Product Description
The essential stock market guide updated with timely strategies for investing after the crash

Now in its fourth edition, Jason Kelly's The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing has established itself as a clear, concise, and highly effective guide for investing in stocks. This comprehensively updated edition contains tried-and-true investment principles to teach investors how to create and refine a profitable investment program. New strategies and content include:

•Basic tips on when to invest and how to reduce the amount of risk in this turbulent market
•A new core portfolio technique that shows readers a way to achieve 3 percent quarterly performance with the IJR exchange-traded fund
•An exclusive interview with legendary Legg Mason investment counselor, Bill Miller, including his thoughts on the financial crash of 2008

Accessible and intelligent, The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing is what every investor needs to keep pace in the current market.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (38)

zero knowledge with investing, after reading this book, i feel like a pro!
I have absolutely zero knowledge with investing, but even after the first chapter of the book, i feel like a pro with all the things i learned about investing at such a short time. I always wanted to learn how to invest in stocks but I never really know how to begin... i didnt know what book to read to give me the basics of stock investings. This year, i bumped into this book and decided to buy it, and im so happy I did. Its so easy to understand and guide you through the history, terminologies, and techniques of stock investing and the author makes you feel comfortable and make you feel that everyone can do it considering how complex and complicated stock investing cab be. The book not only spoon feed you the right informations you need to know, it also teaches you in a way that you can use the spoon to feed yourself. This book is a FUN read for such a complicated topic, this book is very well-written, doesnt bore me at all considering how complex stock investing can be with all those mathematics and calculations. I highly recommend this book to all those who are new/novice/beginners to stock investing, everything you need to know to start are all covered in this book and more!

A fantastic start
Let me start by saying I read this book as an introduction to the stock market, without knowing anything at all on the subject.
Jason Kelly is, in my opinion, one of life's rare treasures. In this book, he accomplishes several things sorely lacking in other texts I've subsequently read.
For starters, he succeeds in explaining the fundamentals of stock market theory every investor must know and understand to succeed in this game. The best of it however, is that he accomplishes this in a friendly and relaxed style, like conversing with a friend, so that at no point, does moving through the 320 pages seem arduous or heavy going. This is an important point because many of the books you will subsequently read on this subject will not prove so enjoyable in this regard.
Secondly, the book is very nicely balanced, providing a sufficiently thorough background on the men whom Mr. Kelly regards as the figure heads of the stock market game. This too is important in being able to appreciate the difference between value and growth investing, and in doing so gleaning an inside look into the theories and principles of the main players in both arenas.
To follow are Mr Kelly's personal investment strategies (2010 Edition has been updated with additional downside risk controls to cope with the current market), which are excellent to say the least. Plenty is written and discussed regarding where to obtain charts, information etc. in which to support you in your new endeavour.
There are also charts available to use as the basis of your stock watching activities.
To summarise, a most excellent and well rounded approach to the markets. I would whole-heartedly recommend this as the number one starting point for beginners and would encourage those of any experience level to take a peek and learn from a brilliant contemporary investor.

Great book for beginners
I'm still reading this book, but I find it a great starting point for beginning investors.

Useful introduction, lots of practical tips
Very broad coverage of sensible investing strategies and concepts, intended for the novice but mostly pretty useful even to intermediates like myself.Useful summaries of the main books of the "Master Investors" (if you're like me it will prompt you to research and buy at least some of them!-), lots of bits of practical information and philosophical advice, and a ton of pointers to information sources (out of which I particularly love "Value Line" and dislike "Investors' Business Daily", but, hey, matter of taster, I guess;-).Highly recommended to anybody who's not already a past master of investing, especially if taken, as it should be, as a foundation and springboard for further study and research.

Great Book, You Won't put down!
This book is amazing for someone who is trying to get into the stock market business.
It covers a range of topics such as:

-How the stock market was formed.
-How to buy/sell stocks (different options you got, such as Market Order/Limit Order..Etc)
-This book explain terminology extremely well with great example. Such as Ratio, what they mean and what ratio's good companies should
have.
-Fundamental and Technical analysis.
-It gives you many sources of where to conduct your research and details what information each source will provide, where to find the
source.
-It tells you about a few strategies you can use to invest in the stock market.

There is a lot more to the book then what I mentioned but the MOST important thing about this book is this:
IT IS NOT BORING. I have tried reading many books about the stock market but most could not get past the second chapter Why
cause it was not written as well as this book is.

The writer writes in such a way that is easy to understand and easy to follow. He makes you excited about investing and potential return. If you interested in a good book to start your education about the stock market and trading in the stock market this book is
for you! ... Read more

Product Description
Stock Investing For Dummies, 3rd Edition includes information on stock investing in both bear and bull markets; unique investment segments; stock investing for different types of situations; and examples straight from the real world of stock investing as they have occurred in the past three years. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (44)

Good
Good for beginners and beyond.Some say the book refers back and forth too much but I like that because I'm a "Dummy".I've been investing on-line for a couple years and there is some good stuff in here to keep in mind.I'd recommend this for anyone getting into investing.When you know more you will need to focus on a particular area of investing.

Great book, covers many basics.
Keeps things fresh and avoids being dry. The author was great at making you feel like your reading something with personality rather than a stocks rule book. 5 stars.

It's ok - but only if you're solid on macroeconomics
The book is decent as a 30,000 foot overview of the mechanics of buying stocks.

That said, I would not touch it with a 30 foot pole if you do not have a good basis in macroeconomics. Its important to have an idea of how the economy as a whole will do, because you'll pick different investments if the economy is expanding than if it is failing or going into deflation. Instead of educating you about the major macroeconomic theories and then telling you why his is best, he treats the majority theories unfairly to try to convert you to his (very minority) view by default.

Of the two best-supported theories of macroeconomics, he doesn't mention one (the Chicago school) and spends his time distorting and engaging in fifth-grade name-calling about the other one (Keynesianism). For instance, he takes Keynes quotes out of context and attributes to Keynesians actions taken by Chicago economists. The author does not, however, critique his own theory, Austrian economics, at all - which is a problem since one thing the vast majority of the economics profession will agree on is that Austrianism is inconsistent with itself and makes empirically incorrect predictions.

Excellent beginner book
I knew very little about the stock market before I read this book (only what I learned in High School). I read it from cover to cover and it is very informative covering what I believe is all the bases. Some topics were covered more in depth than others. An example is discussing what options are, but not going into incredible detail about them. However, the author cites several web sites and other books that one could read to understand more about any subject that he covered. The focus of the author's strategy is more fundamental analysis than technical analysis. Both are discussed, but fundamentals are stressed. After having read it, I would describe it as a reference. Each section is self explanatory and when needing answers, one could skip to that page/section and understand it without having to read previous chapters (although that does help). I am still not an expert, but I feel I know enough to begin a small portfolio and start my retirement now.

Good but basic
If you have no clue at all about stocks/investing, this might well be a good starting place. It is a very easy to read book, well written and informative, but it does start right at the basics and only takes you a little way up the ladder of knowledge. ... Read more

Product Description
The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing

"By resisting both the popular tendency to use gimmicks that oversimplify securities analysis and the academic tendency to use jargon that obfuscates common sense, Pat Dorsey has written a substantial and useful book. His methodology is sound, his examples clear, and his approach timeless."
--Christopher C. Davis Portfolio Manager and Chairman, Davis Advisors

Over the years, people from around the world have turned to Morningstar for strong, independent, and reliable advice. The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing provides the kind of savvy financial guidance only a company like Morningstar could offer. Based on the philosophy that "investing should be fun, but not a game," this comprehensive guide will put even the most cautious investors back on the right track by helping them pick the right stocks, find great companies, and understand the driving forces behind different industries--without paying too much for their investments.

