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The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (Little Book Big Profits)

Average customer rating:

Redundant
Quick and simple introduction to index investing
Good stuff
Excellent
Should be standard text book for High Schools seniors!

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (Little Book Big Profits)
John C. Bogle
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Edition
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The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing
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Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor

ASIN: 0470102101

Book Description

Investing is all about common sense. Owning a diversified portfolio of stocks and holding it for the long term is a winner’s game. Trying to beat the stock market is theoretically a zero-sum game (for every winner, there must be a loser), but after the substantial costs of investing are deducted, it becomes a loser’s game. Common sense tells us—and history confirms—that the simplest and most efficient investment strategy is to buy and hold all of the nation’s publicly held businesses at very low cost. The classic index fund that owns this market portfolio is the only investment that guarantees you with your fair share of stock market returns.

To learn how to make index investing work for you, there’s no better mentor than legendary mutual fund industry veteran John C. Bogle. Over the course of his long career, Bogle—founder of the Vanguard Group and creator of the world’s first index mutual fund—has relied primarily on index investing to help Vanguard’s clients build substantial wealth. Now, with The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, he wants to help you do the same.

Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, The Little Book of Common Sense Investing will show you how to incorporate this proven investment strategy into your portfolio. It will also change the very way you think about investing. Successful investing is not easy. (It requires discipline and patience.) But it is simple. For it’s all about common sense.

With The Little Book of Common Sense Investing as your guide, you’ll discover how to make investing a winner’s game:

Why business reality—dividend yields and earnings growth—is more important than market expectations
How to overcome the powerful impact of investment costs, taxes, and inflation
How the magic of compounding returns is overwhelmed by the tyranny of compounding costs
What expert investors and brilliant academics—from Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham to Paul Samuelson and Burton Malkiel—have to say about index investing
And much more

You’ll also find warnings about investment fads and fashions, including the recent stampede into exchange traded funds and the rise of indexing gimmickry. The real formula for investment success is to own the entire market, while significantly minimizing the costs of financial intermediation. That’s what index investing is all about. And that’s what this book is all about.

JOHN C. BOGLE is founder of the Vanguard Group, Inc., and President of its Bogle Financial Markets Research Center. He created Vanguard in 1974 and served as chairman and chief executive officer until 1996 and senior chairman until 2000. In 1999, Fortune magazine named Mr. Bogle as one of the four "Investment Giants" of the twentieth century; in 2004, Time named him one of the world’s 100 most powerful and influential people, and Institutional Investor presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Customer Reviews:

Redundant.......2007-06-28

To summarize: Don't waste your money w/active mutual funds, simply purchase the entire stock market via an index fund.

By all means save your $$$ and do not buy this book. The information is simply repeated in each and every chapter.

Quick and simple introduction to index investing.......2007-06-27

John Bogle created the world's first index fund in 1975. In this book, he describes why you should make index funds the core of your investment portfolio.

Bogle starts off with introducing index funds through a parable that describes how middle-man costs in finance eat away at investors' profits. He discusses why speculation doesn't work and why business reality (in his definition, divident yields plus earnings growth) is more important that market expectation (changes in P/E based on what investors are willing to pay for various equities).

Bogle spends a few chapters discussing various problems with regular actively managed mutual funds, covering issues with performance (he asserts that less than 1% of all mutual funds were able to beat the market consistently over the past half century), various costs (expense ratios, sales charges, advertising fees, turnover costs, tax implications), poor market timing, and finally the difficulty of choosing a mutual fund (he states that there's no good way to pick a fund, since we can't foretell the future, and past performance is not an indicator of what's to come). He brings the reader to the "common sense" conclusion that index funds, in their pure simplicity, are the logical choice for any investor, as they provide the diversified return of the entire market with miniscule fees and minimal effort.

The last few chapters cover bond funds, ETFs, and a few pages of investment advice - which boils down to keeping at least 50% (if not all) of your money in broad-market index funds. Interestingly, Bogle spends a chapter discussing what Benjamin Graham would have thought about index funds, citing various quotes from Graham's "The Intelligent Investor" and certain blurbs from Warren Buffet. He, of course, concludes that Graham would have praised index funds.

So, did I like the book? Yep.. it was pretty good. Bogle writes very clearly and visibly tries to keep his discussions simple and to the point, so as to appeal to the widest possible audience. And with good reason! Bogle's advice is very applicable to the many individual investors today - index funds are a great low-cost and low-maintenance way to get your share (or all, as Bogle suggests) of the market's return.

To convince the reader, Bogle uses many diagrams to illustrate returns of various mutual funds vs. index funds, and to compare what your original investment would look like after a certain time - based on how it was invested. I found an error in one of the diagrams - exhibit 10.1 (and the text around it) on page 108 lists the average fund advisor return as $188,500 instead of $88,500. Not a big deal, but it slightly undermines the point he's trying to make on that page. Overall, I feel that Bogle's diagrams illustrate some good harsh realities - he clearly illustrates how a few percentage points (i.e. the costs associated with actively managed mutual funds) can eat away enormous chunks of your money over time.

To bring more authority into his argument, Bogle provides a "Don't Take My Word for It" section at the end of each chapter, where he quotes various respected investors and professors to support the points he made in the chapter. I enjoyed this, but it's important to be aware that some quotes can often be interpreted very differently outside a certain context.

One very obvious issue with this book is that Bogle is selling his own product - Vanguard's funds. He doesn't try to hide this in any way. He uses Vanguard's funds in nearly all examples, and he often hints how his "world's first index fund" is the greatest thing since sliced bread. You can't really blame the man - his contribution to the world of finance and investing is enormous, and he damn well should be proud of his accomplishments. So I think it's okay to cut Bogle some slack in this area.

