incarceration tells us about who we are as a society.
Rhodes tackles difficult questions about the extreme conditions of confinement, the treatment of the mentally ill in prisons, and an ever-advancing technology of isolation and surveillance. Using her superb interview skills and powers of observation, she documents how prisoners, workers, and administrators all struggle to retain dignity and a sense of self within maximum security institutions. In settings that place in question the very humanity of those who live and work in them, Rhodes discovers complex interactions--from the violent to the tender--among prisoners and staff. Total Confinement offers an indispensable close-up of the implications of our dependence on prisons to solve long-standing problems of crime and injustice in the United States.
Customer Reviews:
amazing.......2007-04-18
this book is amazing and so are her classes. i've been lucky enough to take two of her classes. we really are lucky that people like her are writing.
Highly recommended.......2006-11-02
This is a meticulously researched and theoretically sophisticated expose of a deeply hidden yet increasingly important facet of American culture. As the United States more and more becomes a prison nation, books like this will become essential reading not only for scholars but for average citizens.
Book Description
Achieve higher returns with lower risk and take your profits globally.
A leading hedge fund trader offers a solid and profitable trading approach to the world markets.
"This is the best stock market book that I have read in a long time. Boucher lays it out clearly, concisely, and in a most interesting manner. A 'must read' for anyone who invests in the equities market." -Dan Sullivan Editor, The Chartist
"A leading practitioner offers rich theoretical insights and sound practical advice based on years of successful trading. Mark Boucher is that rare investment analyst who knows what really works in trading and can communicate it with authority and grace." -Nelson Freeburg Editor and Publisher, Formula Research, Inc.
The Hedge Fund Edge is an indispensable guide for any investor or trader who wants to consistently profit from the markets without having to undergo huge risks. Mark Boucher, hedge fund manager and well-known speaker on trading, provides readers with a solid methodology for achieving market-beating, long-run returns with risk that is substantially below the long-run risk of U.S. and global equities.
Boucher first looks at the limitations of traditional stock and bond investing, and then explains how to determine the safest and most profitable periods for investing in stocks in any country. He explains this strategy both conceptually and with an objective model that has been used to manage money successfully since the 1950s. He shows how to allocate funds among global equities at any given time while following safe, reliable, and profitable trends. The book also provides a thorough discussion of the Austrian Liquidity Cycle, an original combination of Austrian Economics, Economic Alchemy, and Liquidity Cycle Theory. Boucher explains how to use this theory to understand the major moves behind the markets and determine the most profitable market in which to invest.
The Hedge Fund Edge provides critical valuation and technical models as well as essential information on stock selection techniques to help readers identify which markets and stocks are both lower-risk and higher-performing. Boucher also describes, in detail, the impact of governmental policies on the markets and the connection between macroeconomic performance and investment performance. Also included are essential timing models for determining when to invest in gold, bonds, commodities, and other asset classes, as well as methods for allocating a portfolio with the goal of investing in the very best trends at any one point in time across all asset classes. The book emphasizes the power of diversification among asset classes, such as arbitrage funds, global hedge funds, different types of futures funds, distressed bonds, and other market-uncorrelated investments. Boucher explains how this diversification can be used to build a bullet-proof and highly profitable portfolio that returns consistently high profits with much lower than market risk. Boucher provides examples from his own real-time hedge fund trading experience and offers his performance as proof of what can be achieved via these techniques.
The Hedge Fund Edge melds market timing, vehicle selection, risk management techniques, economic insight and understanding, and tactical asset allocation into a totally new philosophy and approach that has been proven to produce spectacular gains with relatively low risk.
Customer Reviews:
Hands down this book is a keeper!!!.......2006-09-24
This book is not about investing in hedge funds. It does, however, teaches you how to invest like a hedge fund manager. This means you invest globally; you invest in variety of asset classes (equities, metals, bonds, VC, real estate, etc); you shift your investments depending on the market climate; and so on. Essentially, this is the "edge" Mr. Boucher was talking about. You, as an investor, are not encumbered to invest in any particular asset class, sector, country, or investment style as would other money managers do. This book gives you investment tools / models that you can use right away. Plus it also teaches you how to understand them so you can build your own tools as well, or at least be able to recognize when a tool stops working.
