The Big Gamble
Are You Investing or Speculating
By: Jose D. Roncal & Jose N. Abbo
Published: Nov 2008
Format: Paperback 220 pages
ISBN: 9781604940381
Publisher: Wheatmark
"The financial experts have no hard-and-fast rules for defining investment and speculation", write international market experts Jose D. Roncal and Jose N. Abbo, in their insightful book The Big Gamble: Are You Investing or Speculating. The authors take the reader on a roller coaster ride through the history of investment, speculation and gambling, as they demonstrate the importance of understanding financial risk.
Jose Roncal (photo left) and Jose Abbo understand that every investment carries different levels of risk. The book provides perspective on the different risk factors involved in investment, speculation, and gambling. Especially interesting is their analysis of how bubbles form through speculative and gambling manias. The authors guide the reader through financial bubbles of the past, including tulip bulbs in Seventeenth Century Holland, and the collapse of the Mississippi Bubble in France and the South Sea Bubble in England in the early Eighteenth Century. The book also features an important section on the recently exploded global housing market bubble. The authors point out the signs that show a bubble is forming and how to profit from its rapid expansion.
Jose Abbo (photo left) and Jose Roncal recognize that speculation is crucial to economic growth. Without risk takers, putting their own money and that of their investors and partners on the line, a nation's economy would face stagnation. The authors provide insight into how speculators, past and present, have contributed to the growth and expansion of the American economy. By taking calculated risks, speculators built railways, airlines, steel mills, and other industries that made the American economy the global leader. The book provides some insights into where speculative ventures can be made now and in the near future as well.
For me, the power of the book is how investment, speculation, and gambling are put into the proper economic perspective based on risk levels. To achieve a higher return, ever greater amounts of risk must be taken, with increasing potential for loss. At the same time, the authors point out that allegedly safe investments may be some of the riskiest choices of all. Jose Abbo and Jose Roncal point out the importance of removing emotion from investing, and replacing it with mathematics and hard numbers. By understanding the probability of gain or loss, an objective decision can be made, balancing the risk with the reward.
I highly recommend the intriguing The Big Gamble: Are You Investing or Speculating by Jose Abbo and Jose Roncal, to anyone who seeks an understanding of the difference between investment, speculation, and gambling. The book provides valuable lessons in understanding how to speculate successfully, and even how to spot a profitable bubble formation.
Read The Big Gamble: Are You Investing or Speculating by Jose Abbo and Jose Roncal, and learn that playing it safe may not be the best investment strategy, and that speculation is a strategy that can be embraced for profit.
