From Wall Street to the Great Wall: How Investors Can Profit from China's Booming Economy

As always, Malkiel's mantra is to diversify broadly. In all editions of his famous "A Random Walk Down Wall Street", he urges people to invest according to their means and situations, to diversify their investments across industries, and also to diversify internationally. But why write a whole book about one national economy if your mantra is to diversify across them? It's because, quoting the authors, "there is no question that China will shortly surpass the United States and once again become the world's mightiest economic power". As such, Chinese assets deserve a special place in anyone's portfolio. The book gives a very brief account of Chinese history, followed by an overview of the Chinese investment markets, and finally a collection of investment strategy. Of these, Malkiel only recommends one (diversify broadly within China, invest regularly rather than all at once) but he describes other viable strategies for people with a higher appetite for risk. It's open to debate whether the Chinese will come out on top in the near future. After all, as we can read in China's most famous work of literature "empires wax and empires wane". But given that China has the world's oldest continuing, recognizable national identity, given that she is becoming freer and freer, and given that China is intensely motivated at all levels to improve herself, it would be foolish and dangerous to dismiss her. Vincent Poirier, Dublin

The process of reading this book was very happy. It's really a very useful book to indicate me to invest in China no matter in the bull market or other types of the market.

In my opinion, this is an excellent guide for any individual investor who feels he (she) may want to "profit from China's booming economy." Even if the reader decides not to invest in China, the account of how far China has come in a period of approximately three decades is an interesting and amazing read. The book is divided into three sections: The Setting, which provides a historical background on China and its people; The Investments, which explains how Chinese securities are structured and traded; and The Strategies, which provides advice as to how investors might go about investing in China's economic success. The final chapter, The Optimal Investment Strategy, presents the authors advice as to how an individual investor might pursue an investment plan and at the same time minimize risk. The authors throughout the book emphasis risk and in the final chapter clearly state, "We warn you in advance that it is not an exciting strategy that will make you a millionaire shortly after reading it - but it is a strategy that sharply curtails your risk." Another reviewer of this book has made comparisons of this book with Jim Rogers' A Bull In China. In my opinion, From Wall Street to the Great Wall is a far superior read. Burton Malkiel has the academic credentials and decades of experience in teaching investing to students. He has also been on the board of directors for many years at the Vanguard Group, a company dedicated to the best interests of individual investors. The average investor would be foolish to invest directly in Chinese companies as Mr. Rogers suggests. That would be like walking through a mine field. I suggest sticking with the advice of the professor.

In a very systematic and detailed manner (though sometimes with very 'old news'), the authors provide a thorough historical, macro-economical and political context for China's amazing growth. Considering that the book was released around the same time as Roger's book (A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World's Greatest Market, comparisons are inevitable and worthwhile. So, first the comparison - Rogers' book takes a more conversational travelogue-like approach to providing a detailed analysis of key players in different sectors (each sector typically gets its own chapter). This book takes a more traditional descriptive mode of providing a wider context (historical and political) and discusses specific investing strategies for different risk profiles. While some concepts and themes are apparently common, luckily, the authors in these two books manage to provide information on different facets of the same theme....so, in a way, commonality of themes notwithstanding, the books are fairly complementary to each other. So, is it worth buying both? The answer is a tentative YES. If you are more interested in developing an excellent watch list of companies for each sector and understanding their landscape, you will find Roger's book more useful. If you want to understand different trading/investing strategies and asset allocation strategies for China component of your portfolio, based on stocks and ETFs, you will find book more useful and relevant. So, read both, but certainly prioritize according to the above comment. Now, for the detailed review of this book. The authors present their ideas in three sections. The first one discusses the historical context, accomplishments, and an assessment of the inherent real and "perceived" risks of Chinese investments. It is not often that an investment themed-book talks in detail about the history of an country/economy/polity. The authors provide an excellent snapshot of the Chinese history through four periods - Confucianism, Colonialism, Communism, and Capitalism. As cute as the classifications sound, the discussion is worthwhile and informative (relevance to the modern day investor is not apparent, but then, no harm in knowing some history of one of the oldest civilizations from an economic perspective, right?). The authors then provide a catalog of old and recent achievements of the Chinese polity/economy using a wide assortment of well-cited statistics and interesting examples (of all things, mannequins for bra fitting is cited in a section highlighting adaptability). (For a more detailed and interesting discussion on different growth strategies of Chinese companies, the reader may benefit from Dragons at Your Door: How Chinese Cost Innovation Is Disrupting Global Competition). The third chapter in the section provides an excellent discussion on the risks of investing in China. In the second section (4 chapters) focusing on 'investments', the authors discuss the stock market characteristi