You Can be a Stock Market Genius: Uncover the Secret Hiding Places of Stock Market Profits Paperback – 1 Feb. 1999

I must admit that the title of the book led me to some hastily formed judgements about the content. However, having come across this work in a number of book recommendation lists for value investors, I decided to click on the buy button. I am quite pleased I did. The author gives a nice exposition of some more esoteric areas of equity investments (mergers, spin-offs, rights offerings, etc.). It definitely gave me some new insights and viewpoints that I hadn't "noticed" before. I am not a fan of the style and the silly jokes but I guess the author wanted to make it a light read. Having said that, don't assume that the content is basic. I have read many complex investment tomes with all the mathematical rigour that in the end were based on false premises and can only lead to heavy losses (CDO's anyone).For £15, the book is a good value investment as I am sure it will enable one to notice potential profit certain situations. Investing of course requires effort, so you will still need to analyse the situation but at least you have some basic awareness of the possibility.

Terrible title, but amazing book in how to look for and understand investments. Very focused on special situations instead of either trading or long term value investing, but each example is broken down to common reasoning approaches. Instead of avoiding special situations, thinking they were too risky/too specialized for me, this book has helped show the solid simple reasoning and opportunities available, which normally cover 1-3 years and follow a "minimal risk, strong upside" approach.Also one of the few investment books I've read which (maybe the only one so far) which covers how/where to look for and research potential ideas.Personally more useful than "The intelligent investor" to actually investing.

Bad title, good book. Don't judge a book by it's cover... in this case you'd think the book was written for children or moreons. The book itself is quite nice, and handles stock investing quite nicely, with some fresh point's of view. Liked it quite a lot.

I bought this book in May 2011 and at the time I felt pretty bullish on Apple. Instead of buying the stock I bought Jan 2013 $400 LEAPS based on what the book said.My investment has so far quadrupled in value!Just amazing advice.

fact - joel greenblatt is considered one of the greatest investors of our time (consistently gets returns of 30%+ on his returns...). this book gives you an introduction ino what he looks for to make an investment. fact 2 - you wont become an investment guru after reading this book - but it will give you a great introduction into what he does...

The author is really super, talks about the investing in special situations. Very interesting read and very friendly writing style.

I think that definitely it worth the price. Sometimes a bit difficult for the normal investor but very full of food of thought.

Interesting introduction to more esoteric/special situation investment styles. I have benefited a lot from some of the tips through a rights issue. It's more difficult to use when working in finance.