Comments (9)

• iceberg

• On this very same topic, is there anyone who can recommend a good primer on the financial markets, teaches you the basics about the various strategies and common investment vehicles? My appreciation is given in advance.

• Published: April 3, 2008 11:34 AM

• fundamentalist

• "Investing in One Lesson" by Mark Skousen. He's an Austrian, too!

• Published: April 3, 2008 12:19 PM

• iceberg

• Thanks Fundamentalist, but I'm not sure if Skousen's book is what I'm looking for, at least from what I read in the editorial description posted on Amazon.com.

  What I'm looking for is to understand the mechanism of how to sell stocks short, how to play the market based on my knowledge of Austrian Economics.

  For example, I was looking to short the real estate market the past two years, and I have no idea of what financial instrument to utilize for that purpose and how.

  Tips appreciated.

• Published: April 3, 2008 2:30 PM

• fundamentalist

• iceberg,
  Oh, you want the sophisticated stuff! Sorry, don't know anyone there. Back in about 96 Sam Stovall from S&P did a book on investing in sectors that I thought was about the best I had seen that would use Austrian insights. I don't think S&P's sectors are arranged strictly according to Austrian capital theory, but they're close.

  As for shorting, have you considered options?

• Published: April 3, 2008 4:02 PM

• fundamentalist

• Iceberg, BTW, It's been a while since I read Skouzen's book, but I believe he covers short selling, options and futures in it.

• Published: April 3, 2008 4:04 PM

• newson

• to iceberg:
  this might be a little tangential, but two investment commentators i like, who are austrian in their analysis, are marc faber (gloomboomdoom.com)
  and steve saville (see his archived stuff on safehaven.com). they both have subscription services, but there's plenty of their stuff publicly available, too.

• Published: April 3, 2008 8:00 PM

• Robert Lynn

• Point and Figure Charting, 3rd Edition
  Thomas J. Dorsey

• Published: April 3, 2008 9:03 PM

• David

• Hi iceberg,

  One of my favorite books on markets and speculation is Victor Sperandeo's "Methods of a Wall St. Master".

  http://www.amazon.com/Trader-Vic-Methods-Wall-Street-Master/dp/0471304972/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product

  It won't tell you how to formulate specific trading strategies (such as selling short a certain sector), but it is an excellent book detailing Vic's methods of trading and the basics of understanding how the markets and economics work. His explanation of real world economics served as my intro to the Austrian school (of which he is a long time adherent).

  For more specific and up-to-date trading and investment strategies, try reading up on some of the more recent books that address sector investing or trading with ETFs (sounds like this might be what you are after).

  http://www.amazon.com/ETF-Book-About-Exchange-Traded-Funds/dp/0470130636/ref=pd_sim_b_title_8

  http://www.amazon.com/Trading-Strategies-Revealed-David-Vomund/dp/1592802583/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product

  If you decide to get really sophisticated you might try to look into some books on crafting personal "hedge fund strategies", but you would probably want to look closely at your risk profile, trading skills first.

• Published: April 3, 2008 9:33 PM

• gene berman

• Iceberg:

  You could have shorted plywood futures. Too late now, unless you know something everybody else doesn't.

• Published: April 7, 2008 8:26 AM