The book is short - about 215 small-size pages. You can probably sit down and read it in a few solid hours. It also goes pretty quickly, as the material is not dense and easy to follow. However, some may argue that the book is too long for what it is trying to demonstrate. True, Bogle's advice really can be summed in just a few pages - index funds are a great choice for the average investor. But I have to say that I enjoyed reading the examples and history that he provides.

In conclusion, I recommend this book to any individual investor. While Bogle's advice is in no way eye-opening or revolutionary (chances are, you already know that index funds are a very low-cost and low-maintenance way to diversify), it is good to remind yourself the reasons why you should stay away from most actively managed mutual funds. As Bogle describes, this is all common sense - but we're often blinded by flashy advertisements, hot market sectors, and seemingly-reachable dollar signs. This book is a good reality check for the average individual investors.

I wish I could give this book 4.5 stars - but since I can't due to Amazon's rating system, I feel that it is more of a 4-star book rather than a 5-star one. It has solid advice, but it should not be considered the end-all of investing, and some of the advice and quotations should be taken with a grain of salt. Overall, however, it's a great and insightful read. I plan to buy a couple extra copies to give to my family.

Pros:
+ quick and easy read
+ lots of examples and diagrams to demonstrate how high expense ratios and other hidden costs can devastate a portfolio's return
+ some good basic investment advice: buy and hold, avoid emotional decisions, don't be enticed by "new hot trends" (as by the time you find out about them, prices are already inflated), diversify into the whole market, look into costs before buying, etc.
+ great format - short chapters, useful data, neat quotation sections at the end of each chapter

Cons:
- some may be turned off by Bogle's plugs for Vanguard funds (this didn't really bother me)
- may seem lengthy to drive one main point home (but keep in mind that there are quite a few good tid-bits scattered throughout the book)
- take some citations with a grain of salt

Good stuff.......2007-06-15

Easy to read and common sense. Of course the author is plugging his own product (Vanguard index funds) but you can ignore that bit.

M

Excellent.......2007-06-13

Convincing arguments as to why index fund investing is superior to managed mutual fund investing.

Should be standard text book for High Schools seniors!.......2007-06-02

It is grim fact that pentions are going the way of dinosours and every individual must be their own money manager. Most people listening to the noise of Wall Street which is designed to make long boring process of investing look overly exciting for ratings, is making many mistakes which could be costly on the long term. Many do not have the proper financial education and when they do turn to others for help they are often taken advantage of by the brokers (which go by many fancy titles) with expensive and sometimes even inappropriate products which often benefit the seller more than the investor.

John C. Bogle gives a clear direction for investing and makes a very strong case for use of diversified index funds. He also quotes Nobel Laureates, famous investors such as Warren Buffet etc. at the end of each chapter in "Don't Take My Word for It" frames.

It is a great book for someone just learning about investing as well as for those who are recovering from their mistakes and failures.

Other books I would recommend to follow up are:

A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Edition (Hardcover)
The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio (Hardcover)
Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street (Paperback)

Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment

Average customer rating:

Among the rare few Investing Classics...
A Standout Book!
Interesting book, but not quite what I expected/wanted
A cautionary tale
Totally changed my investment stategy

Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment
David F. Swensen
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Introduction | Investing | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0743228383

Book Description

The bestselling author of Pioneering Portfolio Management, the definitive template for institutional fund management, returns with a book that shows individual investors how to manage their financial assets.

In Unconventional Success, investment legend David F. Swensen offers incontrovertible evidence that the for-profit mutual-fund industry consistently fails the average investor. From excessive management fees to the frequent "churning" of portfolios, the relentless pursuit of profits by mutual-fund management companies harms individual clients. Perhaps most destructive of all are the hidden schemes that limit investor choice and reduce returns, including "pay-to-play" product-placement fees, stale-price trading scams, soft-dollar kickbacks, and 12b-1 distribution charges.

Even if investors manage to emerge unscathed from an encounter with the profit-seeking mutual-fund industry, individuals face the likelihood of self-inflicted pain. The common practice of selling losers and buying winners (and doing both too often) damages portfolio returns and increases tax liabilities, delivering a one-two punch to investor aspirations.

In short: Nearly insurmountable hurdles confront ordinary investors.

Swensen's solution? A contrarian investment alternative that promotes well-diversified, equity-oriented, "market-mimicking" portfolios that reward investors who exhibit the courage to stay the course. Swensen suggests implementing his nonconformist proposal with investor-friendly, not-for-profit investment companies such as Vanguard and TIAA-CREF. By avoiding actively managed funds and employing client-oriented mutual-fund managers, investors create the preconditions for investment success.

Bottom line? Unconventional Success provides the guidance and financial know-how for improving the personal investor's financial future.

Customer Reviews:

Among the rare few Investing Classics..........2007-04-26

This is a remarkably good book. Almost any investor will benefit from reading this book. Swensen distills a lot of wisdom into this volume touching on all aspects of Portfolio Policy. It would be rare for even very advanced investors to not gain a new insight or two from reading this book.

Having said that, I have a couple of issues with this book.

- Swensen's writing style is very labored. It was hard to read more than a few pages at a time. Not because the material was difficult, but because of his writing style.
- I am frankly puzzled by Swensen's glowing recommendation of Southeastern Asset Management (a Mutual Fund company that owns Longleaf Partners Funds). While Longleaf is a good fund outfit, I don't see how Longleaf is that much different from other, better Value style Mutual Fund companies out there. I don't see how Longleaf is any different from Dodge and Cox or Oakmark. I just don't see Longleaf being that special, so I am puzzled at Swensen's singling them out as exemplary. As I write this, Longleaf has one of the most expensive International Equity funds out there - with an Expense Ratio of 1.61%, compare that with an International Index Fund that you can buy at Vanguard for 25 basis points ! Charging almost 1.5%/year more in expenses will require some exceptional Active Management from Longleaf to generate returns, the odds are against investors in the active fund there.

