So I'm assuming that you purchased this book because you are interested in financial freedom.

Well, let me tell you this. Even an undergrad who has NOT reached financial freedom can see that the methods presented in this book is no more than overrated sales tactic to make the average Joe believe that making money is a piece of cake. For your interest, I have an educational and working background in finance, accounting and economics.

1. Buy only assets and avoid liabilities. Of course that makes perfect sense... right? No. By the author's definition of an asset (which is WRONG by any accounting or finance standard out there), it should only produce cash flows. Hence, a house would be a liability. Let's say -- like what is suggested by the author -- that we go be an entrepreneur and own a store. A store is definitely an asset because it produces postive cash flow. But what about the expenses? If expenses are involved, then it MUST be a liability according to the author. The pictorials in the book are also useless -- give it to any "financially literate" businessman and he'll just laugh at it. By the way, isn't the accounting equation: Assets = Liabilities + Equities? What happened to Equities?

2. I can't even believe how he went on to say that he makes money -- and hint that by not doing what he does is stupid -- by trading in small stocks and real estate by insider information. How exactly can you get insider information "legally"? The author constantly mentions how he "knows" that a stock would have a new product coming into the market. I highly question the ethical implications of this book.

3. If the author is so successful in identifying these real estate and small stock opportunities, then why would he share such valuable information to the readers out there by publishing a book? Clearly, he finds it more profitable to sell such ideas than to profit from the ideas. Interestingly, notice as well the author makes no mention of the failed investments that he has had.

I assume readers who read this book would typically read more than the pre-school picture books. But I think for this book, in particular, it could be more useful if the author added more pictures/photographs of the various characters introduced. Main characters (Milken, Siegel, Boesky, etc) were there. The book, however, introduces a new character almost every 2 pages; this makes it somewhat difficult to identify who's who after a while. More pictures would be nice.

Overall, this is an excellent book with great details to how high finance and insider trading worked back in the 1980s. A definite must read for undergrad students who want to make it in the finacial industry -- the books that you read tell something about your character.

I work in a financial firm that is very prominent in the junior to mid tier mining industry. For people without a very solid technical background--whether it be in geology or engineering--the entire mining industry and in particular, mining companies, can be very confusing to even begin to understand.

Investors need to selectively filter out the technicals -- let's face it, a typical investor would not have a PhD in engineering and geology and tens of years worth of experience to make a sound decision as to whether a particular mining company's technicals actually make sense.

Leave that to the technical people (and hope you don't hit another Bre-X). Investors need to get to the end result and I believe this book does a very good job in giving a general overview of how the industry works and how an investor can value the company.

Perhaps of my finance and slight accounting background, I find most of the financial terminologies in the book to be pretty straightforward. However, for people without a basic understanding of finance and/or accounting, this book could be more challenging than it's intended to be.