Written by Morningstar's Director of Stock Analysis, Pat Dorsey, The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing includes unparalleled stock research and investment strategies covering a wide range of stock-related topics. Investors will profit from such tips as:
* How to dig into a financial statement and find hidden gold . . . and deception
* How to find great companies that will create shareholder wealth
* How to analyze every corner of the market, from banks to health care


Informative and highly accessible, The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing should be required reading for anyone looking for the right investment opportunities in today's ever-changing market. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (47)

One Great Book on Investing
The book is very well written and researched - great for the someone just starting to learn about investing: Dorsey begins with a Hotdog Stand business. You will learn everything you need to understand each financial statement. As an example, plant & equipment would be your Cart, and the $100.00 borrowed to start the business is your long term debt. Too basic? Well, then turn to chapter 6. If you think ROE is net income/shareholders equity, then you will learn it actually has three components. Same with ROA. Wide Moats, it's all here. And the Author has the credentials to boot!

Put me on the right path
Before reading this book, I had spent most of my time reading about day trading, swing trading, technical analysis, etc. I dreaded having to do actual research on a company. Why spend hours poring over financial statements and researching management when you can look at a chart and get all the information you need? Who cares how the company makes its money? It just got out of a triple bottom formation! Alas, the continuous chart monitoring finally got the best of me, not to mention I lost most of the money I started with. During this dark time, I found Pat Dorsey's book and everything magically fell into place. I discovered that it wasn't such a chore to learn about the company you were investing in. It was actually quite practical.

"The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing" provides a great foundation of knowledge for analyzing companies.It's also perfect for beginners as each topic is broken down and easy to understand.Pat Dorsey does an especially great job of explaining financial statements. This gem of a book not only turned me on to fundamental analysis, but it put me on the path to value investing. And now I am actually making money!

Great for serious beginner to intermediate investors
Pat Dorsey brings you up to speed with sensible, concrete guidance to picking stocks. The investment style he presents is, of course, the sensible and research-driven version of value investing that Morningstar uses.While the book is easy to read, it is also packed with information.Even after the first read, you will find yourself going back to it as a handy reference.Strongly recommended for all but the most experienced investors.

The Five Rules For Successful Stock Investing
Well written in clear layman's terms. For a more complete help in putting together a strategy for investing would recommend a book on value investing and techinical analysis.

can not lurk anymore
i am a passive reader of other people's comments. After reading tens of books on investing and hundreds of comments on those books, i can't lurk anymore and say some good things about this book. Overall, i am a believer of fundamental analysis (FA) and the author should be in the same camp too. There are quite a few books on value investing. yet, this book offers the most transparent explanation on value investing, especially the chapter on valuation of stocks. In my belief, the DCF, though quite old-fashioned, is still the starting point for any valuation analysis. the author was able to demonstrate the concept in a concise and convincing way. He offered not only the rationale, methodology but also two examples to demonstrate how to calculate the intrinsic value. In my opinion, his method is superior to other perhaps handy or quick methods promoted by other value investing books. After all, cash is the king! ... Read more

Product Description
For the millions of individual stock investors who want to improve their results-and for beginners who want to get started on the right foot-Sensible Stock Investing: How to Pick, Value, and Manage Stocks is a comprehensive yet easy-to-follow guide.Written for the busy individual, Sensible Stock Investing presents the investment process in three phases: rating companies for their intrinsic soundness; valuing stocks to find advantageous purchase prices; and managing a portfolio once it is established. Author David Van Knapp breaks these stages into discrete steps and shows how the individual investor-in just a few hours per month-can outperform most mutual funds by investing intelligently and minimizing risk at every stage. As you will see from the two actual, proven portfolios described in Sensible Stock Investing, you don't have to be a mathematical genius or investment professional to succeed in the stock market!Whether you are an experienced investor or just getting started, Sensible Stock Investing describes straightforward methods, provides the forms and tools you need, and shows you what to do every step of the way to successfully navigate the stock market with intelligent investment practices.For more information, visit www.SensibleStocks.com. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

Believe all those 5-star ratings
I am about to retire (one month from writing this review) and have looked at several books on investment advice. Two books I found are especially useful and this is one of them. (See my review of the other: The Business of Value Investing: Six Essential Elements to Buying Companies Like Warren Buffett).

Sensible Stock Investing's subtitle tells you the three main topics of the book: "How to Pick, Value, and Manage Stocks". The first two topics, picking and valuing stocks, fit neatly into the concepts usually ascribed to "Value Investing". You first want to find (pick) a good, solid, company and then you want to compare its stock price to some measure of its true value. Just because a company is great doesn't mean it is priced right -- after all, if it is so great maybe everyone else has bid up its stock price to where it is "priced for perfection" and likely to drop on any bad news, or at best to grow more slowly than you would like.

In that second step, the author differs from other valuation techniques in that he has no formula to come up with a precise value but instead uses system that looks at valuation from several perspectives (carefully chosen to give a broad view). The author points out the difference between precision and accuracy. (You can look that up!) The precise values produced by various valuation formulas presented elsewhere can lead you into a false sense of security that the answer you get is accurate when in fact it is only precise. Van Knapp's broad view may be less precise but more accurate -- since it considers many factors. You may or may not agree with all these factors nor the weighting factors given to them but the author does invite you to adjust as you see fit.

The third topic, managing a portfolio, is something not as often addressed and is a welcome advance over some other presentations.

All of the above is summarized with check-lists and with pointers to sources of the information needed. I recommend you go to the author's web site to find updates to his work. For example it seems that one of the information sources he mentions in the book is no longer viable. His web site has slightly modified his system to take that into account.

I found his discussion of how and why he determines his various points to be flexible, easy to follow, and convincing. All this results in a less dogmatic approach than is sometimes seen.

I got a fast, polite and helpful response from the author when I contacted him from his web site to ask a question.

The author is also working on an e-book (if that's the right term) covering dividend paying stocks.

Just excellent, well written
This book provides excellent coverage of everything you need to get started investing. I particularly appreciate how the author takes the time to explain opposing view points and then why the middle road seems to make the most sense.

Gave me the tools I needed to start investing in the stock market
I have never traded any stocks before and this book gave me the confidence I needed to make good investment decisions. It is easy to understand, yet very rational. The strategy in this book is to make semi-long term investments: you don't have to trade everyday but you don't invest in a company for a lifetime either. It explains how to chose companies wisely, when to buy stock and how to use the stop-trade option to limit losses. If you want to invest this way, it recommends that you dedicate about 9 hours per month to do the research and to make your decisions. If you are not willing to spend that much time, you probably don't want to invest this way. I definitely recommend it.

nice book but be careful
I found this to be a nice book with some technical theory trading tips.You can pick up some useful information in here but one important caution:dont let it give you a false sense of security or optimism because the really cleaver approaches have already been played out and can actually have a negative effrect on your results because the market and the big traders are already anticipating popular 'tricks' so they can play you like a fool if you are not careful.

Great book for newbies or moderate investors
I graduated from college with a finance degree, I wanted to get more than theory and mathematics from an investment book so I gave this a try. It is a great book so I rated it with 5 stars, but I knew most of what was covered. This book has sound principles of investments and I liked the fact that he believes you can beat the market and gives fairly good tips, some books like this one are passive strategy and I don't agree with that. Great book for people this limited understanding. ... Read more

Product Description
Many say few know more about stock trading than Michael Swanson, who ran a top ranked hedge fund for four years and has built up a huge audience of readers on his website WallStreetWindow.com thanks to the accuracy of his market calls and investment acumen, including making over 50% in 2008 in one of the worst years for the stock market ever. His book Strategic Stock Trading demystifies the stock market by explaining what truly makes the stock market and individual stocks move the way they do and shows you how you can take advantage of it. The book explains the principles required for you to become an elite trader in the stock market, including what and when to buy and sell using the Two Fold Formula, how to manage risk, and how to be able to foresee real changes in the overall trend of the market before the crowd does. There are many investment books that describe aspects of technical and fundamental analysis. This one puts them together and shows you have to really use them in a strategic way backed by real life experiences and examples. It also discusses the psychology of investors in the market and how hedge funds and institutional investors now influence the stock market more than ever before and what the individual investor must do in this type of market to succeed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (82)

great advice
Mike Swanson speaks from experience, and when I read about mistakes traders make, I could sure see myself. I've been managing my accounts for ten years, and wish I had read this sooner.
The author sets out his favorite stock pattern for investing for the long term, and I plan to use it from now on.Concise, to the point, and informative.He talks quite a bit about the psychology of investing, and how to control your emotions and avoid mistakes.Highly recommended.

