https://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51B7rBSz%2BcL._SX289_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
Why are people asking upwards of $90 for this book? You gotta be kidding me. $10 maybe.
I owned this book a couple of years ago when I lived in Calgary Alberta, home of the notorious Calgary Stock Exchange, and coincidentally the city Alexander Tadich (the author) lived in and the exchange he was working at and writing about. (Before the Calgary Stock Exchange was merged with the slightly better Vancouver Stock Exchange, these two exchanges were infamous for the numerous penny-stock companies involved in oil and minerals that promoters would use to pump up, hype, then dump and thus fleece "investors" who bought into the hype. But the same thing is going on at all the exchanges.)
Alexander Tadich was a broker on the Calgary Stock exchange, and met many of these shysters, whom he profiles as the "Rampaging Bulls" in this entertaining, comical book. If you are looking for hard facts, there are none here, but rather real insider's wisdom as Tadich profiles how these promoters work, pumping and then dumping "exciting" companies with no financial value.
While regulators moved to partially clean up those particular two exchanges of their worst excesses (probably because of this book), in fact the game continues on everywhere (ie. the pink sheets of unlisted companies, or the penny stocks) and is no better because there's always money to be made off naive "investors". Don't think for a second that this doesn't go on at all the other stock exchanges which list penny stocks, too, even the big and respectable ones like the NYSE and NASDAQ, because it does and it's legal! (Rent the movie "Boiler Room" for another (illegal) example of how these operations work.) If you're interested in stock investing, you need to arm yourself with this book.
In fact, today in my mailbox I received an expensive 20 page color broadsheet promoting a company with a "Medical Breakthrough" in Stem Cells. Lots of quotes promoting this company from doctors, even from Nobel Prize winners, etc. Impressive! I just smiled to myself, recognizing the exact same game Tadich describes, and checked the fine print. Sure enough, there in the fine print it noted that this was an advertisement, these doctors were compensated for their glowing endorsements in cash and stock (a clear conflict of interest) and this jewel: "Shares of this company are thinly traded and (Rampaging Bull's) disposing of the shares 'may' adversely affect market price." But they wanted you to buy!
The game remains the same. If you want an entertaining story of how the game is played, read this book! (But don't get fleeced for $40.)
To save yourself getting fleeced in the stock market follow one simple rule I learned playing the penny stocks myself: NEVER BUY ANY COMPANY THAT IS LOSING MONEY. Most of these "hot" stocks have GREAT prospects, a diamond mine or the next cure for cancer (literally), and not a dollar in actual profits. Don't worry about "missing out" because a great company this year will continue to be a great company next year, and the year after, and ten years on, giving you plenty of buying opportunities.
Good luck and good investing!