I have a soft spot for Barron’s Magazine, the investing weekly. When I was a kid my dad would always have a folded copy in his briefcase. A little over 13 years ago, when I decided I wanted to be a financial journalist, one of the first things I did was apply for a job at Barron’s. They weren’t hiring but I wound up writing a couple of dozen freelance pieces for them anyway.
I’m happy to say that they, or at least their book reviewer, have a soft spot for me too. The review that appeared of Heads I Win, Tails I Win was very flattering. I like how it starts:
Spencer Jakab comes off as a reluctant financial guru. You might expect a Wall Street Journal columnist and editor (Heard on the Street, Ahead of the Tape) to stress his investment prowess in a book on investing. But not until page 249 does Jakab confide that he rescued his mother’s stock portfolio from the dot-com bust of the early-2000s, persuading her to sell her Nasdaq-related holdings in the fall of 1999 and park the funds in “boring Treasury bonds.” Her circle of middle-age Hungarian immigrants ignored his advice and lived to regret it.
Anyway, read the whole thing and then read my book if you haven’t already.
Spencer Jakab 