Laughing at Wall Street: How I Beat the Pros at Investing (by Reading Tabloids, Shopping at the Mall, and Connecting on Facebook) and How You Can, Too

by Chris Camillo

$20,000 to $2 million in only three years— the greatest stock-picker you never heard of tells you how you can do it tooChris Camillo is not a stockbroker, financial analyst, or hedge fund manager. He is an ordinary person with a knack for identifying trends and discovering great investments hidden in everyday life. In early 2007, he invested $20,000 in the stock market, and in three years it grew to just over $2 million. With Laughing at Wall Street, you'll •How Facebook friends helped a young parent invest in the wildly successful children's show, Chuggington—and saw her stock values climb 50% •How an everyday trip to 7-Eleven alerted a teenager to short Snapple stock—and tripled his money in seven days •How $1000 invested consecutively in Uggs, True Religion jeans, and Crocs over five years grew to $750,000 •How Michelle Obama caused J. Crew's stock to soar 186%, and Wall Street only caught up four months later! Engaging, narratively-driven, and without complicated financial analysis, Camillo's stock picking methodology proves that you do not need large sums of money or fancy market data to become a successful investor.

Genres: Finance, Business, Nonfiction, Personal Finance, Economics, Money

239 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 8, 2011

Reviews

[Kunal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Definitely a book that I do not reccommend anyone to read. As I continue to struggle to find a way to become passionate about investing, I saw this book in the library and thought would be an interesting way to look at investing. However, I quickly was disappointed by the book. Sure Chris Camillo has made a phenomenal return on his personal investment account and he writes the book as if the audience is a non-wall street professional who is just looking to learn how to invest their personal money. The strategies he teaches is interesting but still difficult to see how they work as he takes the view point that conducting fundamental analysis that Wall Street does makes no sense given how much more people on Wall Street will know about / able to spend time conducting fundamental valuation than any personal investor ever will be able to. The whole book is about how he is able to get a competitive advantage on investments by finding investment opportunities that are right in front of him that Wall Street is not able to realize yet. For example, he discusses the time when Michelle Obama and her whole family wore all J. Crew apparel during one of Obama's first speeches and how when he went to the mall the line at J. Crew was out the door. He spoke to employees and visited several other J. Crew stores and he realized that they were going to have a strong quarter given how huge these lines were at all these stores and yet Wall Street of course was not out there visiting retail stores so didn't know about the opportunity. Sure enough, the J. Crew stock went through the roof and the company had a great earnings year. Another strategy he discusses is going on to investor blogs and reading through the blogs taking advice from people on there. Again, a lot of smart people on these blogs he argues that can shed a ton of useful knowledge, but you have to be careful with a lot of guys just trying to bid up interest in the stock.

If anything, the lesson one takes from this book is that investing can be as simple as seeing how something is trending and making that investment prior to this being picked up on Wall Street. Again, you have to wonder how many examples there are of this though.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's like a highly simplified and modern version of One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch
Basically he argues that the average person can know more than a Wall Street Investor by making critical observations in their every day lives. E.g. We all saw the rise of Apple and Facebook, because we were all consumers of it, but none of us bothered to invest in the companies. He teaches us to look at our every day lives with investor-glasses.


Here are my notes below:

The early bird gets the worm. You need an informational advantage.
When do I enter a position?
> Upon discovery of game changing information not yet known by Wall Street
When do I exit a position?
>When the game-changing information becomes widely accepted as fact by Wall Street.

Information arbitrage: Enter during information imbalance, exit during information parity.

Wall Street is mostly old men, so they have a hard time keeping up with female/youth/low-income trends.

When Michelle Obama wore J.Crew on the day of her inauguration, the website crashed from so many sales and the stock continued to rise until Wall Street was writing all about it.

This is the power of observation. You go to the amusement park and see everyone wearing crocs, could this be a massive shift in trend? You spend your holiday playing a certain video game, could this become a cultural phenomena?
How about seeing everyone using iPhones and talk about it like a cult phenomena?

Every thing that happens has a cause and effect. The causes are only valid if they will cause a major impact on the companies sales, for example Jay-Z did not impact Cristal significantly. But Run DMC had a huge impact on Adidas. The Atkins diet had a huge impact on bread sales.

Once you have discovered you think Wall Street doesn't know, just go check! Log onto Yahoo Finance and read headlines. For 3 years straight all analysts said that the iPhone was going to be a flop. If you have an informational advantage, most analysts will disagree. Then by 2010 analysts reported it as the best selling phone ever. That was time to sell.

Chapter 8
Leverage your network, your family, friends all know something you don't. What everybody is writing about on social media serves as a weak signal.
Use stock boards. They definitely have an informational advantage over wall street.

Chapter 9 Multiply gains with options
A call option that has a strike price that is higher than the current stock price is 'out of the money' and therefore more expensive. The intrinsic value is currently 0

A call option that has a strike price that is lower than the current stock price is 'in the money' and therefore cheaper. The only way it will expire worthless is if the price declines below the strike price.

The more time left in a contract, the more costly.