A Standout Book!.......2007-03-29

This is an indispensable investment book in my opinion. Swensen clearly has an original and unique perspective on investing. There are plenty of books out there in favor of passive management, low costs, and asset-class investing. Here are some of the ideas and concepts he presents in this book that make him stand out from the crowd:

1. He believes treasuries are practically the only bonds worth considering for the individual investor. The chapter in which he discusses it is very interesting, and his arguments are compelling.
2. He is not a devout believer of efficient markets, and acknowledges that superior active performance can be attributed to skill. He explains that there are two games being played: short-term and long-term active management. Unfortunately, since most managers are pressured to have good annual, quarterly, or even monthly returns, they must think short-term, and are unable to invest for the longterm. The longterm game, consisting of far fewer players, is a completely different playing field.
3. He focuses an extraordinary amount of time on the profit-seeking behavior of mutual fund companies, and why they are detrimental to investors. Alignment of interests between shareholders and managers is a major theme in his book.

He suggests investors to construct a portfolio of passive, capitalization-weighted index funds (or ETF's), combined with treasuries and TIPS. Unlike Bogle and other pro-indexing gurus, Swensen seems to focus more on avoiding shareholder-unfriendliness than he is on the other benefits of index funds (style-purity, low costs, etc.). He also ignores Fama-French size and value factor loading, which is fine. There are other great books on portfolio design (William Bernstein is pretty much all you need to read on that subject).

My only complaint about the book is that he seems to enjoy reemphasizing points. Swensen will summarize his thoughts throughout the chapter, and one more time at the end of each chapter, and then a whole final chapter devoted to more summarizing. I think this book could have been 2/3rds the length with essentially the same content. However, that is a minor complaint, compared to the vast amount of knowledge I gained from reading the book. Highly recommended!

Interesting book, but not quite what I expected/wanted.......2007-03-15

Based on the title, the author's background, and the little I'd read about the book, I expected this to be mainly a 'how to' manual - how to best manage one's funds for maximum returns.

While there was some of that in the book, in fact the focus seemed more on castigating much of the financial industry for their misdeeds and greed. If you've read John Bogle's writings, you've seen some of this before, but Unconventional Success is perhaps even a bit more detailed and clear on the misalignment of interests between investors and financial products providers, and how that leads to the investors being taken for a ride in various ways.

So, there's a lot of "don't do this, don't buy that product"-type information in the book. As far as what he DOES recommend, he's relatively brief, and, IMO, doesn't go into enough detail. He advocates splitting your money among 6 major asset classes, and staying with low cost funds, mainly those offered by non-profit companies (Vanguard and TIAA-CREF). But there's not enough support for his statements that asset class X should be 15% of your portfolio and asset class Y should be some other percentage. He briefly discusses historical returns for asset classes and touches on some reasons why returns may differ going forward, but again, there's not much detail there.

Yale's endowment (which Swensen manages, very well) is known for unconventional investments (thus, perhaps, the book's title). But if you want to read about timber or other natural resources, or see much detail on why Yale's endowment is so successful, you won't find it here. Admittedly, many of the options available to Yale are not available to the common investor, or if they are, are so watered down with extra fees as to be unsuitable. Still, I was little disappointed about the lack of reference to his own investment strategies at Yale, which are the reason most of us have heard of him and the reason I bought the book.

One thing that was interesting to me was his analysis of why some indexes aren't well suited for use as a mutual fund benchmark. I have a significant slice of my portfolio in a fund that uses the Russell 2000 value index as a benchmark, and the Russell indexes are called out for criticism in the book. I will keep the criticisms in mind in planning future allocations/re-allocations.

Overall, it was an interesting read - I blew through it in one night. But it was not quite what I expected...

A cautionary tale.......2007-02-23

Swensen is an authoritative voice in a market full of sharks and charlatans. He provides a sensible path to effective investment through the very disfunctional financial markets.
He helps thoughtful folks save thousands of dollars by showing how to manage one's own portfolio. And it is all in accord with the best of modern portfolio theory.
Run, don't walk.

Totally changed my investment stategy.......2007-02-10

This book is excellent advice. I read it twice. I adapted Swenson's indexing approach with a few "tweaks" to enable me to rebalance and fine tune asset classes. Very pleased with results so far for my portfolio. Highly reccommend this book for anyone who is willing to stick with its approach which is "lazy" (and boring) way to superior returns.

Inside the House of Money: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Profiting in the Global Markets

Average customer rating:

Mediocre survey of investors and hedge fund managers
I am still waiting for my book
Amazing book, very interesting
Outstanding! Real world stuff from the mouths that count.
Meet the Greatest Minds from the Hedge Fund World ...

Inside the House of Money: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Profiting in the Global Markets
Steven Drobny
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0471794473

Book Description

Inside the House of Money lifts the veil on the typically opaque world of hedge funds, offering a rare glimpse at how today's highest paid money managers approach their craft. Author Steven Drobny demystifies how these star traders make billions for well-heeled investors, revealing their theories, strategies and approaches to markets. Drobny, cofounder of Drobny Global Advisors, an international macroeconomic research and advisory firm, has tapped into his network and beyond in order assemble this collection of thirteen interviews with the industry's best minds. Along the way, you'll get an inside look at firsthand trading experiences through some of the major world financial crises of the last few decades. Whether Russian bonds, Pakistani stocks, Southeast Asian currencies or stakes in African brewing companies, no market or instrument is out of bounds for these elite global macro hedge fund managers. Highly accessible and filled with in-depth expert opinion, Inside the House of Money is a must-read for financial professionals and anyone else interested in understanding the complexities at stake in world financial markets.

