Former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission Arthur Levitt will write his first book, for Pantheon, warning of the dangers lurking for the unwary investor, according to an announcement by Knopf Publishing Group president Sonny Mehta. The untitled book, actually signed up by Pantheon executive editor Erroll McDonald through agent Bob Barnett of Washington's Williams & Connolly agency, is slated for publication as a hardcover in January 2003, to be followed a year later by a Vintage paperback. McDonald, who will edit the book, bought world rights. Levitt, who began on Wall Street and was chairman of the American Stock Exchange for 11 years, was appointed to the SEC in 1993 and left in February after serving there longer than any previous chairman. His book, he said, would be a "distillation" of everything he learned at the commission and in his previous Wall Street life about who is and who is not working in the interests of investors, about some of the hidden pitfalls of investing and about how to invest more wisely.