MIKE SWANSON IS TOPS.
MIKE SWANSON is fantastic. I highly respect his observations and strategies above all the talking head "experts". He is non emotional, calm, and collected.

Don't Buy This Book
Because it is so spot on, readable, and its information as reliable as info can be when trying to grab the ball of mercury called the "stock market".If everyone bought and used this book it would surely change the fundamentals of the market, and the author would have to write yet another book. So be kind to Mr. Swanson as honest men are few and far between.(It is truly a "must-read").

Includes every facet necessary
There are many things that you have to know and do to win in the markets. Most books and courses go into some of them in great detail and completely ignore others. They give you the equivalent of a jigsaw puzzle with a lot of the pieces missing and no overall picture to help you put the pieces together, or instructions on how to use the rook in the middle game in chess without an indication of how to get to the middle game. Michael covers every item. If you do not pay attention to each item you should save your temper and time by avoiding the stock market altogether.

A Must Read
Excellent, this book is money well spent. If you are having trouble making money investing read this book. As you read, keep asking yourself "Am I doing this?" If you do exactly what Mike is saying you will make money! If this is all you ever do, you will make money! If you read this book and are still not making money then you are not doing exactly what Mike said and you need to read it again. If you do what he says, you will be at least in the top 5% of investors. Mike did a good job putting it in a nut shell. This is a quick and easy to read book. Everything he says is important. ... Read more

Product Description
A comprehensively updated edition of an essential guide to stock market investing

For over a decade, Jason Kelly has provided investors with the insider knowledge and time-tested strategies they need to maximize their investment programs. This thoroughly updated edition of The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing includes:
• Kelly’s Maximum Midcap Strategy, an innovative investment program that consistently outperforms the market
• Real-life examples of investment strategies that paid big dividends
• Tips from master investors like Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, and Bill Miller

An accessible, intelligent, and highly effective approach to investing, The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing is an invaluable resource for investors everywhere. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (82)

A great start for a new investor
This is a book well worth reading for newish investors.I particularly enjoyed the author's overview of the strategies taken by several guru investors (Buffet, O'Neil, etc).This alone will save you from reading half a dozen books (if you're willing to trust the author's summaries).

The author's investing strategies have received some criticism in Amazon reviews.In one sense I can see why.I found that the core mutual funds he suggests have one star ratings from Morningstar.They are highly leveraged so when times are good, you're going to do great.When times are bad, you're going to take a bath.However, my opinion is that readers should really consider what he has to say and then take what they're comfortable with and modify the strategies they don't like.For instance, I've used his suggestions to pick some value stocks (one of which increased 20% in a month), but I've picked more highly rated funds for my core.Another way of saying this is if you read critically rather than adopt everything here wholesale, this book will be very useful.

My one gripe here is that there is a lot of talk about researching using newspapers and ordering paper prospectuses, etc.Only a token effort was made to discuss how this information can be obtained electronically.For instance, I use a stock market plug in in Excel that allows me to automatically pull in data from Yahoo, Google, MSN, etc.This saves a HUGE amount of time.The next edition of this book should really focus on helping readers be more efficient in their research.Right now the research approach advocated here is mega old school.

Great introduction to stock market investing
This is a perfect starter guide for those who know nothing about the stock market, but are eager to get their feet wet. I think that many would agree if I said the the definitive guide to investing is Benjamin Graham's Intelligent Investor The, Revised Edition, but it's not the easiest text to start with. Jason Kelly has done a very good job of taking many of the most important ideas from that book and condensing them into something that almost anyone can pick up and understand the first time through. The most important thing to remember is that this book won't make you instantly rich...but neither will any other book. This is a text for the patient, pragmatic, and yes, intelligent investor who wants to take an active role in managing his/her money.

Best starter book for Value Investors
I have the 2008 edition.I recently saw a 2010 version.I have not compared the two to see what the differences are.

Anyhow, this book is an excellent starting point for stock investors.I'm not sure the best thing to do is read this from the start all the way through.It would probably be better if you picked up a Barrons or Kiplingers or Wall Street Journal etc. and started reading it.Than when you find something you don't understand pick up Kelly's book and read the section on the unknown subject.

This is not for the mutual fund investor or bond investors.I wish he would include a mutual fund section.I think many people start out with mutual funds and move into stocks, bonds, options, etc.

This is a Value investors starter kit.

Great for Beginners and Veterans Alike
Great book if you are first starting out in investing or if you have done it for years.

Buy this book now!
Best book about the stock market for newbs and the common trader. Buy this book!! ... Read more

Product Description
Become a savvy investor with this updated Wall Street Journal bestseller

Want to take charge of your financial future? This national bestselling guide has been thoroughly updated to provide you with the latest insights into smart investing, from weighing your investment options (such as stocks, real estate, and small business) to understanding risks and returns, managing your portfolio, and much more.

• Get time-tested investment advice -- expert author Eric Tyson shares his extensive knowledge and reveals how to invest in challenging markets
• Discover all the fundamentals of investing -- explore your investment choices, weigh risks and returns, choose the right investment mix, and protect your assets
• Navigate Wall Street -- understand the financial markets and the Federal Reserve, avoid problematic buying practices, and evaluate investment research
• Build wealth with stocks, bonds, and mutual funds -- use indexes, understand prices, minimize costs, and diversify your investments
• Get rich with real estate -- find the right property, evaluate the market, finance your investments, work with agents, and close the deal
• Start, buy, or invest in a business -- write a business plan, finance your business, and improve profitability
• Manage college and retirement savings accounts -- establish your goals, evaluate your investment options, and tame your taxes

Open the book and find:

• Recommendations on the best stock, bond, and money market funds
• The best times to buy and sell stocks and bonds
• The scoop on exchange-traded and hedge funds
• Tips for reading and analyzing financial reports
• The best online brokers
• How to make safe and profitable real estate investments
• A wealth of information on the best investment tools and resources

Customer Reviews (92)

A little too basic , even for dummies
I guess I was expecting too much because I have several other books in the series that I really liked.I read about 1/2 of the book and just couldnt take it anymore.Maybe from reading newspapers and talking to people,I learned too much to benefit from this book.I bought it because I was afraid that maybe I was missing some important basices like diversifying, etc.but I guess I wasnt.

Not Happy
Do not buy this book and pls do not loose ur money. Invest on something good but not this one. :(

Simple, to the point
A very straight forward book. General summary not so many specifics but exactly what it is intended for. Gives a broad explanation of all aspects of investment and a very good start up guide for people who do not plan on what to do with money. Thumbs up!

A little toobasic
My title says it all!The book is a little too basic but then again, I should have realized that given the title!If you have ever had even some exposure to investing, find something at the next level.It would be a better investment!:)

From Dummy to Smarty
After reading this book, I finally have the knowledge and confidence to invest. I'm 32 years old and I'm so glad I've taken the time to educated myself, now having 27 years to consider in making the most of my money and investments. ... Read more

Product Description

Anyone Can Learn to Invest Wisely With This Bestselling Investment System!

Through every type of market, William J. O'Neil's national bestseller How to Make Money in Stocks has shown over 2 million investors the secrets to successful investing. O'Neil's powerful CAN SLIM Investing System--a proven seven-step process for minimizing risk and maximizing gains--has influenced generations of investors.

Based on a major study of all the greatest stock market winners from 1880 to 2009, this expanded edition gives you:

• Proven techniques for building stocks before they make big price gains
• Tips on picking the best stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs to maximize your gains
• 100 new charts to help you spot today's profitable trends
• Strategies to help you avoid the most common investor mistakes!

The CAN SLIM Investing System
The American Association of Individual Investors 12-year study of over 50 leading investment strategies found O'Neil's CAN SLIM System to be the top-performing strategy. CAN SLIM produced 2,763.3% over the 12 years vs. 14.9% for the S&P 500.

