Gallea, an executive at Smith Barney and coauthor of Contrarian Investing, is someone people will want to believe. Given the stock market's recent upheaval, investors are nervous and confused, and Gallea understands why. A frank businessman, he knows that he hasn't always made the wisest decisions, and he wants to tell investors how to learn from his mistakes. Gallea offers snippets of advice that touch on the most common investing strategies and concepts, including selling short, using options, choosing the safety of bonds, risk and reward, etc. He sticks to the basics and doesn't offer long explanations for what he sees as unnecessary moves. For example, on high-risk bonds, he says, "Buying junk bonds, penny stocks, and fractional out-of-the-money options is, for most investors, to be avoided. Each of these securities is among the poorest values in its respective asset class.... Just look at the price. The cheaper the price, the longer the odds." He gives pointers on assessing readers' performance as investors, too, advising them to do "postmortems on all your trades." More sophisticated investors are likely to quickly flip through Gallea's book and note where they agree with the author's philosophy. Though not quite brimming with hypothetical portfolios or real-life scenarios, Gallea's book is appropriate for nascent or earnest investors. (Jan.)
