Relationship Investing

October 31, 2016
To best understand the stock market, treat your investments like your relationship with a beloved person, suggests former chief technical analyst Weiss in this slim, strained guide to removing fear and anxiety from the investing process. After a lifetime in stocks, he’s developed opinions on a wide variety of investing subjects, including risk management, handling the inevitable down times, playing the odds, and managing fees. Going light on advice and heavy on metaphor, Weiss speaks of the market as if it were a human being needing translation and conversation, an unevenly applied metaphor that never quite gels: “Learning the market’s language from scratch is the single most important lesson this book contains.” When it comes down to actual advice, though, he quickly loses steam; the chapter “Pursuing Perfection” begins: “I’ll save you the trouble—don’t try.” Touching only superficially on a wide array of investments, this brisk book feels like a vanity project; there’s little original content, and the shaky conceptual hook doesn’t hold together.