The Mind of Wall Street: A Legendary Financier on the Perils of Greed and the Mysteries of the Market

Description

Leon Levy was a legendary investor, a founder of Oppenheimer Funds and the guiding force behind Oppenheimer as well as several other investment ventures. Now, with Wall Street stuck in a prolonged rut, it's appropriate to turn for insights to a man who predicted the current decline, and who managed to prosper in nearly every market of the past fifty years. Levy explains why the market so often confounds us, and why those who ought to understand it often don't. It was Levy's avocations, psychology and archaeology, that led to his most perceptive and lasting insights into the market--many of his innovations and investment instruments are now familiar parts of the financial landscape--and in The Mind of Wall Street he recounts stories of his successes and failures to illustrate how investor psychology and willful self-deception so often play critical roles in whether money is gained or lost. Like his peers George Soros and Warren Buffet, Levy took a long and broad view of the rhythms of the markets and the economy. His thoughts are sometimes surprising, and his advice is always sound.

Leon Levy began his career on Wall Street in 1948 and over the next five decades became a major figure in investment circles, helping to create Oppenheimer Mutual Funds and Odyssey Partners. He served as the president and founder of the Jerome Levy Institute for Economic Research at Bard College and the president of the Institute for Advanced Study. He died in April 2003.Eugene Linden is a contributor for Time magazine and the author of seven previous books. He lives in Nyack, New York.