"The ruminations of supposedly hush-hush hedge fund operators are richly illuminating." --New York Times

Customer Reviews:

Mediocre survey of investors and hedge fund managers.......2007-05-31

The preponderance of enthusiastic reviews for this book is very surprising to me. Frankly, I thought there were two chapters in the entire book that provided any type of meaningful insight - the pieces on Jim Leitner and Scott Bessent are really quite excellent - the jim rogers piece is also entertaining as always. The piece on Leitner may make the entire book worth buying. Otherwise, I think Drobny has assembled a collection of pretty dull and not particularly inspired commentary on the markets and trading from a group of investors of inconsistent quality.

Frankly, the number of positive reviews on the book and the fairly cookie cutter nature of many of them makes me awfully suspicious - I'm giving it 1 star to try to even this out a little (probably deserves a 3). This book isn't bad, but it's far from excellent, and clearly inferior to other books in the genre.

If you've read any of the Market Wizards or Money Masters books and have thought about investing in any level of depth, I think you will find this book pretty dissapointing. Mkt Wizards and Money Masters are drastically superior to this collection both in terms of the quality of the insight and commentary and the quality of investors surveyed.

I am still waiting for my book.......2007-05-23

The book should have come between May 8th and May 17th but I am still waiting for it.

Amazing book, very interesting.......2007-04-23

If you are into markets, you are going to love this book. It provides great insight in great macro traders passion for the markets. I would say the book is much more interesting if you are into fixed income, currency and commidities trading rather than global equities.

Steven asks the same kind of questions I would have liked to ask if I were to meet these people.

I've probably re-read a couple of the interviews 4-5 times.

Outstanding! Real world stuff from the mouths that count........2007-04-09

This book was categorically outstanding. In the course of reading I had occasion to e-mail the author and found him to be exceedingly helpful and courteous as well.

I noticed that the only negative reviews were cases where the reader apparently didn't understand (or desire) the book's format, which is a compendium of interviews with global macro hedge fund managers. Another caveat is that this book is NOT about how to get rich if you have little or no investable assets. Rather, the book offers great insights on investment opportunities and risks for those who do have funds to invest or who are just curious about the marketplace. For people like me whose full-time job is to manage their own financial assets, this book is simply invaluable.

If you ever wondered what the smart money is really thinking, or what drives their investment decisions, here's your chance to find out in the form of candid, frank interviews with the field's most reputatble players.

Meet the Greatest Minds from the Hedge Fund World ..........2007-04-07

One of the things money can't always buy is access to the great minds. Lets say you want have an 1 on 1 with Jim Rogers(the co-pioneer of the Hedge Funds concept). Will you be able to do it? Maybe ... maybe not. And if we expand the problem to 10+ top Hedge Fund minds ... the problem becomes even more challenging. However, instead if we find someone who has access to all these folks and can proxy for you? Won't that be neat? That is exactly what Steven Drobny has done in this book. He has been able to rein in some of the greatest & successful minds in the Hedge Funds arena and ask them interesting & revealing questions relating to their trading strategy, best trades, worst trades and the other lessons they learnt from their failures/successes.

As expected, this book is written in Q&A format. The author has done an excellent job of organizing and laying out the book which moves in gradual progression. The responses from the folks are equally simple and straight forward without the use of complicated financial language(except the overuse of long/short gamma/alpha) or financial models. In my opinion, the most interesting and revealing question/responses were the one relating to the biggest mistakes and the lessons learned from them. I would highly recommend reading the responses from the various folks on this particular question. It will be worth a lot.

Some of the key insights/views I found interesting ...

* Just being right does not matter. Being right at the right time does.
* Be fluid in your decisions. As fact changes, change your views too.
* If you make agressive bets, then make sure that you defend your investment with good hedging strategy.
* Cut your losses. Ride your winners.

It definitely is a must read ...

-Sachin

Average customer rating:

A study in excellence
Entertaining and useful
The Lynch Classic--Unbeatable, except perhaps Warren Buffett's Annual Reports
if you want to know how to invest you don't need this book!
not as good as I expected

Beating the Street
Peter Lynch , and John Rothchild
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Develop a Winning Investment Strategy -- with Expert Advice from "The Nation's #1 Money Manager"

Peter Lynch's "invest in what you know" strategy has made him a household name with investors both big and small.

An important key to investing, Lynch says, is to remember that stocks are not lottery tickets. There's a company behind every stock and a reason companies -- and their stocks -- perform the way they do. In this book, newly revised and updated for the paperback edition, Peter Lynch shows you how you can become an expert in a company and how you can build a profitable investment portfolio, based on your own experience and insights and on straightforward do-it-yourself research. There's no reason the individual investor can't match wits with the experts, and this book will show you how.

In Beating the Street, Lynch for the first time:

* Explains how to devise a mutual fund strategy

* Shows how he goes about picking stocks, step-by-step

* Describes how the individual investor can improve his or her investment performance to rival that of the experts of the investment clubs.

Customer Reviews:

A study in excellence.......2007-02-15

What a great book of explanation. He gives many of his normal habits to us that are away from all the other advise of investors and financial advisors. His whys may sound old fashioned but look at his record and you will be old fashioned also if you could obtain what he did. I will read any and all of his other books now. I only see one listed at this point but will hope to find him writing more. I have been in the Magellian fund since 1986 and his success has proven itself to me personally.

