Coming on January 16 2023, “Stock Market Literacy”

November 15, 2022

Word-of-Mouth Marketing

As my new book, Stock Market Literacy is presently in production, I am considering marketing. The best marketing, of course, is word-of-mouth.

This is a 616-page eBook that I proudly present as the result of over 3,000 hours of writing and editing and the culmination of over 40 years of investing and trading as a high-profile professional.

The book will be sold and delivered through this website. I am confident that a reader testimonial page on the site will be highly effective marketing.

After the hardcover “Lessons From the Trader Wizard” was published in 2008 and sold via Amazon, there were many positive reader reviews on their site. In reading them, please consider that “Stock Market Literacy” will be my legacy-defining book. I hope so, but it’s always up to the reader to make that call.

If you do like Stock Market Literacy as much as I think you will, I hope you recommend it through your email contact list.

Top reviews at Amazon for “Lessons From the Trader Wizard” (2008)

stupormundi

Excellent,

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 23, 2013

Verified Purchase

This book is a must-read for any investor on the stock market. I found the book informative and helpful, and Mr. Cara is generous in the way he shares his techniques and sources. He is that rare combination of thinker and do-er, and I cannot recommend it too highly. The cost of the book is the best investment you will make.

ImageMD

Blog to Book

Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2008

Verified Purchase

Bill Cara (aka William Ciccarelli) has produced an important book on modern financial markets. He has achieved this in spite of:

1. the difficulty of going from blog to book
2. the difficulty of writing a first book and attempting to pack a lifetime of knowledge into 404 pages
3. the difficulty in deciding on the knowledge and experience of the targeted reader
4. the difficulty of going against conventional wisdomBut if you give him a chance, Bill succeeds on all counts. Let me be more specific.I read Bill’s blog ([…]) daily. I like reading him in his conversational mode. I read his reactions to market and political events and his responses to questions from readers. One useful feature of both his blog and his book is the frequent use of URLs directing the reader to the relevant content of other internet sites.After a lifetime of participation in financial markets, Bill has definite opinions about how markets work. He personally knows many of the good and bad guys. Even 404 pages is little space to review these lifetime experiences.Most readers come to his book without these relevant life experiences. The reader could be a novice or very experienced investor or anywhere in between, but not someone like Bill who slugged it out daily with the market makers. Bill does not have the benefit of being a graduate professor of finance who knows that his students have completed the prerequisite courses. Therefore, he devotes about half of the book to finance 101 for the beginners.I think the book’s strongest points are made in attitude rather than technique. Bill risks being labeled an eccentric because his advice (observations) goes against conventional investor wisdom. He argues that buying and holding quality stocks for the long run will not make much money. Instead, buy quality stocks when the market dislikes them and sell them when they are back in favor. The only thing that counts is the price. Good stocks go through price cycles of being over and underpriced. Do not trust the financial press, particularly the talking heads on the financial networks. Assume that the investment houses, particularly the sell-siders have their own agenda to make themselves rich and you poor.Most appreciation of capital occurs slowly over long periods of time through increases in productivity. Other changes in price are a zero-sum game. The markets produce an inherent conflict of interest between those who can control the value of assets by either large sums of capital or control of information. The individual investor is confronting an enemy, which can be the large investment banks, corporate insiders, or even the government.Government uses its own considerable resources to maintain low-interest rates, maintain low inflation, promote prosperity, relieve poverty, and fight wars. It also attempts to be an honest broker among special interests. But from time to time, it stumbles.When the balance between social justice and self-interest fails, the responsible parties have the chance to apologize, obfuscate or tell what they know is untrue. When the expansion of credit produces unintended consequences, who is to blame? The American voters have the opportunity every 4 years to decide who they believe in and who they hold accountable for prior failures. Markets make this decision daily. The individual investor makes this decision daily, weekly, or less often depending on his/her limitations of time, experience and determination.

A lot of the advice (observation) might seem erroneous if it were not for Bill’s daily account on his blog of the financial market gyrations of the past decade and particularly the failure of the mortgage and banking regulation in September 2008.

I am recommending this book to my son. He is a successful professional and beginning his life as an investor. He is a prodigious saver, using mutual funds as his major store of wealth. He buys stocks from time to time but does not have the time to engage the financial markets like his retired father. He has no formal education in finance and will benefit from the didactic part of the book. He is beginning to doubt the expertise of financial experts and the fairness of the financial markets. He is asking himself how he can maintain the value of his savings and someday be able to retire and write book reviews like his father.

