Where Are the Customers' Yachts?

or A Good Hard Look at Wall Street

By: Fred Schwed Jr., Peter Arno

Narrated by: Mark Moseley

Length: 4 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Humorous and entertaining, this book exposes the folly and hypocrisy of Wall Street. The title refers to a story about a visitor to New York who admired the yachts of the bankers and brokers. Naively, he asked where all the customers' yachts were? Of course, none of the customers could afford yachts, even though they dutifully followed the advice of their bankers and brokers. Full of wise contrarian advice and offering a true look at the world of investing, in which brokers get rich while their customers go broke, this book continues to open the eyes of investors to the reality of Wall Street.

©1940, 1955, 2006 Fred Schwed, Jr. Foreword 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Introduction 2006 by Jason Zweig (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Comedy more than anything

Was a descent book, more comedy about wall street than anything else. Still worth a listen for entertainment only

Great read after working with Private equity

most people on Wall Street aren’t any luckier or any smarter than the average person. After working with Private Equity I came to really appreciate the humor. Hit me at the right time

Surprisingly good!

I was blown away by how entertaining and insightful this book is, considering how long ago it was written.

entertaining and enduring

markets and investors haven't changed much over last century. concise , insightful, and funny. recommended for anyone want to get an honest and piercing take and wall street

Relevant Insights for today

Amazing to think this was written so long ago…. Demonstrates that Wall Street hasn’t changed much

Keep reading and finish this book for a good laugh!

Funny, informative, and generally light on material and wisdom. This book was definitely worth a read for a couple of good laughs. And the author is not wrong. The world needs Wall Street. But nobody, not even those on Wall Street, can truly know what they are doing when it comes to investing due to psychological, social, and political forces.

Pretty funny

Very entertaining. I did get a few laughs out of it. Great advice in a not direct way.

Laughing at myself, most enjoyably

No one, having dabbled in active securities trading for longer than a year, should put off reading this book, even a moment longer. You owe it to yourself to take a good, solid look in the mirror and explore the mirth of seeing the absurdity of it all. I still trade and will still trade and will likely make a tradition of reading this book at the end of every fiscal year.

I doubt that Warren Buffett ever recommended this book

This book is not funny and it has no material of value to me whatsoever

the intro was the best part

I did not like this book.

First, the book is only 4 hours long. However, there are 3 introductions. this leaves the book at 3 and a half hours.

Second, the prose of the main text is nothing like the story provided in the sample (which is from one of the introductions).

Third, the book tells no stories. It is a wordy tongue in cheek attempt at humor describing various participants tied to the act of investing.

On a positive side, the narration was good.