Douglas A. Kass and James J. Cramer (Foreword) - Doug Kass on the Market: A Life on TheStreet

Doug Kass was my favorite bear, long before Warren Buffett discovered him. He is a reality check on the mindless cheerleading that takes place on Wall Street.

Barry L. Ritholtz,
Chief Investment Officer, Ritholtz Wealth Management
Columnist, Washington Post and Bloomberg View
Host, Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio

Kass on the Market: A Life on the Street is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand and contextualize the investment landscape during these last turbulent years. Doug's writings are often quite prescient and always interesting.

Dan Greenhaus
Chief Global Strategist, BTIG

Everyone is a genius in a bull market but it's the ability to successfully maneuver thru all types of markets that separate the men from the boys. Doug Kass has done that in his long career and this book provides amazing insight and invaluable stories that reflect his great ability to think outside the box in a business where many feel comfortable just following the herd. As Dougie would say, run, don't walk to read this book.

Peter Boockvar
Chief Market Analyst with The Lindsey Group

Cover Design: C. Wallace

Cover Photograph: Jeffery Salter/Jeffery Salter Photography

Copyright 2014 by Douglas A. Kass. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Kass, Douglas A.

Doug Kass on the market: a life on TheStreet/Douglas A. Kass.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-118-89298-5 (cloth); ISBN 9781-118-89299-2 (ebk);

ISBN 978-1-118-89301-2 (ebk)

1. Investments. 2. Finance. I. Title.

HG4521.K278 2015

332.6dc23

2014027687

This book is dedicated
to Chuck Brown Bear Ziona wise, kind,
and cherished friend who died in the
World Trade Center tragedy in 2001.

Sit down and strap yourself in. You are about to embark on a journey back in time that will teach you more about making money in the future than just about any source anywhere in the firmament. You are about to see what the market really looks like through the eyes of one of the greatest financial whizzes and wits of our generation, the one and only Doug Kass.

I have had the privilege of working side by cyber-side with Doug in our writing cave, TheStreet.com, for almost 20 years. In that time, I have come to respect and covet his views and his insights as I know you will as you read his real-time journal detailing the ecstasy, agony, and just plain madness of the world we call Wall Street. That's why I feel so honored to pen this foreword for a book that will stand the test of time for all sorts of marketsbull, bear, sideways, upside down, and the one we are in at the moment you read this, whatever it may be.

Doug's fond of lists, and you'll read many prescient ones in the pages ahead. They are filled with observations that only someone with as keen an eye toward making money as Doug could ever give you. Therefore, I think it is only fitting that I offer my top 10 reasons why you will love, laugh, and, of course, profit from my colleague's unique and remarkable insights.

Reason number one: Essentiality. If someone asks me what's the most essential voice I need to hear on Wall Street, I'd say one name without hesitation: Doug Kass. You need to know where he stands because so often he represents the view opposite you, the variant view, the one you most need to worry about before you place your bets on these pieces of paper we call stocks. How can you not want to know why you may be wrong? That's the essentiality of this man's unique commentary.

Reason number two: Fearlessness. So many people are cowed on Wall Street. They fear the powerful, they fear the retribution, they worry about what happens if they tell the truth. Doug Kass is the antidote to that fear. Whether it be a gentle yet still withering riposte against Warren Buffettface to face, mind you, all detailed hereor the outright castigation of the rapacious bankers and pseudo regulators who are supposed to protect us from their machinations, Kass goes where pretty much everyone else fears to tread.

Reason number three: Self-effacement. Sure, Doug's gathered many of the best of his more than 50,000 entries since he started writing for TheStreet back in 1997, but some of my favorites here are the ones filled with humility, as the market, bull or bear, is a most humbling of animals. Doug doesn't have to be always right to learn from; sometimes it's the dissection of his own mistakes that makes for the most profitable of insights.

Reason number four: Insider's insider. If you are reading this book, chances are you have heard of a lot of big-name investors and always wanted to know what they are really like. By virtue of his successes and his knowledge, Doug knows the best and brightest personally and extols them in ways that give you the context that's invariably absent when we hear their utterances. Doug, as they say, is in the rooma room that you may never get to be in but will certainly come to feel comfortable with because of his candid observations about those with whom he surrounds himself.

Reason number five: He's not afraid to stick his neck out. At the beginning of each year, Doug lays out some predictions that may seem outlandishthat is, until they come true. It's uncanny that so many pan out, and the pan can be filled with gold. Oh, and no one is more brutal about the prognostications that didn't work out than Doug himself. No free passes for anyone, including himself.