Entertaining and useful.......2007-02-10

This book is a must-read for anyone interested investing. Peter Lynch ran one of the most successful mutual funds in history, the Fidelity Megellan Fund, which averaged an annual return of 29% during his 13 year tenure. He is also ranked by Wall Street as one of the most successful stock pickers on the planet. In Beating the Streets, Lynch outlines his common-sense approach to stock picking. The approach, labeled as "buy what you know" by Lynch, or investing in your "circle of competence" as referred to by Warren Buffet, is a simple strategy the yields results proven by many successful investors. In his book, Lynch goes through his entire process of stock picking from how he discovers a lead through what numbers he looks at to how he investigates the company behind the stock. I found the book to be an extremely accessible, comprehensive, and practical guide that is written in an entertaining and light-hearted manner. I highly recommend this book to anyone that wasn't born with a fortune in their bank account.

The Lynch Classic--Unbeatable, except perhaps Warren Buffett's Annual Reports.......2007-02-04

Lynch makes lots of good points. One of them is as a small investor you can buy into thinly traded stocks on the way up, such as APCC in the early days.

Big funds simply can't get enough stock to make it "worthwhile," an interesting point, usually overlooked by the pros in their writing.

if you want to know how to invest you don't need this book!.......2007-01-29

if you want to know how to invest you don't need this book!

90% of this book is Peter Lynch story

not as good as I expected.......2007-01-22

A lot of repeating in this book. Lack of good ideas.

Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money and Investing (Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money & Investing)

Average customer rating:

Great!
Investing for Dummies
Excellent basics
The Best
Good for beginner investors

Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money and Investing (Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money & Investing)
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Amazon.com

This handy fact-filled book initiates you into the mysteries of the financial pages -- buying stocks, bonds, mutual funds, futures and options, spotting trends and evaluating companies. For those who are curious but intimidated by everyday financial jargon, this guide offers a literate, forthright and lively alternative. Recommended.

Book Description

The Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money & Investing initiates you into the mysteries of the financial pages -- buying stocks, bonds, mutual funds, futures and options, spotting trends and evaluating companies. For those who are curious but intimidated by everyday financial jargon, this guide offers a literate, forthright and lively alternative.

Customer Reviews:

Great!.......2007-03-27

Just finished reading it. Wow, what a mind trip. Fast shipment too!

Investing for Dummies.......2005-05-03

I cant believe that I went through college without taking business or econ classes (except for political economy). This is a way for me to catch up.
I like this book because it is easy to read and understand. So easy even an elementary school kid could understand....ok maybe junior high.
Eventually I would hope to read the Intelligent Investor.

Excellent basics.......2004-12-08

This book is excellent for learning the basic concepts in investing and finance. If you would like to iniciate in this area, i recommend this book as an entry door with the basics.

The Best.......2004-05-25

As many have said in their reviews, this is a great starting point for those new to investing and financial markets. In fact, it's the best I've ever found and I've looked a lot. The simple, plain English explanations are what makes this book stand out. For the nuances and more detailed information regarding the topics in the book, look to a textbook from a college finance class. But for the person who knows very little, start with this.

Good for beginner investors.......2004-05-23

If you are new to investing and need a simple primer, read this book. It's well organized and written. Those that have invested for a while will find this book simplistic. Nevertheless, I think every beginning investor should get a copy and read it.

Average customer rating:

sleep at night strategy
Highly recommended
ETF Trading Strategies Revealed Quite Revealing
Shallow and oversimplified
Disappointing

ETF Trading Strategies Revealed
David Vomund , and Linda Bradford Raschke
Manufacturer: Marketplace Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Futures | Investing | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Investing with Exchange-Traded Funds Made Easy: Higher Returns with Lower Costs--Do It Yourself Strategies Without Paying Fund Managers
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Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders

ASIN: 1592802583
Release Date: 2006-10-18

Product Description

Want to know how to trade the hottest new investment vehicle? This book reveals the secrets of profiting from a new and growing investment vehicle the Exchange-Traded Fund. Pulling from experts in the field like Linda Bradford Raschke and Steve Palmquist, this book has all the information you need to begin trading ETFs for profit: Learn the basics of ETFs; how they work, why they re growing in popularity, and how you can get your share of the profits. Discover the way to apply classic techniques to leverage your ETF investments for both the short-term and long-term. Study simple but highly effective mechanical ETF rotation techniques (style, sector, and international) that are now available to the individual investor. ETF Trading Strategies Revealed doesn t end there. Learn from long-time trader and founder of AIQ Systems, Dr. J.D. Smith, what it takes to mentally be the best. When you have the emotional discipline to follow his techniques, you ll find increased profits aren t far behind.

Customer Reviews:

sleep at night strategy.......2007-05-11

I have followed these traders, espicially D Vomond! He offers very good investment advice, and you do not have to trade every day, hanging on the markets every little or big movement!
Just check things once every week or two and upgrade if needed! takes maybe 10- 15 minutes a week!
I also subscribe to his newsletter service! check my e-mail on the weekend, enter the trade on trade trggers, and off to my life for the rest of the week!
you allways know what ETF's have the most momentum international, sector, or index small, mid, or large cap, groth or value!

Highly recommended.......2007-05-08

Like many books that purport to help investors make money in the financial markets, these Amazon reader reviews of Vomund's book run the gamut from fives to ones. That kind of opinion extreme can easily leave a potential reader without persuasive guidance in determining the suitability of the book for his particular needs. Yet, it is that very divergence of opinion which should tell you why the book is especially worth reading. I would argue that those, including myself, who praise the book, may very well have tried and failed to implement one or more of the many complex investment techniques which periodically rise and fall in popularity, and through personal experience they have learned to respect the simple elegance implicit in Vomund's readily implementable technique involving holding the winning securities and purging the losers. Due to the very newness of ETFs as investment vehicles, there has been less understanding of just where ETFs - until recently, used primarily by institutions -- might serve the individual investor. His research merging the new ETFs with the "hold the best, purge the worst" trading method is a unique, interesting effort backed-up with both back testing and actual trading.