Mr. Boucher, THANK YOU for generously sharing your research and the ideas / techniques of other great innovators. Mr. "X" would have been very proud of you. Oh yeah, I like the "Coconut Price Index (CPI)" analogy - I almost died of laughing.
If Soros was a prof, Boucher was one of his 'C' students.......2004-04-27
Like many books written by practitioners, "The Hedge Fund Edge" provides some insight as to how one man makes his living, warts and all. By warts, I mean specious reasoning by the author. One of the warts in this book is a misunderstanding of basic macroeconomics. For example, Boucher presents capital input growth as productivity growth. The 'models' presented in the book are vapid space filler and could have been taken from an undergraduate's class presentation. All of the models could have been summarized neatly on one page rather than several dozen. Also, there are multiple typographical errors and citation errors throughout the book.
The author likely used the phrase 'hedge fund' to tap into a hot topic in order to sell more books. This book is not about hedge funds, it's about global macro trading. You can learn more about global macro trading in the preface to Soros' "Alchemy of Finance" than you'd get out of this entire book.
...on the ... rack.......2003-05-26
first, in boucher's defense, other reviewers have misunderstood the term "hedge fund" to mean "market neutral." the term "hedge fund" simply means the ability to go short in a portfolio. in that regard, the title is not misleading at all. this book does outline several short strategies based on an understanding of the liquidity cycle.
however, boucher, for as much as he espouses the austrian economic method, has forgotten that one tenant of that methodology is a total diregard for econometric forecasting. the relationships he defines in this book would have had many people in trouble in the early 2000s because, as the austrians state, what happened (past economic relationships) in the past does not have to happen in the future (these once dependable relationships may break down - with your money on the line). current monetary policy has been ineffective, and therefore, so would any of boucher's systems that rely on monetary indicators. these indicators would have been screaming "buy" the equity markets, while the equity markets themselves would have been screaming "sell us...now!"
that being said, the primary reason not to buy this book is that some of the systems that boucher gives are insightful logically, but dubious in execution. while he may give you a system, he does not give you all you need. the reader assumes that he is giving valid systems, with all pertinent information. but, he leaves certain important points out. for example, on page 138, he says that you should buy stocks when up volume on the NYSE is greater than 77% of total volume and then he gives past buy and sell dates for the strategy. after much testing, i figured out that he is not using total volume on the NYSE, but rather total volume less unchanged volume. in other words, total volume is up volume, down volume and unchanged volume for all shares trading on the NYSE. boucher's "total volume" is just up volume plus down volume. this makes a huge difference.
also, any time he uses 30-year t-bond data, good luck to you trying to figure out what he's actually using. the fed has a constant maturity series that goes back to 1977. boucher can go back to 1943 for this data. hmmmmmm. i'm sure he's using something, but i have no idea what. so, what good is the system if you don't know what he's using as the "30 year treasury yield"? and, through no fault of boucher, the 30-year is not issued any more.
he also relies quite heavily on the dow jones 20 bond index. this series was discontinued. this is not boucher's fault, of course, but just another reason to steer clear of this book.
i will say that i learned quite a bit from this book, however. it was fun to read. my problem simply resides with the somewhat tricky way that some of his systems are given. hey, i don't expect the guy to give away a proprietary system, but if you give a system, step up to the plate and tell the reader you're going to leave out some things (he actually does do this when he relays someone else's strategy). i find his method a bit disingenuous.
...
The title of this books seems to me to be misleading.......2003-03-02
I must agree with reviewer Omar Wanza. There is nothing in this book about statistical arbitrage, which is probably the most effective strategy used by hedge fund managers. Nor does it really talk much about many of the other methods used very effectively by hedge funds.
While the book covers a wide variety of topics pertinent to investing, its central thesis is that knowing and understanding the liquidity cycles of individual countries is of paramount importance in developing a portfolio strategy. When he talks about the liquidity cycle, the author is bascially talking about the business cycle. Due to the rise of the global economy, however, the likelihood that different countries will continue to have differing liquidity cycles is becoming more remote. Also, because it is extremely difficult, in practice, to predict any liquidity cycle, it would seem to me that the information in this book is only of limited value for any investment strategy.