Leslie Robinson

Helping investors run the longest ‘marathon’ that is the market

Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2009

Verified Purchase

I picked up on Bill’s website about four years ago, as all that has come to pass started going down. I wanted to know why. The why we pretty much know now, but in making the call for the ‘Trade of the Generation’ (TOG – Sell bonds and buy gold) back in 2008/9, I’ve come to learn from Bill that the market is a marathon, and it takes a specific set of skills to be able to run that marathon. The hard copy of ‘Lessons’ I purchased in 2009 has provided me with that skill set.

Gold has since nearly doubled following that call, while bonds continue to grind higher as fear herds global investors into liquid ‘safe’ investments. But that they are in a bubble becomes clearer to most investors as the ECB promises to move heaven and earth to prop up failing economies and the Federal Reserve continues to monetize America’s growing debt problem.

And that’s the sort of macro view that Bill brings to the table. His website is simply outstanding for presenting short and medium-time frame trade setups and market perspectives. This book complements that knowledge, specifically aimed at those who are beginning or already have a sound knowledge of the markets and wish to free themselves from the clutches of Wall Street and the big banks that have utterly ruined the global markets and our financial and political systems.

This is knowledge passed from an old hand who’s had a gut full of the system playing everyone for fools. I thoroughly recommend it for those who seek not a guru but a complete understanding of inter-related markets, including bonds, commodities like gold and oil, equities, and the market moving forces that propel them. These markets move in relation to each other. ‘Lessons’ will help you understand that relationship.

nemo

Comprehensively Cogent

Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2008

Verified Purchase

I found Bill’s website about a year ago. As I followed it, I began researching his archives over the last few years and was impressed with the accuracy of his analysis and his predictive capability of market results. So, I bought the book (else why would I write a review).

The book represents the foundational knowledge behind his methodologies. It synthesizes a systematic approach to market/stock analysis utilizing several market disciplines and their respective tools. He also provides resources for other information he considers important to investing/trading skills and lets the reader in on the inside game Wall St. plays against the individual investor-helping level the playing field.

The writing is clear and concise, in plain language. His writing style breaks up the information into bite-size pieces, which are easy to digest mentally.

Mr. Cara has done us a favor. Take advantage of it.

dodahman

Great book for any experience level

Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2008

Verified Purchase

When I bought the book, I was hopeful that I could understand and use a good part of it. Actually, I have understood most of it. The level of information is comprehensive yet explained in terms I can understand. It will be an important book for me for some time to come. If you are investing in markets or plan to invest in markets, this book would be a good investment in education. Mr. Cara has no axe to grind and no programs to sell. He shares a wealth of knowledge for a pittance…

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The 2008 book jacket also contained some outstanding testimonials that my publisher obtained from a list of people I provided.

“Discovering Bill Cara is more important to investors than finding a great stock investment. In Bill, individual investors have found an independent, principled, intelligent and experienced teacher and advocate. If you want to learn about markets and trading, buy his book!” — Ermanno Pascutto – former senior securities market regulator in Canada (Executive Director, Ontario Securities Commission, and Hong Kong (Deputy Chairman, Securities and Futures Commission) and currently advisor to regulators, self-regulatory organizations, and financial institutions in North America, Asia, and the Middle East.

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Several other impressive testimonials were provided on the book jacket: 2008 Lessons Cover for BillCara

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Other testimonials

De-mystifying the capital markets. I read Bill Cara’s weekly newsletters and have often used the straightforward information on the Trader Wizard site to make sense of what otherwise (to me) were some baffling economic trends. I especially appreciate when the Trader Wizard explains how and why the talking heads of Wall Street (news media) and market insiders have their own special game happening, this has helped me to be more objective in my decision-making.

Bill Cara knows capital markets. He is outspoken, and that should endear him to the independent investor. He is also interested in sharing his experience and knowledge, which is good for those who listen. Knowing Bill Cara as I do, I believe that accountants, lawyers, and other independent professional advisors to the independent investor, would be well served in getting to know him.

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To the latter testimonial, all I can say is, “Better now than never; I recently turned 80.“