One of the best stock market books ever
Probably my favorite book on the stock market.
This isn't a book on how to invest. "Adam Smith" (George Goodman) humorously looks at why people behave the way they do when it comes to making money from financial markets. A lot of people take the why for granted which is a big mistake. As the saying goes, "if you don't know who you are, Wall Street is an expensive place to find out."
Instead of looking at people as an economist does, The Money Game looks at them as...well...people. Goodman displays their ambition, insecurity, greed, or just simply wanting to belong in all of their their human glory. If you read through this book and don't see some of yourself, your friends, or your relatives, you're lying. It's one of the reasons the book is so amusing; you see these characters everyday. Financial markets aren't just hedge funds and power suits. They're about everybody who tries to see if $1 can be worth a bit more down the road.
The context of the book is the Go-Go Years period of the late 1960s which was very similar to the late 90s technology bubble. In fact, you could swap out the names and technologies for the late 90s counterparts, and the book could have been written a few years ago.
It's a cheap, breezy read, but if you really think about the underlying humanity in the book, you'll be a much better investor and probably have more fun too.