Complete Investing System-You Get Started in Three Easy Steps:

1. ACTIVATE YOUR eIBD SUBSCRIPTION
   You'll get one month of access to the tools and features in eIBD and investors.com to help you apply what you learn in How to Make Money in Stocks

   Get your first month of eIBD now at investors.com/system. Then, watch the enclosed Action Plan DVD that gives you a quick overview for using eIBD.

2. REGISTER FOR YOUR LIVE INVESTING WORKSHOP
   At this three-hour workshop, IBD experts will give you an overview of the CAN SLIM System and provide an action plan for using key features and investing tools.

   Call 1-800-831-2525 to register for the workshop nearest you.

3. READ HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN STOCKS
   This book gives you the foundation for your investing success, so be sure to read each chapter carefully. Follow these three steps and you'll be on the path to being a more successful investor.

You Can Do It, Too!
"I figured I made more money in stocks using IBD as my daily resource than I've made as a CPA over the last 10 years." -- Robert F., Illinois, CPA

"This system has helped me find the big winners in a market rally, and more importantly, it has helped me avoid the big losses in a market downturn." -- Michael A., Florida, retired ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

read it but dont expect too much
The problem I have with this book is the lack of HOW. While it talks about CANSLIM's principles and has great charts, it skimmed on the details of the definition of bases, and at times reading this book I felt it was trying to sell me more IBD products than give me the details.

Simply the BEST.
I have read over 150 books on stock trading and investing. I have reviewed them all here on Amazon. With this book I will now have read "How to make money in stocks" three times, reading the 2nd, 3rd, and now 4th edition. I have to say after reading this book at different stages in my trading journey, and having used its principles in real investing and trading I truly believe this is the #1 stock trading/investing book out there. I myself have used the principles of this book to average over a 20% return in my 401K from 2003 to 2007 and then like some of the smart readers of O'Neil's newspaper went to cash in January 2008 completely sidestepping the financial meltdown thanks to his principles. Author William O'Neil is the modern day predecessor of the greatest trading legends, Jesse Livermore, Nicolas Darvas, Gerald Loeb, and Bernard Baruch. From the investing results of his proteges Gil Morales and Chis Kacher with their accumulative 18,000% return during the boom years that they document in "Trade like an O'Neil Disciple" he is likely the greatest living pure stock trader in the world. William O'Neil also runs O'Neil and Company and advises some of the world's top money mangers. O'Neil is also publisher of the Investor's Business Daily newspaper which he subsidizes because it is not profitable. (I think he publishes it for himself, all of his other businesses are profitable.)
At the beginning of the book you will see the price charts of the greatest winning stocks of the past 100 years. They are marked with notes to show you what proper bases look like and what a stock looks like coming out of a cup with handle formation. You will see the difference between a strong chart and a weak chart. It is very interesting to see what a climax top looks like right when a stock runs out of buyers and then investors sell in a panic. How the 50 day moving average relates to a chart along with the general market is also very educational.
The book lays out both excellent fundamental reasons for buying growth stocks using the CAN-SLIM method along with the rules on when to buy them. It also advises to cut all losses to no more than a maximum of 7% to 8%, and to prepare to take profits when you are up 20% to 25% in a winner. The key is to cut the loser when it starts failing to make new highs out of a chart cup with handle formation, and also let a winner run and do not sell it unless it pulls back sharply or it runs to high to fast and fails to hold the new highs with a climax top formation.
The CAN SLIM method is based on a stock having these fundamental criteria:
C-Current quarterly earnings per share should be up a major percentage-25% to 50% minimum-over the same quarter the previous year.

A-Annual earnings growth rates of 25% to 50%.

N-New products,new services or new management along with new price highs.

S- Supply and demand:big volume demand for the stock at key points.

L- Buy only the leading stock in the top industry groups.

I-Only buy stocks with some institutional sponsorship.

M-Only buy into an up trending market.

The book covers each of these areas in great detail. This deluxe edition of the book also has a free month of eIBD, an action plan DVD, and admission to a three hour IBD investing workshop. You will understand the CAN SLIM system after reading this book. This system was built after studying the greatest winning stocks of the past 100 years both their fundamentals and technicals. This book is a wealth of information. It is not based on anyone's ego, beliefs, or predictions. William O'Neil has turned making money in stocks into a science. AAII's independent study showed the CAN SLIM method was #1 of many systems tested from 1998 to 2009 with an average 35.3% annual and cumulative 2,763% return.
The only thing I disagree with in this book is O'Neil suggesting buying and holding stock mutual funds for 15 or 20 year time horizons because unlike stocks they do come back and history has shown 10 year holding periods are almost always a win. Studies have shown you can double your returns in a stock index by simply selling when it crosses down through its 200 day moving average and only buying back when it crosses back above the 200 day moving average. I could not watch my mutual fund's value melt away and do nothing, they do track the market very closely. I do not understand why O'Neil would put that in his book after the carnage of 2000 and 2008. I mentally can not deal with such large losses I go to cash from mutual funds in recessions and down trends. The book could have also gone a little deeper into the psychology of investing/trading, most traders and investors have huge problems cutting their losses, letting their winners run, and sometimes even pulling the trigger to buy the stock. I would love to have had a chapter on O'Neil's thoughts on trading psychology.
Regardless, in my opinion the #1 book on investing/trading on the market today.

Money Maker...
The definitive guide in making money in the stock market.As a CPA and investor, this book points out the true things that matter in any company that is trying to grow.Those same attributes must also exist for a company to mount a sustainable increase in their stock price.If I had just one penny for every dollar made and lost netted that this specific book has made investors, I would have enough money to spend for two generations.Do yourself a favor and make this the first book you every read on stock investing.When you finish and feel like you are ready for your second book on the subject, reread this one again.

Just another system
The basic premise is we have a product to sell you.You must learn what is good and bad.We just give(sell) you tools.

A complete book
This is a great book. It will turn many of the conventional nuggets of wisdom about stock market on their head. It is a fairly complete book. For an individual trader it explains the investing process well. The 100 or so charts at the beginning of the book are very valuable and informative. CANSLIM is the right system to follow in my experience as well. Probably the most important piece of advice in the book is the advice to cut your losses short at 7-8% from your purchase price of a stock. Most recently 3 follow through days in the market have failed. This book however says that follow through days which mark the beginning of an uptrend in a stock market are reliable about 80% of the time. No book, no investing philosophy can be perfect, that's why one needs to cut the losses short so that one can live to fight another day.

This book with green cover is only slightly different from the one with orange cover. The differences are-
1) there is a quiz at the end to test your knowledge of CANSLIM
2) there are more recent charts of stocks which were hits and picked around March 2009 as part of William O'Neil's institutional service. These are stocks like Priceline, CERN, NFLX etc.
3) there is a CD attached to the back cover about a trial of one of their services.

All in all i don't think there is a need to get the latest book if you already have the book with orange cover.

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Product Description
Preferred Stock Investing shows you how to screen, buy and sell the highest quality preferred stocks to earn above average dividend income while creating multiple downstream capital gain opportunities. Fixed-income investors already know about Doug K. Le Du's preferred stock research newsletters. Doug writes in plain English for non-experts. And now his latest preferred stock research is available in Preferred Stock Investing. And this completely updated edition, with five new chapters, also explains how to invest in the highest quality preferred stocks during a Global Credit Crisis.

Preferred Stock Investing starts at the beginning, explaining what preferred stocks are, the three different types and the pros and cons of investing in them versus common stocks, bonds or bank Certificates of Deposits. From there, Preferred Stock Investing uses actual preferred stocks to show you how to screen, buy and sell the highest quality issues. And Preferred Stock Investing also includes an easy and fascinating analysis that allows you to quantify the risks and identify high quality preferred stocks that the market has either overpriced or underpriced.

Also, through the book's website readers of Preferred Stock Investing are supported by a wealth of continuously updated resources, including a free monthly newsletter that provides tips and answers to reader's questions. Chapter 15 of Preferred Stock Investing lists all qualifying preferred stocks that have been issued since January 2001 and shows you the actual investment results that you would have had following the preferred stock investment method described throughout the book. As a reader of Preferred Stock Investing, you are entitled to free periodic updates to the preferred stock lists in Chapter 15.

