5 comments about Fast Track Photographer: the definitive new approach to successful wedding photography.

1. I've been spending so much time scouring over marketing books, and not finding anything to help ME. Dane's book has shown me that I was going about it in all the wrong ways. Got me to rethink everything about what I know about the business. I bought the E-book from his website, and am going to buy the actual bound book, because it is THAT GOOD. Definitely a must read for any up and coming wedding photographer. And probably wouldn't hurt if you've been established for a while.



2. great book, it is the type of book that anyone is trying to enter the photography business should read. It not only helps you get going FAST, but it gets you on the RIGHT track. Worth every penny!



3. I just heard about this book a week ago from David Jay and I'm so glad that I started reading it! I'm a brand new photographer and this book has so much information for those who are just starting out in the photographer business! Dane gives so much information and I feel blessed to be reading this before I go all out with my business. By doing this, I feel that i will be a step ahead. This is a book that I will read again and again!



4. Not sure how someone could still be on the fence after this many rave reviews. Dane is an amazing, honest and inspirational guy. This is exactly the kind of book you'd expect from this master photographer. Read it.
   -Eddie



5. This book is great for beginners as well as seasoned pros (that need to polish up). Dane is an extraordinary person and it really shows in his book. Passion is definitely the driving force of this book. It is right up there with E-Myth Revisited to me. Thank you Dane for a heck of a great book.

No comments about Rocking the Boat: How to Effect Change Without Making Trouble.

No comments about Leading With Confidence.

3 comments about Market Neutral Investing: Build Consistent Low-Risk Profits by Creating Your Own Hedged Portfolio.

1. Any investor disposed to pick stocks should read this excellent short introduction to the esoteric discipline of market neutral investing. Author Eric Stokes provides a better introduction to investment risk than the usual explanations found in most popular investing books. He also discusses a variety of ways to use the underlying principles of market neutral investing without becoming a full-fledged market neutral investor. Indeed, the quantitative capabilities and research skills necessary to run a market neutral portfolio are far beyond the scope of all but the most well-staffed investment firms. But a simple strategy like purchasing shares in an index inverse fund to hedge the risk of a long index fund could make sense for many investors. To learn if this strategy is right for you, we recommend reading this book.



2. I thought this was a great book. It simplified the concept of investing 'short' in conjunction with a standard stock portfolio to reduce risk, without sacrificing overall returns. In todays market, this certainly sounded attractive to me. Not only conceptual, but actual information on how to easily create and trade a short strategy. Much easier than I expected to implement this kind of advanced stock investment strategy.



3. This book was a good introduction to market neutral investing. After reading it, I certainly have a good appreciation of what is involved.
   
   I can't give it 5 stars however, the reason being when you short a stock the individual investor will be paying margin interest (etrade at time of writing this review was 10.24% <$50K for example). Margin interest isn't taken into consideration in the book, in fact I don't believe it was mentioned once. That's crazy to me. If you short $50K worth of stocks, and go long $50K of stocks for 1 year, and your margin interest is 10%, your combined long/short portfolio is going to have to return 5% to even breakeven. The fact that margin interest isn't mention in the book disappointed me. But like I said, this is a great book as an introduction to market neutral investing, it's easy to follow, and well written.

3 comments about Message Matters: Succeeding at the Crossroads of Mission and Market.

1. You have to know WHAT you want do to before you can TELL others in a way that can help them do what YOU WANT them do to. Message Matters delivers a simple roadmap for how a business or a nonprofit can figure out what they do and explain it in a way that moves their audiences to take action. The examples really drive home the effectiveness of a good message.



2. This book is different than anything I've seen on the market and is a "must read" for any organization. It demonstrates a simple and powerful process for creating messages that prompt target audiences to actually act.Interestingly, it emphasizes that the ability to craft effective messages is a basic leadership capacity rather than something to delegate to the communications department. The author has given us a great roadmap to reach our constituency.



3. This book clearly outlines communication strategies that can be employed by ALL nonprofit professionals, regardless of their previous communication experience or the size of the organization they work for. As a program manager at a small organization, I found this book to be an invaluable tool in understanding the demand for more effective messaging and my role in message development and delivery. I highly recommend this book to others in the nonprofit sector no matter what their role in the organization.

5 comments about Trading Index Options.

1. The software is defective and the author and publisher, in the unlikely event you can get either to respond, only cloud the issue with disingenuous assurances.



2. I was eager to use the software that came with this book, but since my PC runs on Windows 98, it will not install. They should update the software so it will run on later versions of Windows before they sell the book again, or least ask you what version of Windows you are using before you place the order.



3. From the beginning pages, the explanations are flowing and account for all levels of competency in options. When you finish the very readable book, you will have a solid understanding of index options. The graphs are excellent while the mathematical concepts are carefully explained. I have traded stock options successfully for the past ten years and I now have enough confidence in my knowledge of index options to not panic when hitting the enter button.



4. The good news is that this book is very nicely done, providing a useful foundation to beginner and intermediate options traders. I found that I learned quite a lot about the interactions between option pricing and the various factors influencing pricing. The author provides numerous case study examples utilizing the OP-EVAL(TM) software included with the book. A majority of the book contains detailed examples describing how to use the software and interpret the output. The bad news is that the software will not run on current Windows operating systems (Windows 98 or newer). So don't buy the book if you want to try the software on your own. Efforts to contact the author, through the publisher McGraw-Hill, about the possibility of updating the software, have been unsuccessful. Otherwise a good book.