I typically buy options with a strike price=current market value since defining exact price targets is hard. I then buy options with a 6-9 month expiration since that is enough quarters to announce sales and earnings.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book at my husband’s insistence but I’m glad that I did. I’m not sure that the stock market is ever going to be my “thing” but I do believe that everyone should have a basic understanding of how it works. Even if you have no intentions to begin investing or chose not to follow Camillo’s investment advice, this book is still worth a read. I found the chapter on 401ks really eye opening and relevant. In fact, for that chapter alone I would recommend this book. Also Camilo gives the best, most accessible description of calls and puts that I have read, have been read to me, or have had described to me. For that I am grateful to the author for this book and his easy to read, down to earth style. Overall, I enjoyed this book and felt like I learned a lot. I may read it again and take some notes.

[Nicholas Erasmus · Rating 5 out of 5]

You would think that it’s too simple to really work. You would be wrong.

Chris Camillo is an absolute genius. But unlike most other smart people, he never tries to impress you and is never self-aggrandizing. By reading this book and following simple techniques in investing, you will outperform the vast majority of “professional investors”. Of that am very confident.

In addition to that, after reading this and applying it successfully, you will find finance shows on channels such as CNBC hilarious. So don’t think the title of the book is anything but apt.

5 stars for Chris

[Don Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected more from this book but was disappointed at the vague information provide. Although he did explain his own success story he did not really get into detail on what he did to achieve it other than mention some stocks he invested in.

[Ben Hilzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think Chris Camillo is brilliant, I read this book because of his insights from guest appearances on various shows.

I think this book has a fun idea to explore and I’m definitely going to put my “investor glasses” on and give information symmetry trading a try with OPM. I just didn’t feel like this was a full meal…maybe because I’m a finance professional myself so all of the true investment info was very novice. But I felt kind of incomplete when I finished. Maybe it’s because it also felt outdated. You can’t really rely on social media comments anymore with bots and such and most people shop online today so you won’t be catching big trends via lines at the mall. I think this book could use a revision for 2025

[Jahangir Alam]

Great book. Highly recommended.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!! I've read a few investment books before that talk about formulas and expert methods. I've seen the infomercials about getting rich quick with a tried and true method for picking stocks. It's all mickey-mouse magic in my opinion....as well as in the opinion of the author of Laughing at Wall Street (LWS). Chris Camillo explains his method--which when you step back and think about it is perfectly logical and based on reality, not voodoo--of using his own observations of the world around him, and to leverage friends and family (through for example facebook) to find the next big money making stock (or losing stock, for those into short trading). He provides through clear writing and easy to understand explanations a new way of looking at investing in the stock market. How to use Wall Streets own short comings to grasps opportunities they have missed. The section on call and put options is a little tough to understand at first, but when you read it a second time its much clearer. Chris boils this seemingly complex trading method down so it is easier to understand. It is a new form of trading for some but is worth understanding in this book as anyone can do it to maximize profits.

One of the biggest point in LWS to take away is Chris's insistence that you do not use your retirement fund, 401(K) or other retirement plans to invest. You look at your current budget and find the few things you can live with out (Starbucks coffee) or delay purchasing (the next big electronic purchase that will be hundreds of dollars cheaper next year) to fund you investment account. Do not risk what you can not afford to do with out. Its such a simple idea, but one often not stressed in other investment books, which if you think about it is just insane. The idea is to better you life financially, not risk sinking your entire family....and Laughing at Wall Street hits the nail on the head with a very logical, simple (to understand) method, that still require hard work and effort, but which is not beyond the normal woman or man.

Read this book for a fresh look at the complex world or stock trading and investing.

NOTE: I received this book through goodreads Giveaways. It is an ARC copy. I have not been provided any incentive for my review.

[Ulio · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't really a traditional investing or finance book as there is almost 0 analysis whether that be fundamentals or technical. Or any kind of specific systems trading strategy.

That doesn't mean there is nothing of value here. In fact the book is about the most basic approach to investing. Buying a emerging trend. Like the people who were buying internet companies during the dotcom bubble even though they had no revenue. Or how people in 2020 are buying clean energy, cloud computing, 5g and many other trends that will be fully realized in the future.

His technique, if you can call it that, is to buy a really hot trend before it gets noticed by Wallstreet or if Wallstreet hates it. There is a contrarian element to it which is normally great for most mid to large cap stocks.

He doesn't really go into specifics other than you should just look for emerging trends or behavior shifts in your social circle or society in general. One easy example of this trend anyone on this site could have noticed but not realized it's investible information is the trend of Ebooks and how they impacted brick&mortar book retailers like Barnes Nobles, which was negatively. You could have "shorted" Barnes&Noble stock which was on a freefall before it was bought out a capital management firm..

Anyhow it is a very basic book about investing and anyone who knows how to find growth stocks or come up with investment thesis should know the basics of this. But this for a shorter timeframe and often with a catalyst.

I think I learned something in the first 100 pages but after that it was very basic stuff which is skippable. I would have given it a 2 star but it's a very fast read and I follow Chris on Twitter, he is a cool dude so extra's for that.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a primer on how to invest in stocks based on your own experience, observations and monitoring of current culture and trends. The author's message is that Wall Street experts overlook plenty of information that is obvious to Moms, teens, suburbanites, and others. The book explains step-by-step how to buy stocks and options and where to look for trends that will affect the future of stock prices. This book describes the way the stock market works in a very entertaining manner. I received this book through the Goodreads First Reads program.

