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

How Facebook friends helped a young parent invest in the wildly successful children's show Chuggington and see her stock values climb 50 percent? How did an everyday trip to 7-Eleven alert a teenager to short Snapple stockand tripled his money in seven days How could $1000 invested consecutively in Uggs, True Religion jeans, and Crocs over five years grew to $750,000 How did Michelle Obama cause J. Crew's stock to soar 186 percent? Laughing at Wall Street will show you how. Chris Camillo is not a stockbroker, financial analyst, or hedge fund manager. And yet in early 2007, in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, he invested $20,000 in the stock market, and grew it to just over $2 million in only three years. How did he do it? By observing the world around him. Along with his own keen observations, Chris leverages family, friends, coworkers, and online networks like Facebook and LinkedIn to create what he calls "trend-spotting networks." These networks and not the bigwigs of Wall Street help Chris identify market trends that lead to winning investments. You have a powerful network, too, as well as an innate advantage over those on Wall Street you just don't know it yet. In this entertaining, story-driven, and jargon-free book, Chris proves that you don't need large sums of money, fancy market data, or endless hours to achieve extraordinary wealth. He shows how the average consumer with zero financial education can outsmart Wall Street's brightest by learning to identify game-changing information hidden in everyday life while watching TV, reading tabloids, working at the office, shopping at the mall, eating out at restaurants, or driving the carpool to soccer practice. You just need to pay attention to the interests and trends in your own life. It doesn't matter whether you have $100 or $100,000 to invest you can become a successful investor and create a secure future for you and your family.