The information presented within Preferred Stock Investing makes it very clear that the highest quality preferred stocks represent one of the best investment opportunities for individual investors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (34)

i liked so well i bought for friends
i liked CDx3 preferred stock investing so much that i bought the book for my brother who day trades all day long, he thought maybe easy way to go and less tiring than on market all day, and way safer. for myself i find i now can spend less time watching market and feel i can get a life.

Very Educational and Practical
After reading this book I have invested in a couple of Mr. Le Du's recommendations which worked out very well, even in this terrible market environment.I would suggest that anyone who is serious about INVESTING in the stock market read his book.
Len

This book is just an ad for investment service.
It provides very little info and tries to get reader to subscribe to investment letter. Amazon description extremely deceptive.

Income for Moderate Work
He gives a reasonable explanation of preferred stocks as an investment class.Some comparison between common stocks and bonds is given.

He provides something like a trading plan with methods for stock selection, entry point and sell rules.He frequently mentions his web site and, of course, the possiblity of a web site promo looms.Actually he gives a method for doing the required research without using his web site. That is good busines in the long run.

Some information was provided on the motivation behind the companies who issue preferreds.This needs a little more substance.

I could use a little more statistical data on preferred stock failures.

Preferred Stock Investing Third Edition

To the best of my knowledge, this book is unique. If you wish to gain a theoretical knowledge of Preferred Stocks as well as practical aspects (foe example the mechanics of buying and selling them) it is a must.

I have been involved in the trading of preferreds since 2003 and wish I had found it years ago. It has changed my entire trading strategy. It's cost is recovered in short order if you wish to trade this type of stocks.

... Read more

Product Description
Highly practical, this book provides a strategic framework and corresponding tools for using price-implied expectations. Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (29)

Book Review from the Aleph Blog
Why don't average investors use discounted cash flow analyses?Typically, they don't use them for several reasons.

* Most people don't want to use an algebraic formula to estimate anything.As some legendary trader reputedly yelled at a quant, "No formulas!You can make me add, subtract, multiply, and divide!...And don't make me to divide too often!"
* It is not intuitive to most.It takes a bond-like or actuarial approach to analyzing stocks -- forecasting future free cash flows and discounting them at the firm's cost of capital.
* It is highly sensitive to assumptions one employs.Small changes in growth rates or discount rates can make a big difference in the estimate of value.It lends itself easily to garbage in, garbage out.(I remember a Dilbert cartoon where an analyst told Dogbert that scientific decision analysis required forecasting future free cash flows and discounting them.He added that the discount rate had to be right or the analysis would be garbage.Dogbert's comment was to the point: "Go away.")
* It takes a lot of work, and shortcuts are easier, providing most of the analysis with less effort.

Now, most professional investors don't use DCF either, for many of the above reasons.But there are a number that do, among them Buffett.Morningstar uses DCF for its stock recommendations.It's not a bad system after one makes the effort as an organization to standardize your free cash flow estimates and discount rates.Most professionals invert the process, and rather than trying estimate what a stock is worth, they estimate what they think the company will return at the current market price.

Expectations Investing is one way to formalize DCF, and a rather comprehensive one.It would be a good way for an investment organization to formalize its investment process, but is way too complex for one person implement, unless one is following some type of simplifying system like Morningstar, ValuEngine or any of the other purveyors of DCF analyses out there.

In the process of formalizing DCF, the book explains the problems with traditional P/E analysis, and how a focus on free cash flow can remedy the problems.A weak spot in the book is their discussion of cost of capital.Their cost of equity capital analysis relies on beta, which is not a stable parameter, nor does it really capture what risk is.That said, inverted DCF can work without discount rates.The book takes the approach that the discount rates are the less critical factor, because when they change for one firm, they typically change for all firms.The book's solution is to use current prices to drive DCF backwards and determine market free cash flow expectations for a stock.

The analyst can then look at those expectations, and try to determine whether they are too high or too low.The analyst can also look at whether there might be changes due to unit growth, product price changes, operating leverage, economies of scale, cost efficiencies, and changes in the marginal efficiency of capital.After the analysis, usually one or two factors will stand out capturing a large portion of the variability.The analyst then focuses on those, and what drives them.Unexpected changes lead to revisions to the analyst's model, and the game continues.

Beyond that, the analyst needs to understand how the company in question fits into its industry.The book discusses Michael Porter's five forces, the value chain, disruptive technologies, and the economics of information.Beyond that, the book touches on:

* Real Options -- the ability of a company to pursue value enhancing projects or not.
* Buybacks -- do them when the company has no better opportunity, and the shares are undervalued.
* Mergers and Acquisitions -- how to tell when are they good or bad ideas.
* Reflexivity -- Are there situations where a higher or lower stock price affects the business?High/low valuation makes financing easy/difficult.
* Understanding management incentives -- how will they affect financial results and management behavior over the short and long runs.

At 195 pages in the body of the book, Expectations Investing is not a long book for what it covers.The flip side of that is that is breezes over much of the complexity inherent in what they propose.One other shortcoming is that little time is spent on financials, which are a large part of the market, and for which it is intensely difficult to calculate free cash flow.After reading the book, I would have no idea on how to apply their DCF model to valuing a bank or an insurance company.

Aside from financials, if someone were to ask me, "Is this how valuation should be done?" I would say, yes, ideally so.But it brings up one more critique: though I hinted at it above, most of the shortcuts that investors use are special adaptations and first approximations of the DCF model.That is why shortcuts have validity -- if you know the critical factors that drive profitability for a given company or industry, why waste your time on a big model with many inputs?Cut to the chase, and use simpler models industry by industry.

Who would benefit from this book: someone who either wants a detailed means of calculating a DCF model, or a taste of the issues that an analyst/investor has to consider as he evaluates the worth of a company's stock.

This is a neutral review from me.I neither encourage or discourage the purchase of the book.It has its good and bad points.

I enjoyed reading this book
As a value investor, I found this book very interesting. The author says that stock prices provide a signal of the market's expectations about a company's future performance. The key to successful investing is to estimate what the market is expecting in terms of performance, which is shown in the stock price, and to assess the probability these expectations will happen. Value and growth investors are hoping that the market's current expectations are incorrect and that they will be adjusted upward resulting in higher stock prices.

Investors usually look at the company's earnings or cash flows, try to project them into the future, and then discount them to present to determine the value of the company. In expectations investing, the process is inverted. Instead of estimating the value, expectations investing is assessing what the market thinks of the future to justify the current price. In a way, this is still similar to value investing. The author says that investors do not earn above average returns on stocks that are priced in accordance with future performance even if the underlying companies create value. In other words, if investors do not buy at a discount, they won't get superior returns. Just because they invest in an excellent company does not guarantee favorable results.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

Must read for investors who invest in individual companies
I am an individual investor investing primarily in individual companies. "Expectation investing" provides me with an effective process that I can trust, believe and most importantly to follow in my decision makings.

Armed with this process, and the blackjack winning strategy (you bet big when you have favorable odds), it becomes evdient to me that in the long run, small ivestors can achieve excessive returns. "More than you know" is another book you MUST read.The favorable odds likely happen when investors' indenpendence break down as a result of some legitimate big events.

I have read all of the articles written by Michael Mauboussin that can be found on the internet.It is one of the best gifts I give to myself.

An interesting read
An interesting read for the serious investor.The central tenet of the book might be stated as "investors do not earn superior rates of return on stocks that are priced fully to reflect future performance - even for the best value-creating companies - which is why great companies are not great stocks."This book posits that investors can read market expectations contained in a stock's price and anticipate revisions in those expectations to achieve superior returns.It book provides a detailed, step-by-step way to accomplish this process.

"Expectations Investing" is divided into three parts.Part I details how to determine the expectations for a stock based upon its current market price.Interestingly, rather than determine a "fair price" based upon a company's free cash flow, the book turns this process upside down, using a company's stock price to determine the market's expectations for free cash flow going forward.Next, the book helps identify "expectations opportunities" - places where revisions in the stock market's expectations are likely to take place.By focusing on key areas where expectations opportunities may take place (so-called "turbo triggers"), the skilled investor can modify their discounted cash flow projections to determine the appropriate price.This section further provides a framework to determine when to apply buy, sell, and hold decisions.Lastly, Part III of the book explains how certain, specific corporate events (mergers, share buybacks, and incentive compensation) may signal that expectations revisions are in order.