The basic problem with this book is that it was written in 1999, which was not only before global investing became less profitable as a hedge fund strategy, but prior to the current bear market in equities. Based upon various demographic considerations, the author, Mark Boucher, predicted that a bear market in equities would be likely in the year 2005. Some of Boucher's assumptions regarding the relationship of liqudity cycles to various asset classes seem to me to be in need of adjustment based upon the actual economic events that have transpired in the last few years.
In one of the later chapters, he recommends a number of hedge funds, but the book would have been far more valuable if, instead of recommending various hedge funds, he had actually outlined the many different effective methods used by hedge fund managers to manage their own portfolios.
Although there are many potentially helpful things in this book, the title seems to me to be misleading, and I'm not sure that all of the theoretical considerations in it would necessarily pan out in the crucible of current market conditions, whereas certain hedge fund strategies, which are not even mentioned in the book, would probably be far more promising for today's environment.
Excellent Book.......2002-11-19
Hedge Fund Edge is an excellent book written by someone who manages millions of dollars and manages it quite well. I have seen his hedge funds performance and it is good especially in the bear market we have had the past two years (it is positive). The timing models and the philosophy behind them are excellent and very useful to every investor. As are his equity selection techniques which are very safe yet offer excellent potential returns. His explanation on why stocks are not always the best investment is invaluable and would have saved many people who have stuck with equity long-only managers who have done a miserable job of stock picking. I am an absolute return fan and recommend this book to anyone beginner to professional. Easily ranks in my top 5 books I have read on generating profits.
Book Description
Until now, there has never been a book in the entire world ever written about prison sports and recreation. "We Only Played Home Games" is full of wacky, hilarious, bizarre, and even deadly true stories that will rivet the reader to the book.
The stories are about four years the author spent organizing, installing and administrating a very controversial, but highly effective sports and recreation program in Michigan's maximum security prison at Marquette. This prison is considered one of the toughest in the country not only because all of the inmates are hardened, repeat offenders - but because Michigan does not have the death penalty. In states with capital punishment, condemned convicts on death row are not allowed any of the recreation privileges available to the general prison population until they are executed.
The warden realized he had a human carbuncle on his hands with "600 of the worst bastards" in Michigan housed inside the walls. Downstate, the Jackson prison (largest walled prison in the world - 6,000 inmates) was just recovering from a huge riot. All of the ringleaders (plus some of their subordinates) had been sent to Marquette, the Siberia of Michigan! The warden could not find enough work for these dangerous "malcontents" and he could not keep them locked in their cells all day. To allow them to roam around the exercise yard with nothing to do guaranteed a future disaster in a very big way! The "joint" could be torn down, people killed, careers ruined. To circumvent this, the warden decided on a very intensive sports and recreation program to keep this select group of human bombs from exploding. He hired the author, Leonard "Oakie" Brumm to implement it.
During the four years described, the author did what he was paid to do, and then some! Any convict (who behaved himself) was offered the opportunity to participate (either actively - or as a spectator) in practically every sport and game known to the civilized world (including some that were invented in the prison). The effect was astonishing!
Previously, all these convicts had to think about was getting out, one way or another. Now their minds were shifted, consciously or unconsciously, to their next round of miniature golf, their next shuffleboard contest, or worried if rain would stop their upcoming bocci ball game. Could the visiting "outside" softball team hit the "joint's" star pitcher today, or was the weather going to be OK for the big football game on Sunday? The inmates even got to see the World Championship Detroit Red Wings face off against the Marquette Prison Pirates in the most unusual hockey game ever played.
Now, there were lots of things to think about other than getting out or raising hell! The public and the guards had a hard time accepting this program, but knowledgeable penologists in Michigan gave it credit for "keeping the lid on the joint" during these very delicate times.
This is a fascinating account of life in a totally different world. Readers will come away with their eyes' opened, and their heads spinning.
