Dear friends,
A hundred years ago, in 1920, the great author and poet Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem, “Gods of the Copybook Headings.” He was referring to the proverbs or maxims often drawn from sermons, almanacs, and scriptures extolling virtue and wisdom that were printed at the top of the pages of notebooks used by British school children.
The students had to copy the maxims repeatedly, by hand, down the page. The exercise served as a form of moral education and penmanship.
Kipling’s first stanza reads:
As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
Kipling bemoaned the fact that we no longer teach aphorisms to students or adults.
As a result, to quote another great poet T. S. Eliot, “How much wisdom have we lost to knowledge, and how much knowledge have we lost to information?”
But Kipling and Eliot would be happy to know that the age-old wisdom and timeless truths of the “copybook headings” are alive and well on Wall Street.
For years, I’ve been compiling these financial adages, ancient proverbs and immortal poems found in new and rare financial books and quoted regularly by investors, money managers, brokers and old timers.
Finally, I published them in a handsome volume in dark green leather and gold lettering with a ribbon. “The Maxims of Wall Street” was first published in 2011, and has been a bestseller ever since. Over 35,000 copies have been sold through seven editions.
“Maxims” is the Closest Thing to Wall Street Scripture
The Maxims contains:
- Over 800 adages by such notables as Warren Buffett (“The stock market can go from green to red without stopping at yellow”)….J. P. Morgan (“Troubled waters make for good fishing”)….Humphrey Neill (“The public is right during the trends but wrong at both ends”)….Richard Russell (“In a bear market, the winner is he who loses the least”)….and Steve Forbes (“Everyone is a disciplined, long-term investor….until the market goes down!”).
- Old Timer’s stories like the “trading sardines”…where are the customer’s yachts?….the gold bugs….commodity traders….The origin of “blue sky”…
- Famous lines from Baron Rothschild, Ben Franklin, John D. Rockefeller, Joe Kennedy, J. P. Morgan, Bernard Baruch, John Templeton, Jesse Livermore, John Maynard Keynes,and Ben Graham…
- All quotations are divided into categories, with sage advice on beating the market, diversification vs concentration, value vs growth, bulls vs bears…black swan events….day traders….doomsayers and casandras…plungers and the peacocks….hot tips and insider information…losing money and missed opportunities…Wall Street vs Main Street….chartists vs fundamentalists….leverage and debt….privacy and government….taxes and tax havens….inspiring “Rich Man’s Pearls of Wisdom.”
Providing A Shortcut to Financial Wisdom
The book has been endorsed by Warren Buffett, Jack Bogle, Dennis Gartman, Barron’s, and many others.
Alex Green, chief investment strategist of the Oxford Club, wrote the following last month:
“Wouldn’t it be great if someone collected the wisest thoughts of the world’s greatest investors, men like Jesse Livermore, Baron Rothschild, J.P. Morgan, Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, John Templeton and others?
“As a matter of fact, someone has, my good friend and colleague Dr. Mark Skousen. His book ‘The Maxims of Wall Street’ is a crash course in how to survive and profit in today’s volatile markets.
“A college economics professor, founder of FreedomFest and bestselling author, Mark has spent more than four decades reading, writing, teaching and lecturing about financial markets. Along the way, he has collected a treasure trove of proverbs, slogans, stories and juicy quotes.
“I found myself chuckling (and occasionally sighing) when I first read this book. And I still refer to it regularly. Over my 35-year career, I learned much of this investment wisdom by trial and error. Fortunately, you don’t have to. The Maxims of Wall Street is a pithy and indispensable guide.”
New 10th Anniversary Edition Released in Time for the Holidays
Last week my grandson Luke and I drove to Chicago to pick up the new 10th anniversary edition of “The Maxims of Wall Street,” hot off the press. Then we drove to a suburb of Cleveland and delivered 175 copies to Carver Financial Services, whose president Randy Carver is a big fan. He’s a broker with Raymond James. Randy plans to give them to his clients as a holiday gift.
Kelley Drumm, marketing director at Carver Financial Services, and I admire new 10th anniversary edition of “Maxims”]
I can’t deliver every copy in person, but I will be mailing out copies this week and next, in time for Christmas and the holidays.
In fact, there’s still time to order your own copies — for yourself and your investor friends, neighbors, clients and favorite brokers. Order as many copies as you would like — I offer a special discount when you order more than one copy — half off!
The new edition is special — it’s 282 pages. I’ve added 200 quotes since the first edition came out in 2011.
Cheaper by the Dozen!
I’ve kept the same low price. The new edition retails for $24.95, but if you buy from Skousen Books, the first copy is just $20, and all additional copies are only $10 each. If you order an entire box of 32 copies, the price is only $300, less than $10 each.
As Hetty Green, America’s first female millionaire, said, “When I see something cheap, I buy a lot of it.”
To order, go to www.skousenbooks.com.
I number and autograph every copy and pay the postage if mailed in the United States (shipping to Canada or other foreign destinations requires additional postage). If you have any special inscriptions, please email Ned at [email protected].
We ship every day. Order your autographed copy today! Go to www.skousenbooks.com.
And let me know if you want a special inscription as a gift to others. I’ll be glad to oblige.
Here’s to a very merry Christmas and happy prosperous New Year.
With all good wishes, AEIOU,
Mark
Mark Skousen
Presidential Fellow, Chapman University
Newsletter: www.markskousen.com
Free weekly e-letter: https://www.markskousen.com/signups/skousen-investor-cafe/
Personal website: www.mskousen.com
Annual conference: www.freedomfest.com
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