[Wenyu Zhao · Rating 3 out of 5]

Talks about information arbitrage, observation and due diligence and using a straightforward rating aggregation index to decide if you go long on a stock. Great insight. The part of promoting online bulletin board system isn’t really very interesting. Fun read.

[Kalle Wescott · Rating 3 out of 5]

The whole book can be summarized in about 5 pages, but the 5 pages are worthy for the finance non-professional who wishes to invest in public equities.

[Ross Brannigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read quite a few books on the topic written by finance professionals over the past years including Benjamin Graham’s “Intelligent Investor” and Phil Fishers “Common Stock, Uncommon Profits”, I was a little skeptical of the authors claims - to say the least. Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised. Overall it's a light and relatively jargon-free intro for finance novices.

For me, some of the key takeaways were as follows:

Understanding Information Arbitrage (information imbalances vs. information parity)
Observation (awareness of your daily reality and it’s link to game-changing
Hypothesis development
Consensus scoring (using the list a/b approach sourced from earnings calls and analysts reports to identify instances of information arbitrage. A score < 2.0 is generally indicative of information imbalance)

Subjective and unscientific, the approach avoids technical and fundamental financial statement analysis that many may have learned in business school, yet his results are somewhat telling of the methodologies effectiveness

Will Camillo’s methodology stand the test of time?

[Marcelo Mtanous · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recall seeing Chris Camillo’s interview in bloomberg longtime ago and I was so intrigued by his methods. He talked about information arbitrage, it is what others see not what you see and investing with conviction. I never bothered to read his book until now. The key to his approach is to see things around you with investor’s glasses. Not only that, one has to execute and act on those observed trends or game-changing information. Many may see the trends but only a handful take the risk to invest. Many people tend to wait to invest until having a big lump sum, while they may never be debt-free. This is a big misconception. His success is a clear example for ordinary people to start investing with as a little as $300 and also avoid paying expensive fees to professional finance advisors. I personally enjoyed and related to his approach on how he builds his Others People Money pool. He also talks about his options strategy and how he uses it as leverage. Overall, I thought the book was quite engaging and down to earth, with concrete examples and entertaining anecdotes of how he unveiled game-changing information.

[Yujing Chen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give it 4 stars for content but let us be honest, this author is a bit misogynist because he uses "he" for most of the time but when he was talking about a bad behavior like bad user on online forum he switch to "she" immediately. I have no idea what he uses to determine which gender pronounce to use but this definitely makes me uncomfortable & offensive.

[Dragos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chris Camillo was interviewed by Jack Schwager in the recently launched Unknown Market Wizards and had an impressive track record.

This book, however, was perhaps written too soon in Camillo's investment career (2010) as the text is a dull comparison between technical, fundamental and some sort "street" analysis of a company, with , of course, the latter winning the battle.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful, concise, concrete

Entertaining and filled with practical, rock-solid tips on how an ordinary, retail investor can crush market returns and the performances of so-called Wall Street experts. Even someone with zero investing experience and very little
Money can easily implement the strategies in this book.

[Max Sarmento · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book, Tbh I prefer his podcast “Dumb Money Live”. This novel debuted his win stories back in early 2010s. 60% of this book focus on social and information arbitrage investing. Very cool concept and basically how I trade to this day. Overall, this book could have been condensed by 100 pages and then it would have gotten a 4/5. Skim through it and take what you need. ✏️

[Jack Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. A philosophy definitely not in line with a traditional “value” approach, but still very interesting. Maybe I’ll throw 5-10% of my investment portfolio towards these ideas and see what comes of it.

[Rahul Nag · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good new way of investing by finding information on those areas not covered by Wall Street - feminine, youth, low income and rural markets. Plus, the section on options was fantastic as I had never really considered this before

[Jash Shah · Rating 2 out of 5]

According to me, the book was average. I understand that the basic idea of keeping up with culture/ items and all that, Peter Lynch and a lot of others did this too. It is a powerful idea but I felt that the whole book could have been a lot smaller. A lot of the stuff was just repeating itself.

[Vishal Patel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good advice on how to spot trends.

[Lorena Zorrilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent start

This is an excellent book for starters, will give you a few tips, but if interested in the theme you can really study the matter before dipping in the stock market.

[Kiril · Rating 5 out of 5]

New and interesting approach to investing.

[Benjamin Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

100/10

Read it

If you’re interested in finance, economics, and social trends this is the middle of the Venn diagram and a holy grail of a book. Thanks Chris

[João Cortez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book about information arbitrage investing.

[Robert K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book for someone who would like to get started in stock market investing.

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite basic information, nevertheless an interesting overview of Camillo's strategy of social arbitrage

[Vishal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good advice on how to spot trends.

[Jordan Mcculloch · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s fine. Nothing life changing. Hearing him speak is much more powerful. Average intro investment book with small section on unique strategy.