Customer Reviews:
Shame...............2005-03-02
Shame Michigan never kept up the program and shame on the author for trivializing the horrors of state prison.
A look inside a prison and the games prisoners play.......2002-07-18
Recently, Sports Illustrated and ESPN ran features on San Quentin prison and its Giants baseball team. It was noted the San Quentin Giants only played home games.
Leonard "Oakie" Brumm published this book in December 2001. Maybe he should attempt to collect from the above stated venues for stealing his idea and "only home games" line. Those pieces ran well after Oakie Brumm's book.
Leonard "Oakie" Brumm is a respected high school hockey coach in the Milwaukee area. My father-in-law claims to know him. It's possible, as both men come from Michigan's Upper Peninsula--an area where hockey is a major sport and the fanaticism of hockey fans exceeds even the fanaticism found in Minnesota.
But the book is about a job Oakie Brumm had for four years in Marquette, Michigan (a major UP city). The book details Oakie's tenure as Recreation Director for the Marquette State Prison, a maximum security facility. Oakie was hired a year after the Jackson State Prison riot in downstate Michigan. The Warden at Marquette wanted to prevent the same scenario to play out in Marquette. Thus, the hiring of Brumm as recreation director.
You might ask what would incite a sane individual to apply for such a job. The truth is, the job came looking for Brumm. Brumm had coached in Alaska and Wyoming previously, which the warden knew. Brumm had come back to Marquette to work in his family's construction business. And it was while doing road work that the warden would stop and ask Brumm to apply for the job; it was his for the taking.
Brumm was naturally hesitant to take the job. Who in their right mind wants to work inside a maximum security facility? But his wife urged him to take the job. Women love job security and financial security and working for the state in maximum security wasn't bad.
This was indeed a special job. Brumm reported only to the warden. He was told never to tattle on the prisoners to the guards ("screws"). Brumm needed to win the prisoners' trust if he was going to get them to co-operate. As the warden stated, "If the screws can't catch them, we'll get more screws."
The job also was tailor-made for a "self-starter." There was no job description and no agenda and no direction. The warden had never hired a recreation director before and had no idea where Brumm should start.
And certainly politics and bureaucracy come into play. Some activities, such as miniature golf, are viewed as turning the prison into a country club. And the deputy warden warns Oakie, "Just make sure no one kills someone with those clubs." The bureaucratic irony comes when the assistant deputy warden tells Brumm, "Get some more clubs." Seems miniature golf had become so popular that many complained they couldn't get time on the course. It is also ironic that baseball bats were already on the grounds, but bringing golf clubs into the prison was seen as dangerous.
Oakie Brumm writes with candor and honesty and openness. He doesn't sugar coat and he tells what life inside the prison was like, even the details of "prison love." Brumm uses the language of the prison in his book. But don't fear about not knowing the language; Brumm includes a "Glossary of Marquette Prison Terms." Read through the glossary before reading the book for a better understanding while reading the book. One caution I would make is that if you don't wish for your children to know about the harsh realities in life, or in prison life, you may want to monitor their reading of this book or at the very least be willing to discuss and concerns or questions they have while reading this book. Brumm is frank and forthright in his relaying not only the games played inside the prison with rules and regulations and scores kept, but also the games cons played in all areas of prison life. While such frankness may be shocking, it is an untainted portrait of life inside a wall where all games, competitive or not, intramural or inter-institutional, are all "home games." This book is an education in the realities of life in prison and of those serving time in prison.
(Originally published on BookIdeas.com.)
Traditional sports and life in prison.......2002-04-12
We Only Played Home Games: Wacky, Raunchy, Humorous Stories Of Sports And Other Events In Michigan's Maximum Security Prison by Leonard "Oakie" Brumm is not a book for the faint-hearted. We Only Played Home Games is replete with sometimes disturbing, sometimes darkly humorous, sometimes outrageous anecdotes, about a warden who used team sports to sublimate inmate dissention - or in other words, get the prisoners to focus on something other than escaping or tearing each other apart. We Only Played Home Games is fascinating, informative, unique, and reveals traditional sports and life in prison in a much different light than can be found in typical prison memoirs or traditional penology studies.
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