Justice Litle, Editorial Director of Taipan Publishing Group, offers his review of The Greatest Trade Ever by Gregory Zuckerman; the tale of John Paulson, who bucked convention and bet against the housing bubble.

Justice Litle (Taipan Daily):

The Greatest Trade Ever is the inspirational story of how John Paulson, a mediocre M&A specialist, rose to greatness by betting against the housing bubble – and defying all of Wall Street in the process.

Being an avid observer of markets, financial history and the human psyche, your editor reads a good two dozen books per year on average. There are usually at least two in progress at any given time.

As might be expected, many of these titles fall into the “decent” or “not bad” category. (The disappointments are given very short shrift.) But every once in a while, a book really and truly stands out. That was the case with a

This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (Telegraph): Is $6,300 fair value for gold? November 19, 2009. The last parabolic spike in gold took off when central banks joined the fray in the 1970s, hoarding bullion with the same enthusiasm as gold bugs. Dylan Grice from Société Générale says it smells much the same today. He sees an eerie similarity between the decision of India’s central bank to buy half the IMF’s entire sale of gold, and the move by France’s central bank to start converting dollars into gold in 1965.

• Gregory Zuckerman (The Wall Street Journal): John Paulson making big new bet on gold, November 19, 2009. John Paulson, who scored about $20 billion of profits between 2007 and early

I was captivated by the Wall Street Journal headline “Bearish Big Investors Catch Gold Bug” by Gregory Zuckerman, because I don’t ever expect to see anything favorable about gold in the WSJ…

…since it is concerned primarily with providing information and news about stocks and bonds so that you will be motivated to constantly buy and sell stocks and bonds.

So I was surprised to read where it starts out with, “Large investors, including some who anticipated deep troubles for the housing and financial sectors, have been buying gold, concerned that moves by governments world-wide to shovel money at problem areas could cripple leading currencies.”

This is exactly true! That is exactly why I am buying gold, and why smart people are buying gold and why large investors are buying gold!

Well, since the WSJ is traditionally concerned with stocks and bonds and so is historically unconcerned and disdainful of gold, I figure

Gold Going Mainstream?

In this Wall Street Journal feature,  Gregory Zuckerman notes that recent filings reveal some large investment firms catering to the wealthy -- which used to shun gold -- are now buying the yellow metal. 

According to the article, they've become some of the biggest holders in the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD). 

You can read the story here.

Tyco Falls After Removal From S&P 500

Once high-flying Tyco is moving its headquarters as removal from the S&P 500 sent its shares down more at the end of last week.

You can read a brief Associated Press story here.

Arrival Of Pimco, Schwab Could Boost ETFs

In this piece for MarketWatch.com, John Spence looks at how the planned entrance of Pimco and Schwab into the exchange-traded funds marketplace could boost the investment vehicle's popularity.

You can read the story here.

Twittering Online For Stocks

Veteran technology reporter Brian Deagon has