Within the book itself, I found the chapter on "Analyzing Competitive Strategy" to be an outstanding, investor-focused distillation of many of the points contained in Porter's "Competitive Strategy."Moreover, the chapters on specific corporate events were interesting insofar as they explain, in greater detail than I had read before, the quantitative analysis that underlies decisions related to mergers, share buybacks, and incentive compensation.

Potential readers should be aware that the authors of this book, like many stock analysts, adhere to the so-called "Capital Asset Pricing Model" school of thought (that the value of a security equals the rate on a risk-free security plus a premium, beta, which is determined based upon the volatility of the security in question).This model is just one of many that investors may use.Moreover, although stock analysts may have access to customers, creditors, competitors, and company insiders, many individual investors will lack those contacts, and thus face some difficulty in determining possible expectations revisions.Even if an investor had access to such information, the developing field of behavioral finance (see Belsky and Gilovich, "Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes" as but one example) would caution that investors seeking to implement the methods set forth in this book need to be careful of confirmation bias (tending to view information in a way that supports their pre-determined preferences) and information cascade (too much information), among others.

Lastly, readers should be aware that modeling out the process described by this book requires some math, and the ability to create spreadsheets of middling-level complexity.This is not a "buy low P/E" book - readers will have to do their homework to use these methods.Anyone who isn't looking to put several hours into investigating each stock they are interested in should look elsewhere.

In all, this is a well-written book that makes a very complicated process relatively simple.It is not designed for the casual reader, and implementing the expectations investing process certainly takes considerable work.However, the book provides valuable insights into how analysts function and how stocks are priced by public markets.

However, if forced to pick a well-written, fairly sophisticated book on investing, I'd recommend a few other books ahead of this one, including "Security Analysis" by Benjamin Graham and either of Martin Whitman's books ("The Aggressive Conservative Investor" or "Value Investing").

A Refreshing Look at Market Performance
There is no question stock prices climb and fall based on investors' current perceptions of their future performance.

Identify an error in those perceptions; you, as an investor, have uncovered a catapult to superior performance.In Expectations Investing, Alfred Rappaport and Michael J. Mauboussin argue current stock prices express investors' collective expectations. A change in those expectations lies at the heart of investment success.

This is a tall task. Approximately 75 per cent of all active investors deliver returns below those posted by passive index funds.The authors argue poor performance is built on a foundation of poor tool selection, high costs, and short-term vision and style limitations.

They argue investment performance can be improved by following three simple steps:

1. Estimate Price-Implied Expectations.Forget earnings and cash-flow estimates.Long-term discounted cash-flow models market performance.
2. Identify Opportunities.Expectation changes lead to changes in market evaluations.Whether you are looking at innovative technology or value, developed or developing markets, new or old economies, these principles are universal.
3. Develop a Disciplined Buy, Hold or Sell Strategy.

The ramifications of this discipline are they remove three misconceptions from investment thinking:

1. The market is short-term.
2. Earning per share dictate value.
3. Price-earning rations determine value.

This well-written and thought provoking book harnesses the market power of discounted cash flow without requiring difficult and dubious long-term forecasts.It helps the serious investor develop a theory of where he or she is headed, why and more important, the courage to ignore advice that has nothing to do with underlying value.
... Read more

Product Description

Build your wealth with smart investing—even in a bear market!

Customer Reviews (2)

Investing and Stocks
This is a well written book and worth reading for anyone who is just starting to invest. I think the advice given in this book is very good. It will help you develope a plan for making your money grow. READ THIS BOOK!

Wake up call for stock buyers
I listened to the CD everywhere I go.It reinforces me to check for fundamentals before buying stocks.It provides specific instructions on what to look for and not speculate.I had bought stocks in the past and did not know company's financial background.Now I will check my current stocks and see if I made the right choice.

The disadvantage of the CD: The author provided a lot of websites and it would be advantangeous to get the book. ... Read more

Product Description

A BUSINESSWEEK BESTSELLER!

Anyone can learn to invest wisely with this bestselling investment system!

Through every type of market, William J. O’Neil’s national bestseller, How to MakeMoney in Stocks, has shown over 2 million investors the secrets to building wealth.O’Neil’s powerful CAN SLIM® Investing System—a proven 7-step process for minimizingrisk and maximizing gains—has influenced generations of investors.

Based on a major study of market winners from 1880 to 2009, this expandededition gives you:

• Proven techniques for finding winning stocks before they make big price gains
• Tips on picking the best stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs to maximize your gains
• 100 new charts to help you spot today’s most profitable trends

PLUS strategies to help you avoid the 21 mostcommon investor mistakes!

“I dedicated the 2004 Stock Trader’s Almanac to Bill O’Neil: ‘His foresight,innovation, and disciplined approach to stock market investing will influenceinvestors and traders for generations to come.’”
—Yale Hirsch, publisher and editor, Stock Trader’s Almanac andauthor of Let’s Change the World Inc.

“Investor’s Business Daily has provided a quarter-century of great financialjournalism and investing strategies.”
—David Callaway, editor-in-chief, MarketWatch

“How to Make Money in Stocks is a classic. Any investor serious about makingmoney in the market ought to read it.”
—Larry Kudlow, host, CNBC’s "The Kudlow Report"

Customer Reviews (45)

Well-Written Financial Pornography
First of all, I bought this book with an open mind about active investing, hoping that the author would provide clear guidelines on stock investing. Instead what I read was a stock picking method that relies too much on retrospective stock performance and trading patterns, whose unexplained extrapolation to current market conditions triggers the buying and selling of stock shares.In future editions of this book, I invite the author to present bonfide evidence that validates the success of CANSLIM, otherwise all you have is a book that instills false hope and the lure of making money based on a method whose results will be hit-or-miss at best. I felt that CANSLIM was like blindly throwing darts at a wall written with the names of all the stocks in a top-performing sector filled with winners and losers. There are no guarantees in Mr. O'Neil's work, and you have to work very hard to understand market psychology, fundamentals, and trading patterns to achieve any worthwhile success. It's like trying to divine human greed and fear in the market place at the right time, and that is not possible most of the time. This is not a compelling book for a sound investing strategy.

One of the best books for investing
This is a great book. It will turn many of the conventional nuggets of wisdom about stock market on their head. It is a fairly complete book. For an individual trader it explains the investing process well. The 100 or so charts at the beginning of the book are very valuable and informative. CANSLIM is the right system to follow in my experience as well. Probably the most important piece of advice in the book is the advice to cut your losses short at 7-8% from your purchase price of a stock. Most recently 3 follow through days in the market have failed. This book however says that follow through days which mark the beginning of an uptrend in a stock market are reliable about 80% of the time. No book, no investing philosophy can be perfect, thats why one needs to cut the losses short so that one can live to fight another day. Check out my blog at
[...].

Not so good
I accidentally published my post in the previous edition but the 4th edition (orange) is the one that I read.

I found this book misleading and mostly unhelpful. I felt compelled to write a review that balances out the bogus 5 star reviews planted by the author or publisher.

It's not all bad, but essentially, it comes down to:
1) Buy only newer innovating growth stocks where earnings have been increasing 50% each quarter (Well gee that is so easy to find)
2) Avoid solid blue-chip companies paying dividends.
3) Use chart formations to figure out when to buy. He provides examples of chart formations but does not provide any interpretation as to why they work. Also, looking at his example charts, the chart patterns he points out are not always clear cut and obvious. In fact, sometimes on the same chart there will be a similar formation and it makes me wonder, "Well why not buy over here instead? How are these two patterns fundamentally different?"
3) Sell all losers at 7% or 8%
4) Don't use limit orders.
5) Stay out of the market during bear markets.
6) Buy near the stock price high.