The negative reviews appear to miss the thrust of the book entirely, arguing that the book fails to include content that is actually not relevant to the thesis that Vomund is presenting, while they offer no refutation, or apparent understanding, of the ideas that Vomund does indeed describe. It behooves us first to understand Vomund's technique for trading the new ETF vehicles, if only to gain the standing required even to think about negative criticism.

Vomund writes simply, and well. Although he is both intellectually and experientially capable of perking-up the interest of those who might prefer accompanying treatises on esoteric Fibonacci series trading methodologies, he writes primarily for those of us who have become wearier and poorer trying to invest without a cohesive system of our own. Or worse, we have watched helplessly as commissions we pay our brokers consistently exceed the returns that our brokers produce for us.

I plan to employ his methods, confident, based on my own experience and analysis, that I will receive consistently decent returns. Returns definitely equal to, and probably better than, any of the other investment modes available to someone like me with scant time available for investment following.

A final philosophic observation:

The greatest problem with simplicity is that it is simple. A simple explanation of complex phenomena is incredibly difficult to achieve. When we come on something of admirable simplicity, we sometimes remark: "...That's so simple that even I could have thought that up!" ...........The problem is .... We didn't.

ETF Trading Strategies Revealed Quite Revealing.......2007-05-06

The author is not afraid to reveal his secrets and provides plenty of backtesting to explain his strategies, so the reader gains confidence. This book is excellent for sophisticated investors as well as novices.
Sometimes a book is worth buying if it only has one gem in it, but this book has many.

Shallow and oversimplified.......2007-04-30

Why three authors to discuss in a book of only 88 pages some fairly straightforward material? The chapter on chart analysis is so shallow as not only to be useless, it is downright dangerous in the hands of an inexperienced investor. The portions of the book written by Vomund contain such profundities as: "Investors who want to reduce drawdowns may choose to use this variation [adding bonds]. During extended bear markets, having half of your portfolio rotate to bonds can be beneficial." Right. For this we need Vomund? A book that was thrown together, and one that in effect touts the online program apparently run by the author among others. Recommended for no one!

Disappointing.......2007-04-12

A disjointed collection of interviews and off-the-shelf material I could have easily assembled from any finance web site.

The Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money and Investing, Third Edition

Average customer rating:

Handy Little Book
A little bit tough to read, but worth it.
Not impressed
To get the whole picture
82%

The Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money and Investing, Third Edition
Kenneth M. Morris , and Virginia B. Morris
Manufacturer: Fireside
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Creating Wealth: Retire in Ten Years Using Allen's Seven Principles of Wealth, Revised and Updated

ASIN: 0743266331

Customer Reviews:

Handy Little Book.......2007-05-03

Although this isn't the largest book in the world, I really enjoyed reading it. I thought that I was pretty savvy as far as the way things worked, but this book definitely enlightened me. I also appreciated the pictures that made things clearer.

A little bit tough to read, but worth it........2007-04-28

If you're a beginner, interested in investing, this is a very decent primer to start with. Buy it with Eric Tyson's Investing for Dummies, and you'll be fully set!

Not impressed.......2007-02-12

A nice introduction to wall street if you were raised on Mars. For people who want to do investing for a living this is a waste of time

To get the whole picture.......2006-12-22

I think this book did a great job in helping me understand the universe of money and investing beyong the scope of stock. I have been trading for 1 year and wanted to buy a small book that gave me a general education on the subject. Although much more can be written on each topic covered it is good for beginning to understand the whole picture.

82%.......2006-09-05

Most of the book is a great intro to money, stocks, bonds and mutual funds. But the last section, on Futures & Options, seems really rushed and lacks the clarity of the earlier sections (especially the material on options). For example, the authors do not define "calling" or "putting" options; and there is a blatant error on page 150 wherein a description of an option table is laughably out of sync with the table it is trying to describe.

Overall, the book is very good -- just beware of the shortcomings of its last section.

The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You'll Ever Need: The Way Smart Money Invests Today

Average customer rating:

Great Investment Book!
A tool box that does the job.......
Excellent book
Winning strategy? Yes!
A Must Read

The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You'll Ever Need: The Way Smart Money Invests Today
Larry E. Swedroe
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio
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The Intelligent Asset Allocator: How to Build Your Portfolio to Maximize Returns and Minimize Risk
The Retirement Savings Time Bomb...and How to Defuse It

ASIN: 0312339879
Release Date: 2004-12-23

Book Description

Investment professional Larry E. Swedroe describes the crucial difference between "active" and "passive" mutual funds, and tells you how you can win the investment game through long-term investments in such indexes as the Samp;P 500 instead of through the active buying and selling of stocks. A revised and updated edition of an investment classic, The Only Guide to a Winning Investment Strategy You'll Ever Need remains clear, understandable, and effective. This edition contains a new chapter comparing index funds, ETFs, and passive asset class funds, an expanded section on portfolio care and maintenance, the addition of Swedroe's 15 Rules of Prudent Investing, and much more.In clear language, Swedroe shows how the newer index mutual funds out-earn, out-perform, and out-compound the older funds, and how to select a balance "passive" portfolio for the long hail that will repay you many times over. This indispensable book also provides you with valuable information about: The efficiency of markets today The five factors that determine expected returns of a balanced equity and fixed income portfolio Important facts about volatility, return, and risk Six steps to building a diversified portfolio using Modern Portfolio Theory Implementing the winning strategy and more.

Customer Reviews:

Great Investment Book!.......2007-05-22

I've just finished reading your book and wanted to thank you so much for sharing this straight forward method of investing with all of us!! I've been investing for many years. I've tried timing the market, newsletter services, timing services; just about ever known method to not make money. After reading your book, it really seemed to 'click' for me.

I've been suggesting this book to many of my friends. They seem to want exactly what your strategy provides, reasonable returns with reduced risk. I wish I had found this book many years ago.

