So Far So Good – The First 94 Years | By Roy R. Neuberger

BOOK REVIEW

By Cam R

Title: So Far So Good – The First 94 Years

Author: Roy R. Neuberger

I first heard of the trader Roy Neuberger from reading Jim Rogers’s book Street Smarts, in which Rogers described his former boss as one of the best tape-reading traders in the business. As I have somewhat of an interest in tape-reading, I decided to seek out Neuberger’s book – which is his autobiography, to see if it may shed any light on his trading.

Packaging - 3/5 (Hardcover)

A pretty typical hardcover, about B5 size. The white paper is of good quality, if slightly rough to the touch. The cover is pretty unique for an autobiography. It shows a portrait of Neuberger in a pretty avant-garde style. It is likely a homage to his love of the arts, particularly contemporary modern art.

Writing Style - 3/5

Simple and straight-forward writing style, with no fluff. In fact, it feels a little like he speaks his thoughts out to you while you are reading the book. The book felt slightly lean in certain descriptions of events, bare-bones actually. I felt he could have elaborated more in certain aspects, but other than that, the book is a pretty quick and easy read-through.

Trading Methods (Specifics) - 3/5

The first part of the book consisted of how he started in Wall Street, and is pretty much the main part of the book for market-related stuff. He describes how he started out, with a cursory overview of some of his trades, including his well-known hedge trade during the 1929 market panic. There are no specific methods on reading the tape, instead it’s more of a recollection of sorts. In fact, I couldn't discern from the book that he was a tape-reader. If he wasn't described as a tape-reader by Jim Rogers, I would have thought that Neuberger was a intermediate to long-term investor.

His 10 percent rule is quite sensible and useful though. As below.

“You can’t always win on Wall Street, so you have to learn to cut losses quickly and move on gracefully. At one point, I was bullish on International Harvester. Right after I bought it, unfortunately, it began going down, down, down – and I realized I had made a mistake. I sold it the same day, lucky to take a small, quick drop rather than a big, drawn-out loss. Like many traders, I don’t win on everything. Over the years, I've lost quite often, but obviously I've won more than I lost.

Getting married to a stock can prove disastrous. The 10 percent rule is sensible: If your stock starts falling, take a loss of 10 percent and start again. I take this idea very seriously, and it’s worked quite well for me. The flip side of that rule is not to be greedy with profits. Never try to guess the top.”

Trading Management (Soft Skills) - 2/5

The book is pretty lean on trading management aspect. In fact, the overwhelming sense I get after reading the section in which he describes his years in Wall Street is that his trading style comes across as very logical and sensible.

It seems like he doesn't make big bets, he has no emotional issues, and his success was basically a step-by-step process. He found his life purpose to support contemporary artists, he needed money to do it, Wall Street was where the money is, he went to Wall Street, he made money as a trader trading his own account, he opened his own firm, and it just grew from there.

 In fact, he sounds really happy and satisfied. It’s rare to read someone’s autobiography in which everything seems smooth-sailing from the start to the end. To borrow the book’s title, it's indeed ‘so far so good’.

Trading Psychology (Mindset) - 3/5

Aside from being logical and sensible, Neuberger also comes across as being pragmatic and realistic. Here’s how he describes his thought during the big market panic of 1929.

“Even during the Panic, I never regretted my decision to go to Wall Street. Quite the opposite. I learned a lot in 1929. I studied the market and learned fast that something was wrong. Perhaps because I wasn't on Wall Street (or even in America) earlier in the 1920s, I was able to see trouble looming – while others with more hands-on experience lulled themselves into thinking the market would continue to rise indefinitely.

As the time, I was using all of the life experience I had acquired by age 26, particularly common sense, a commodity sometimes in short supply on Wall Street. I considered the Panic to be the signal of a disease in our economic environment. I also felt that we were heading for a bear market, and I acted on that judgement.

In many ways, the Panic shaped my current approach to the market: I am prematurely bearish when the market experiences a prolonged ascent, when everybody is pleased because they’re growing richer. And, conversely, I'm very bullish when the markets drops perceptibly because I feel it has already discounted any troubles we are going to have.”

Longevity - 2/5

I felt his biography is worth a read-through, just to get a sense of how the market environment was back in the 1920s. And like he mentioned in his book, he is probably the only trader who has experienced personally both the markets in the 1920s through to the markets now. In a way, reading the book made me feel the markets have changed dramatically since then, and yet remain very much the same as then.

Value - 2/5

For a trader looking for specific market related information, the most helpful would probably be the ten principles of successful trading he listed in the book. That, and along with some of his observations relating to the market, are probably the most market-related bits. It is also interesting that Neuberger knew personally the great investors, names like Ben Graham, Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, George Soros and a couple of others. It was fun to read his brief description about each of them.

Things to Watch Out For -

It is obvious from the book his love of the arts, and in fact, the second half of the book is almost solely devoted to his endeavours in the arts. Readers who are not interested in the arts may find the parts of the books where he talks about art overwhelming.

Overall - 3/5

A pretty enjoyable book, and a very quick read-through. I wished he could have shared more specifics on how he trades the market though. If you have some free time over the weekends, this would be a nice and easy book to spend your time with.

Score Recap:

Packaging - 3/5

Writing Style - 3/5

Trading Methods (Specifics) - 3/5

Trading Management (Soft Skills) - 2/5

Trading Psychology (Mindset) - 3/5

Longevity -2/5

Value - 2/5

Overall - 3/5

Where to Buy:

It's an old book, so I doubt most bookstores would carry it now. Amazon and Books Depository both have it in stock though, with free worldwide shipping for Books Depository. If you want to buy the book, please do consider buying it from my affiliate links below. It really goes a long way in supporting this site. Thank you!

        

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