He goes through lists of stocks that increased hundreds of percents, but so what? Hindsight can always produce stock charts like this. The first 100 pages are stock charts of various companies from the 20's-80s that doubled or tripled in a few years. Supposedly we are supposed to study these to see how chart formations produce winners. And how often do these chart formations show up? He provides no answers, but it appears to be infrequently, especially when he shows a chart spanning 5 years.

Overall, his system seems to lead to stocks that are "Hot" at the time. Stocks that tend to have big swings up and down such as Apple (which he mentions in several places in this book).

Probably the only solid piece of advice is the stop loss, but these can be problematic at times, especially for volatile growth stocks that he recommends. Supposedly buying at the 'right time' with the right chart formation will virtually never hit your stop loss since almost always it runs up 20% from there, but it appears those lovely chart formations don't show up too often.

Oneil doesn't provide proof (brokerage statements, or trade confirmations) that he has actually made money using his own "system."

He loses credibility when he says to stay away from options because they are too risky. If used properly, options can be safer than buying the actual stock.

This book is like 450 pages and it could be condensed to about 200 if he would cut out a lot of the fluff.

He pushes the services of Investors Business Daily so much, I was thinking that I should have gotten the book for free for all the advertising I was exposed to.

Decent
This book does have some good info on when to buy stocks and when to get out. As others have noted hindsight is 20/20 so don't take all advice to heart. Charts are sometimes not explained properly and patterns don't really make sense... but overall I think he gives you decent advice like using cup'n handle + volume to buy -- though of course most of the time by the time 'heavy volume' hits the price is already maxed and not all of us can be day traders... the market is way too complex (or irrational) to be making buying decisions on simple rules. Nevertheless I still think O'neal's strategy works well in bull markets. For proof you can see the AAII website for well performing screens over the years.

O'neal does advertise his newspaper & website. Personally I think it's a good website, especially if you're into stocks. The editorials as others have noted are totally biased but I don't really care about that. Sometimes they do get borderline racist. I complained once about an article and they took it off pretty quickly so I'm still subscribed.

Best book on growth investing
I liked this book a lot. When I first started out reading books on investments, I didn't know where to start. I first red some books on Warren Buffett and then later on value investing. I didn't have a clue there was even something out there like growth investing. Then I ran in on this book and loved it immediatly. I did make the mistake of dropping everything I ever learned on value investing, and simply throwing away that knowledge. Later on, in the bull market of 2009 I had a watchlist full of value stocks and watched them rose in price, whithout doing anything about it.

Anyway, back on this book. The author has done a great job in writing this one. Almost everything you will read in here is the opposite of most value investment strategies. His CANSLIM method is easy to use to select the stocks you want can buy. You don't just have to buy 'm and hold 'm, but rather use TA to select your entries and exits. Stops are always placed on a close % below the entry. Exits are also greatly described in his book.

Please also consider the author his verified track record. It's amazing.

This is one the very few books out there (I believe) has the potential to make you a millionaire, by applying it. His method is pretty straightforward and certainly not that complicated, but applying his rules is pretty hard to do.

Something I've also noticed, after having done dozens of trades with his method, is that you absolutely have to use hard stops. A lot of these CANSLIM candidates have high beta's, and can easily fall with 30% to 50%. That's ok, beacause the upward potential is the same, but just wacht out while applying this method. If you're like me and you have the tension to ignore your stops, the losses can get pretty big.
Also, buying stocks that rise in price with 15% or 20% and then holding them to sell them later with a loss is pretty devastating ..
... Read more

Product Description
People wanting basic advice about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, retirement planning, and tax strategies are often frustrated by information overload. Picking the right book seems as daunting as deciding what to do with their savings and investments.

Investing 101: Updated and Expanded removes both roadblocks, putting people on a path that they can understand and stick with. Kristof is renowned for taking the mystery and anxiety out of investing by keeping choices manageable.

Kristof walks readers through the entire investment cycle and the way they think of their financial lives, rather than presenting stand-alone concepts like stocks and real estate. This expanded edition has new information about 529 college savings plans, annuities, Roth IRAs, reverse mortgages, and why declining markets can be good for you. It includes a cautionary look at home mortgages as investments. There's even a portfolio for the lazy investor.

Kristof's loyal readership and the success of this book's first edition demonstrate that she understands what's on the minds of investors as intimately as she knows what’s happening in financial markets.

Winner: Cover and Interior Design, The Bookbinders Guild of New York/2009 New York Book Show Awards ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Great start to planning your financial future
I am a newbie when it comes to investing.Prior to reading this book, I had read The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing (great book!).I was under the impression that stocks were the main investment vehicle for those trying to maximize returns.Gee was I wrong!Investing 101 gives you a much broader view of the investing game.For those who want to know the many investment vehicles out there, this is the book to read.It covers stocks, bonds, and various types of funds (social funds, REITs, international funds, and tax-favored).

It also offers goal-oriented investing strategies.The author does a great job of explaining how to allocate assets based on your goals and the time you have to achieve them.She seperates types of goals into short, medium, and long term.She also explains types of investments to consider based on those goals: cash, income, and growth.

The book lacks in-depth discussion of each investment vehicle, but I don't think it was the author's intention to do so.Use it as an eye-opener to the several options you can put your money into.Give it a go!

Helps the Amateur to Re-Consider the Investment Conundrum
I found this book like I always find the better books on investment- by browsing the shelves at my local library.When I found this book, I recalled the author from my many days reading the LA Times business section, in which she writes a very useful column, and on that basis, even though I am well beyond the basics, decided to give her book a quick read.

Well, as luck would have it, a 'quick read' turned into three days of note-taking, with heavy emphasis on the first few chapters.Although I am far from a beginning investor, and still consider myself to be an amateur at The Grand Game, I found that this book, while pitched at the novice, actually assisted me tremendously in re-considering the investment conundrum.Kristof is right when she says that one's investments should match one's stated goals for the future.Everything begins and ends with the goals that you have for yourself, and these goals should in turn determine what sort of investments that you should consider pursuing.

Kristof is also on the money when she says that emotional spending more often than not leads to indebtedness.I believe that her best advice in the book is non-financial in that she advocates the beginner taking control over his or her future, and by extension, actively investing is one of the means by which he or she can obtain this.

That said, I did not agree with everything that she said in the book.For example, I regard her advice on diversification to be useful only to those that have a lot of money and truly do not know what they are doing.I don't think that you have to have a hand in every little thing that's out there, from stocks to bonds to real estate to commodities (like gold).Granted, I have come to this realization after having tried, as a beginning investor, to have a hand in just about everything that's out there.(Personally, I believe that most investors would do just fine with a bank account or two for liquidity and perhaps no more than a couple of dozen carefully selected stocks or in a pinch for those that are both lazy and bored by investing, a few low-cost stock and bond index funds).Still, there's much of value for the beginning investor in this book.

Good Introduction to Investing
This book is designed for beginners. It offers a broad introduction to investing in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. To my surprise, it also covered socially responsible and tax-favored investing. I really liked that the author spend some time explaining to readers how to read financial statements. This is not the only book that investors should read, but it is an excellent start.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

Excelent book for starters
It is a book for starters. And the objective has been reached completely. The book explains in a very "down to earth" style the different investing instruments and the risk associated with them. Obviusly it will be up to you if you invest or not, but even if you don't go with the stock market at least you will end up knowing what was the meaning of all those "strange" terms that you read in the papers and TV. I would recommend it hands down.If you are starting, or thinking about doing it, this is a "must read", it will be a good start for your "financial education".

A great book for beginners
An excellent starting point for anyone with questions about the basics of investing. Kristof starts off with a chapter on finding the money to invest and how to change attitudes toward saving and investing. She includes tips for addressing universal problems as well as guidance on gender specific money problems ("emotional spending" for women and "competing with strangers" for men). One of the most informative parts of the book was the section in chapter 8 about "How to Read a Financial Statement." Even after years of reading those closely printed statements they can be overwhelming. Kristof tells you which sections to look at and what to look for to determine if the company is worth investing in. Chapter 14 - "The Lazy Investor's Portfolio Planner" shows you how to put all the lessons together to determine your goals and how to reach them. Simply a well written and accessable guide to taking those first steps into investing and what to do once you get there. ... Read more

Product Description
A profitable purchase for investment enthusiasts.

