The Art of Speculation Paperback – January 18, 2012

This is a great book that dives into the history of the stock market. As a seasoned investor myself, I understand all of the ideas espoused upon but what I found most interesting is the fact that many of the principles applied to value investing today was applicable back then (almost 90 years go!) The main point the book screams out at me is that human nature will always be human nature. Our inclinations and propensities 90 years ago are the same as they are today.I would not recommend this book to a novice because I do not think they will have the experience to distinguish what's relevant now compared to pre-1931. I could see some rookie combing through yahoo finance looking for the ticker symbol for Mack Truck! haha

Carret has the longest track record of beating the general markets over the long term with a CAGR of 13% over 55 years. This books is a great companion to Security Analysis by Ben Graham showing the central concept of buying securities when undervalued. In this book speculation is not the same definition as gambling or by Ben Graham, but in essence intelligent investing. Those who find this book to be "outdated" have the problem of not understanding the concepts of the book and wish to be spoon fed examples applicable to today's companies verbatim. In response to a previous review of a "veteran investor" who is not one given that the person "day trades", this book is not applicable to today's gamblers and is very helpful to those who are investors. This also applies for Security Analysis.

Very good!

Has some applicable info, but a lot of its outdated like reading the tape. For the seasoned vet I can't find a reason to buy this. For someone just starting out, you could learn something but there are many more books out there that are newer and more revelant. I personally like any of William O'Neils books for long term investing, as for day trading I like the work of John Person who has two books available last time I checked. (Both good reads)

educational

Excellent, closely-written text illustrating timeless investment principles from interesting pre-1930 business and investment case histories.

Great, common sense outlook on investing.

As said in the book, the principles contained within lean heavily toward investing as opposed to speculating. Many points mentioned including caveats on sunken cost fallacy and blindly using widely available value metrics ring true today and will continue to do so in the future.

I decided to read the book after learning about Philip Carret from Buffett when he mentioned him at one of his annual shareholder meetings.The central message of the book is that uncertainty is much more widespread than we realise, so even an investor who buys a high-quality stock can be speculating.Interesting ideas that I noted (although cannot say they are completely new):1. PE is almost irrelevant for making investment decisions. Dividend yield is even less important.2. 12 rules that investors should follow (importance of holding at least 10 stocks, no more than 25% in each stock, avoid mechanical formulas, be quick to take losses / reluctant to take profits).3. Weak economy does not mean weak stock performance, although increasing bond exposure after a long period of economic growth and rising bond yields is advisable.4. Management has much more power in making decisions despite shareholders formally owning the company (and voting on management). This is why a company with great management is much better than an average one (as a shareholder you have much less power to change management or impact their decisions).5. One other interesting concept is that within a broad market trend (e.g. bull market) there could be many other sub-segments some of which can be in a crisis (prosperity and depression may co-exist side by side).The book has a good review of accounting for investors and key financial ratios, but anyone who have read Security Analysis by Graham or more modern books on this subject (especially McKinsey on Valuation), will not find anything new there.Hard to say I learnt a lot from this book and for a first time reader I would suggest reading Graham, Lynch and Fisher first.

Investing involves an element of speculation. The book discusses the author's view that the best investment decisions are most business-like, while also allowing that investing is partly an art.