Bottom line: unless you are Jack Grubman, Frank Quattrone, Henry Blodget and some of the other pieces of Wall Street Meat that Kessler writes about who went down with the ship, you will find this an amusing book, a nice diversion from a long, long time ago on which to reflect. Kessler knows all the buzz words; he knows the players and (somewhat inadvertently) he lets us know him.

A scathing critique of everything wrong with Wall Street ... and what's wrong with a few of the critics as well."

It’s a terrific memoir. This honest and irreverent behind-the-scenes account of life on Wall Street is highly recommended.

In the first 300 pages, Reingold does an excellent job of walking the reader through the development of his role as an award-winning analyst, first within the fledgling MCI, and then on Wall Street with Morgan Stanley and finally with Credit Suisse First Boston. Reingold's long-time rival and nemesis, analyst Jack Grubman of Salomon Smith Barney, serves as the perfect foil for exposing the abuses and excesses of an industry that continued to blur the line between the analyst side of the house and the investment banking side. The SEC emerges as an 'unindicted co-conspirator' for its years of inaction and complacency in turning a blind eye to escalating levels of abuse.

Jim's book is an excellent window into the world of securities research. Very few works cover the complete life cycle of an analyst and the necessary balance between theory and practice. This is one of them.

My friend Tom Brakke, liked this book and said I would too. He was right, and soon afterward, I heard the author speak at the Baltimore CFA Society. Hearing James Valentine speak is an advantage here. He summarized what is most important, which if you are reading the book, it would be chapter 20 (out of 27). It is his FaVeS framework: Forecast, Valuation, and Sentiment, in that order of importance. Remember that as a key to the book if you read it; it tells you what to focus on as an analyst.

'Applied Equity Analysis' is a how-to manual on evaluating stocks based on his 20 years of experience at JP Morgan. The book is very well-written and readable since the author employs plain english (no pun intended) to make his three major points: 1) accounting numbers--while by no means perfect--are excellent tools in evaluating stocks, 2) accounting-based stock valuation is superior to (but does not neccessarily supplant) cash flows, and 3) competition ensures that eye-popping financial performance doesn't last forever.

There are reams and reams of investment valuation books on the market -- that is obvious. In my opinion, the three no one should be without are Applied Equity Analysis, Stephen Penman's monster tome "Financial Statements and...", and lastly, Aswath Damadoran's book, "investment valuation." Most hyperventilating MBAs default to Damadoran; I really enjoy the simplicity behind Applied Equity Analysis. Caution: [none] of the three are what you'd call 'light reading.' If you have any money left, honorable mention goes to Cooke's 'Security Analysis on Wall Street.'

Just got the new technical guide. By far much better than vault. Very detailed (80+ pages) with charts, graphs, etc. I'll be reading this at least once this summer in prepping for fall interviews.

The new Wall Street Oasis Technical Guide provides questions and easy to understand answers for all the questions I typically ask when interviewing a candidate. The additional questions expand the guide, and the new charts are an added bonus for easily remembering the crucial concepts. If a student really knows all the questions in this guide, they are sure to nail the technical section of their interview.

All I can say is I wish I had the Wall Street Oasis Behavioral Guide before I went into my banking interviews. I was well prepared for some of the fit questions that came my way, but others challenged me. With the extensive number of questions in this guide and the sample answers, I would have felt prepared to handle almost anything.

I didn't read Wall Street Oasis Technical and Behavioral Interview guides until after my first year in my MBA program, and frankly they contained everything I had spent the last year learning to get a job on the Street. I highly recommend them to anyone preparing for an interview, finance or other. It's a heck of a lot cheaper than an MBA (not to mention faster and more to the point).