A tool box that does the job..............2007-05-09

This was an excellent book that covered all the necessary fundamentals without going into the excessive esoterica of the field that I, as a simple investor, did not need.

It also provided useful formulas and guidance for fixed security investments based on the different scenarios that different investors might have.

The book has definite views on total bond market funds as well as mortgage backed securities that you are not likely to find elsewhere and that every investor must necessarily know before investing.

The title really says it all.

Excellent book.......2007-05-09

One of 4 o5 of the best investment books I've read. Every investor should read this book.

Winning strategy? Yes!.......2007-05-08

Late summer of 2005 I decided to turn our investments over to a financial advisor. My wife questioned whether it made sense to give such a huge cut (2% of market value each year) to a brokerage firm. That weekend we went to Barnes and Noble and I bought this book. The rest is history. I am in index funds and short term bonds. I am 60/40 domestic/foreign. My return has been great but the most important thing is that I sleep well at night. I rebalance when the numbers get out of whack not because of some hunch or fear. I sold everything that I owned to get into this strategy and paid a large amount of tax but it has all been worthwhile. This strategy forces you to take profits when stocks rise and buy stocks when prices go down. It makes sense and it works.

A Must Read.......2007-04-18

The general consensus of most reviewers is that this book is GREAT, and i agree. there are so many reasons to actively manage (we like to gamble, the WSJ says so, our buddy never stops telling the tale of his 300% gain in a year on xyz company (he doesnt say his overall portfolio is negative), etc.) i like that it lays out all the reasons (seeming to drag on for some people maybe) why not do to it in the first 1/3 of the book.

the rest of the book gets even better...

I havent but plan to read the other books numerously mentioned in these reviews but have read a few others, but this is the best book i've ever read on investing.

stop gambling and start playing the winners game, couldnt put this book down. (also, if you haven't heard of Dave Ramsey, you should check him out)

24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success: Learn the Most Important Investment Techniques from the Founder of Investor's Business Daily

Average customer rating:

Excellent Lessons
Easy Money in 2000
Great Advertisement - poor book
Great Book For Beginners - In Simple Terms
Good advice, stop trying to sell stuff!

24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success: Learn the Most Important Investment Techniques from the Founder of Investor's Business Daily
William J. O'Neil
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0071357548

Amazon.com

In 24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success, the founder of Investor's Business Daily and author of How to Make Money in Stocks, William O'Neil, distills his 40 years of experience, study, and analysis of the market into a series of lessons about how to buy and sell stocks. O'Neil is neither a pure fundamentalist nor a technician--instead, he advocates blending both approaches, applying fundamental analysis to identifying the best companies and technical analysis to understanding the price actions of those stocks. The lessons cover everything from protecting your investment account (always cut your losses at 8 percent of the purchase price) and basic chart reading (identifying market tops and bottoms) to understanding relative price strength and tips on building a concentrated portfolio. While not absolutely necessary, it helps to have a copy of Investor's Business Daily handy: these lessons were drawn from a series that O'Neil wrote, which frequently mention features unique to that newspaper. 24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success is a easy-to-read, commonsense guide to stock picking that both novices and seasoned investors should find extremely useful. --Harry C. Edwards

Book Description

The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, BusinessWeek, and USA Today Business Bestseller!

From the publisher of Investor's Business Daily and best-selling author of How to Make Money in Stocks, comes the National Bestseller, 24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success, two dozen of the most important lessons for investors. In this one accessible guide, William J. O'Neil puts his popular and easy-to-follow techniques for building a profitable portfolio firmaly in the hands of investorsand the goal of long-term financial security easily within their reach.

24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success is based upon the closely followed "26 Weeks to Investment Success" editorials that appear in Investor's Business Daily. Edited and updated, O'Neil's timeless advice encapsulates such investing nuggets as buy high and sell higher to making a million in mutual funds. Concentrate your investments in a few areas, know them well, and watch them carefully.

Don't just rely upon PE ratios and other common technical tools. Learn to use Relative Price Strength to help you choose stocks. O'Neil's cautionary yet pro-active advice has helped to make Investor's Business Daily one of America's fastest growing and most respected newspapers. Now investor's can benefit from his timeless words of wisdom, collected in one easy-to-use resource.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Lessons.......2007-05-14

The author of this book increased his account 20 fold in 26 months and then bought a seat on the New York stock exchange. He studied the top performing stocks from 1953 to present to create his CAN-SLIM method, which has been proven in many independant studies to be one of the best. After his individual success as an investor he founded O' Neal & Co. and uses his companies stock data base to advise top investing firms. This is a credible author who all traders should listen to.

Here are some of the top lessons in this book:
#3 Follow a system rather than emotions.(This takes experience and time)
#6 Relative price strength: A key technical tool (Buy stocks in up-trends close to 52 week highs, these are the stocks with buyers)
#18 Don't try to be a Jack of all trades (Focus on one investment vehicle, be an expert)
#20 Sell Rules (Reset stops on stocks showing a profit so you do not give back all of your profit on a down trend)

Buy this book for 20 more essential lessons. This book will help beginners tremendously and also can be very beneficial for experienced traders and investors to revisit to keep on the right track.

This is a great little book that belongs in every investors/traders library.

