Secrets of the Street: The Dark Side of Making Money

Those who are cynical about Wall Street's integrity will have their suspicions confirmed by this blistering account of American high finance. Through anecdote after anecdote, Marcial, the Inside Wall Street columnist for Business Week, shows how those with the right Wall Street connections have an unfair, and often illegal, advantage in playing the stock market over the average investor. He relates how insider trading occurs in virtually all financial institutions, with his heaviest criticism reserved for the NASDAQ (which is currently being investigated by the Justice Department for price fixing) and the initial public offering (IPO) markets. Marcial's story suggests that although the small investor has almost no hope of reaping a windfall from the stock market, any boob who manages to wrangle a way into the Wall Street network can't help but make tons of money by trading on the inside information that flows freely throughout the Street. Although Marcial's account has no driving narrative, the unscrupulous nature of Wall Street he details could have readers bailing themselves out of the market to invest in CDs or savings accounts. Fortune Book Club alternate. (Feb.)