5. The book is very good from a professional options trader and teacher.
   
   A lot of the comments from people who recently bought this old (but good) book for the software, were not diligent enough to think about contacting the author. I contacted the author and he mailed me an updated version of the software that comes with the book. He was very kind and cordial.

5 comments about Preferreds.

1. Preferreds is an in depth view on a surprising and not commonly used trading secret that anyone trading should know about. Read it today!



2. I was very disappointed in this book. It is a short book to begin with, but unfortunately this is one of those investment books that fill many of its pages with technical charts. (97 charts and 26 tables in 202 pages) Very, very few practical tips. A lot of subjects simply go unmentioned, or are only mentioned in passing.
   
   No coverage of yield versus risk. Just a brief mention of quantumonline, the best online resource for researching preferreds. No mention of strategies surrounding ex-div dates, and whether to buy or sell just before going ex-dividend. And incredibly, no book index.
   
   A very large part of the book is devoted to Winans own index of preferred stocks, the WIPSI. I get the impression that he is trying to provide credence and academic standing to this index, perhaps in the hope that some ETF will pick it up and commercialize it.
   
   But for the average investor, there's simply very little here to recommend.



3. I have read this book twice, and find it to be very insightful. Many of the things the author predicted (i.e., flaws in the investment rating system) have recently come true in the subprime mess. I have searched high & low for books on preferred stocks, and this is the only one currently on the market.



4. "Good book; clear and concise, which for whatever reason, seems to be a problem for many people who write financial books."



5. I have followed Ken Winans' research for years, and believe it to be some of the most creative work in the investment business. The Winans International Preferred Stock Index (WIPSI)is by far the best index to track preferred stocks, and proves that preferred stocks are "Wall Street's best kept secret"!

No comments about Chicken Soup for the Network Marketer's Soul.

5 comments about The Four Biggest Mistakes in Option Trading (Trade Secrets Ser).

1. There are four basic mistakes all beginning option traders make, these are:
   1) Relying solely on market timing;
   2) Buying only out-of-the-money options;
   3) Using strategies that are too complex; and
   4) Casting too wide a net on option choices

   Relying solely on market timing.
   It causes failure because it ignores implied volatility. It can lead to paying far too much to purchase an option. It would be like buying a stock without knowing its P/E, or buying a car without knowing its blue book value. The way to avoid this mistake is by carefully analyzing which options are best suited to achieve your objective. Also, measure what is the current implied volatility of these options and compare it vs. the historical volatility of this option. This will give you an idea of the current valuation of this option, and whether it appears overpriced or underpriced.

   Buying only out-of-the-money options.
   By doing so, you ignore the probability that the option will eventually be in-the-money. It leads to buying options with little likelihood of profiting. You can get lucky once. But, such a blind strategy is a sure way to get wiped out in option trading. Instead, you should know exactly what is the probability of you making money on each option trades. This entails knowing the "Delta" of a specific option. If an option has a Delta of 20. It has a 20% chance of being in-the-money.

   Using strategies that are too complex.
   This leads to unfavorable risk\reward situations. First, you should determine your objective and make certain the trade you are going to make can achieve those objectives without more risk than you can handle.

   Casting too wide a net.
   You will spend too much time wasted looking for opportunities among illiquid options. By doing so, you will waste a lot of your potential returns on the wider bid and ask spreads of these less than liquid options. Instead, focus on securities that have actively traded options.

   This book is a real eye opener on option trading.




2. This book is useful in directing novice options traders to the four biggest mistakes usually made in this area. The book does what is says with describing the theory behind the authors arguments but unfortunaly does not provide market examples on how that should be implemented in real life. Having read other books by this author, I am sure he is capable of supplementing his theory with examples . One of the mistakes he mentions is buying only out of the money options and he recommends buying in the money options. Unfortunately he does not address the fact that this approach could still result in a total loss if the option ends out of the money by expiration day. In addition to be successful in trading in the money options your timing needs to be accurate enough to be certain you do not face a total loss. Timing is never addressed in this book and you would need to supplement this by other books that focus more on this area.
   Why 5 stars? Even with these shotcomings it is important that beginners know where they can go wrong and then focus on what to do right.



3. by far a worthless book on options,
   the cover looks great, but this has no
   value; I learned more on the optionsxpress
   website than this book, anyone who has
   read an options book would not
   appreciate this book it assumes you
   know nothing about options and really
   tricks you into thinking that the author
   knows what he is talking about.



4. Well written and concise. Very very importan for ALL Option traders to own and keep in their library. If anyone understands a little bit about "Implied Volatility", this book is a must!



5. This is the first review I ever share on Amazon. I tend to keep my thoughts to myself, but this book is more a pamphlet that leads to their service advertisements. I think someone must bring this "scam" to light. (Please check the number of pages in this "book", then divide by 4 to get the equivalent pages of a book)
   
   The 4 items that this book covers are common sense that any experienced investor and intermediate trader would have developed in the first 3 years at the respective area.
   
   Use the cost of this book and buy a deep out of money contract. It will be more profitable.

No comments about The Tools & Techniques of Risk Management & Insurance (Tools & Techniques) (Tools & Techniques) (Tools & Techniques).