Easy Money in 2000.......2007-03-26

Anyone who had read Investors Business Daily will not gain too much from this book since it's mainly a novice walkthru of the daily publication. O'Neil's major concepts are higher highs in enormous volume, double bottom, flat base, and cup with a handle. Even looking at some charts he has in the book in hindsight appear misleading. I think IBD is an excellent resource, but here are my criticisms of this book. It was written during the tech boom. Anyone could have plopped money down and doubled it in a month. Too many times O'Neil brags about making 200% on a stock. He tells how one should never be afraid to jump into a stock with a PE over 100. In 2000 they were prominent, today, extreme rarity. Gee I wonder why. A cup and handle to you may be different to me and besides, by time you really realize it's a cup and handle or double bottom, you're already late to the party. Though I'm not too crazy about his steps for buying a stock, he does a thorough job explaining how he goes about establishing a position. Take this book for what its worth, there's plenty to learn but most of it was only applicable in the late 90's.

Great Advertisement - poor book.......2007-03-22

This book covers a lot of the fundamental basics that other books contain, but the recurring theme throughout is, "If you really want to learn how the market works you should subscribe to my newsletter".

I don't know if the Investor's Business Daily is any good, but certainly the credibility of the author is damaged in my eyes... IBD should have paid me to read this extended advertisement, rather than the other way around.

Great Book For Beginners - In Simple Terms.......2007-02-16

This book is good for beginners that don't know how to invest. They put things in simple terms vs the How To Make Money In Stocks book (although they both have the same information pretty much). I seem to be getting more from this + their website (www.investors.com) than any other resources. William J O'Neil is a GREAT writer and I hope that he keeps updating his books, because I would sure buy them. His books and his website are my BIBLE to invest, although I haven't invested yet as I am still studying charts for further evaluation to make sure that I buy the right stock or stocks that I want to buy.

Good advice, stop trying to sell stuff!.......2006-08-12

The book wasn't the easiest to read, but it gave good ideas for investors to keep in mind when selecting stocks and great tips for when to buy and sell. However the book was overwhelmed with constant advertising for Investors Business Daily. A good third of the book talked about the features of Investors Business Daily and how they could be used with the book. There was a some great info in this book, but the constant references to the magazine were annoying.

Average customer rating:

Meaningful and illuminating View of mutual funds
Great book does just what it says on the cover.
A Primer On Mutual Funds
Not for dummies--for everybody
It's a good book if you know nothing

Mutual Funds for Dummies
Eric Tyson
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need

ASIN: 0764571915

Book Description

Sooner or later, we all need to plan for our financial futures. The rich can afford personal financial advisors to help them out — but what about the rest of us? Offering you instant diversification and low-cost access to some of the best money managers in the business, mutual funds are the great equalizers. The problem is, with 10,000 mutual funds to choose from, even experienced investors can suffer from information overload. To make them work for you, you need expert advice from someone who knows mutual funds inside and out and who understands how they can help you realize your unique financial goals.

Mutual Funds For Dummies, 4^th Edition is just the ticket. Written by leading financial journalist and author Eric Tyson, it cuts through mutual fund confusion and shows you how to make your money work harder for you. It quickly gets you up to speed on how to:

Pick the best funds and avoid the losers
Avoid common pitfalls
Assemble and maintain a portfolio
Select the best stock funds for growth
Choose bond and money funds for long-term security
Access mutual fund information online

Mutual Funds For Dummies, 4^th Edition offers you a unique opportunity to cash in on the investment savvy of a personal financial expert. Chock-full of useful examples and insider tips of the trade, it helps you navigate the mutual funds landscape and tells you what you need to know about:

Making sure a fund you like is managed properly
New tax law changes and new theories on socially responsible investing
Finding great funds and where to buy them
Establishing a solid fund portfolio
Knowing when to sell, buy, or hold
Understanding tax forms for mutual funds
Fixing common fund problems
Making sense of fund ratings
Investment gurus and financial newsletters
Money management software, investment research software, and retirement planning software
Getting information on the Web

Whether you’re growing a retirement nest egg or saving for your kids’ education, you can’t go wrong when you invest in Mutual Funds For Dummies, 4^th Edition.

Customer Reviews:

Meaningful and illuminating View of mutual funds.......2007-02-25

Eric Tyson has written (well-written) a book that manages to blend just the right amount of detail with general material. As a novice in the arena of mutual funds, I can't imagine a better book to help you learn about mutual funds and how/what to invest.

There are many good things to say about this informative book, but I want to emphasize just 3: 1) Tyson has the uncanny and rare gift of presenting material that never condescends to the reader, but recognizes exactly how much knowledge a reader new to mutual funds can assimilate;
2) I appreciate his directness and honesty about specific mutual funds--he praises Vanguard throughout the book, while listing some other funds apposite for certain investing situations. 3)He genuinely cares about ordinary people gaining knowledge about how to invest and make wise decisions about money and investment (I highly recommend another of his Dummies books on investing.).

Highly recommended--even experienced mutual fund investors will learn a lot from this book.

Great book does just what it says on the cover........2007-02-21

I orderd the book knowing nothing about investing except that I need to start.Once I started the book I could not stop till it was finished.Its a great learning tool!!

A Primer On Mutual Funds.......2006-08-17

Lucid witing, good organization of material and entertaining to boot. For those of us who are intimidated by the jargon and have no idea what they are talking about on such TV programs such as "The Nightly Business News" this is a very good place to start.

Not for dummies--for everybody.......2006-08-14

As beginners' books go, this is about as good as it gets. Most books assume you know stuff. This one starts from zero and takes you as far as you care to go.

I gave a copy to each of my daughters so they could learn about investing earlier and better than I did. It's very readable, very thorough.

Had I started with this book instead of randomly taking whatever my library had I believe my learning curve would have not stayed level near 0 for as long as it did. The title--for Dummies--put me off, and that was a mistake in judgement.

I think there's room for improvement, so only 4 stars, but you won't find much better.

It's a good book if you know nothing.......2006-08-06

I read previous edition of this book when I did not know anything about mutual funds. I feel that my level of knowledge about different funds has increased substantially compared to before reading this book. Therefore, if you know nothing about funds, I recommend reading this book.

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