The Pocket Idiot's Guide(tm) to Direct Stock Investing reveals an innovative style of investment that has been steadily growing under the huge shadow of Wall Street-home investors opening a Direct Stock Purchase (DSP) or a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP) now offered by hundreds of major corporations, commission free. Investment guru Douglas Gerlach, an expert in this style of guerrilla investing, shows investors how quick, easy, affordable, and profitable stock investment can be.

•Growth area of investing

•Includes a comprehensive list of the top 100 companies that offer these programs and their links

•Accessible, jargon-free step-by-step instructions to get on in this opportu­nity

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Product Description
Every stock market investor needs to be able to calculate value, profits, and cash flow in order to make basic decisions like whether to buy, hold, or sell. But it’s easy to get intimidated by all the ratios and formulas, especially when incorrect calculations can lead to costly investment mistakes.

The Stock Investor’s Pocket Calculatorsimplifies the math behind successful equity investing. Containing over 100 ratios and formulas, the book translates them into plain English, breaks them down into simple steps, and places them side-by-side with practical examples. Readers will learn how to:

* judge portfolio value * assess corporate strength or weakness (both cash flow and profitability) * follow revenue and earnings trends * and more.

Filled with worksheets, checklists, visual aids, and examples, this is a must-have guide for anyone investing in the stock market. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Useful simple calculations and complex formulas
I found this book very useful. Some of the calculations are very basic and others are very complex. The formulas can be used for investing in stocks or they can be used for other accounting purposes, like compounding or taxes. The book explains how and why you would use the calculations and gives examples.It also gives examples of the formulas in reverse. I would recommend this to anyone who makes short term and long term investments of any type, and not just in stocks. I highly recommend this book to those who are thinking of making an investment...to make the correct calculations and wise choices...don't be mislead...do your own calculations and research...

If you know nothing then it is okay.
The book does do what you would expect. I found it helpful but if you took an accounting class in high school there is nothing in here that you do not already know. There is nothing extra to the book.

Readers will learn the formulas the pros use, and can then apply them for quick and accurate results.
Any consumer investing in the stock market and any library catering to such patrons needs Michael C. Thomsett's The Stock Investor's Pocket Calculator: it makes the math behind equity investing simple, offering over 100 ratios and formulas broken down into easy steps and presented in simple English for the non-mathematician. Readers will learn the formulas the pros use, and can then apply them for quick and accurate results. ... Read more

Product Description
It s never too early or too late to learn about money. Follow a class of fifth-graders as they figure out the world of finance, from earning, budgeting, and saving to investing and collecting coins from around the world. Join Sasha and Tim and the rest of their class as they find out how the world s stock markets work, how they got started, and how everyday people can invest. Meet the Bull on Wall Street, learn the stock market jargon and codes, and even find out what to do if the market should take a tumble. Find out how, with your parents permission, you can buy a few stocks yourself. Even if you don t have the cash to invest in the stock market, you can track a fantasy investment and see what happens. Learn how to make your money work for you, and take the mystery out of stock market investing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Rutgers University
Just about every state has content standards beginning in kindergarten covering important concepts in economics. These content requirements, together with the media attention paid to the importance of financial literacy, have led to a greater need for books that will help children to become more informed about the economic world around them. The new book series Money Matters: A Kid's Guide to Money helps to fill a niche in this literature.

One of the books in the series, A Kid's Guide to Stock Market Investing, provides an extensive overview of the operation, history, and organization of stock markets, with a focus on the major exchanges in the United States.The author takes what could amount to an overwhelming topic and formulates it into more manageable terms for younger people to comprehend.That said, the large number of definitions, detailed historical narrative, and relatively complex concepts make the book more appropriate for middle grade readers and older children. Livening up the book are well-known company logos and examples of companies that try to make it fun to hold stock by sending gift boxes to shareholders at the end of the year.
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Product Description
Expert advice on a mature, reliable way to invest money

According to Fortune magazine, investing in dividends is one of the top five ways to survive market instability. Dividend Stocks For Dummies gives you the expert information and advice you need to successfully add dividends to your investment portfolio, revealing how to make the most out of dividend stock investing-no matter the type of market.

• Explains the nuts and bolts of dividends, values, and returns
• Shows you how to effectively research companies, gauge growth and return, and the best way to manage a dividend portfolio
• Provides strategies for increasing dividend investments

Weather a down market-reach for Dividend Stocks for Dummies! ... Read more

Product Description
Preferred stocks, also known as preferreds, have attracted a lot of attention in recent years, but few investors understand the features, risks, and returns of these intriguing investments.In this revised and updated second edition, Paul Josephs provides an unbiased and easy-to-understand introduction to preferred stocks,including:* The features of typical preferred stocks, including their pros and cons relative to common stocks and bonds* How to research and buy preferreds, including individual stocks, ETFs, and closed-end funds* Major risks of preferred stocks* How preferred stocks behave in good, stable, and tough economic times* Investment strategies and practical tips for investors who choose to invest in preferredsThis book provides modern income investors with the facts they need to decide if preferred stocks deserve a place in their portfolio. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent Introduction to Preferreds
The value in this book is that it provides a brief, quick read, filled with valuable points to consider before deciding to invest in these securities. Highly recommended for your investing library!

A solid, trustworthy primer on Preferred Shares.
The book presents a good, focused, 90 page overview of investing in Preferred Shares.The focus is appropriately narrow, so 90 pages does it well.It has more depth than a Investing for Dummies book but less depth than a finance textbook.The author gets to the point.The author's approach is well balanced and this book is NOT an advocating piece.It synthesizes what I knew before reading the book well and made some good points that I otherwise would not have thought of.The author is plainly spoken, and I appreciated that.This book is not intended for short-term or day traders.For that topic,the author directs his readers to Ken Winan's book, Preferred.This author is not a fan of short-term trading preferred shares. ... Read more

Product Description
From the time of its first publication five years ago, The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing has established itself as a clear, concise, and highly effective approach to stocks and investment strategy. Since the dot.com crash and ensuing bear market, significant changes have come about in the investing world, and The Neatest Little Guide takes this into account.In this revised edition, readers will learn:

€ Strategies on how to double the Dow with one simple investment and the latest products required for this approach

€ Methods investors can use to avoid disasters such as Enron and WorldCom

€ Thoroughly updated reference lists, including new websites, new software, new brokers, and new publications

With the right information for investors to keep pace, and rooted in the principles that made it invaluable from the start, The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing is a resource that no serious investor can be without. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (119)

A great place to start
It is occasionally easy to make money buying and selling stocks. This book tells you how to do just that! It gives good stock investment techniques for "home gamers" that are willing to do some simple research.

Fantasic book for anyone trying to build wealth!
As a novice investor, I picked up this book hoping to gain some overall knowledge of the stock market. I was amazed at how brilliantly written it was and I can't wait to read it again! I have read several other publications up to this point, but most were packed with nothing but mumbo jumbo technical terms that will make anyone go to sleep within seconds! Jason makes the market easy to understand, exciting, and even incorporates some comedic tone throughout the book. Although this book is targeted at novices, I feel that by the end of the book he has taught several advanced expert level strategies that will ensure wealth down the road for anyone who follows them diligently. Also, he is truly a genuine man, not trying to convince the world that you can become a millionaire overnight, but instead focusing on the time tested formulas and strategies that will give an investor the lowest chance of loss and the maximum chance of gain. I got the feeling that Jason is more likely to expose the truth about the market in a truthful way than to spurt some "get rick quick" hype just to make another sale at someone else's loss (like many of the famous "gurus" do). Anyone who reads this book and understands basic algebra could learn the tricks of the pros-- and more importantly, learn how to incorporate that type of thinking into your own personality so you can actually think like the pros do! I have already subscribed to his monthly newsletter (which is a phenomenal deal) and can't wait to give my investment portfolio a total makeover!

Thank you so much Jason, I can't express enough how grateful I am to have found your book. I am looking forward to writing back to you after I make my first million, which after reading this book I have realized I am able to make happen a lot sooner than I thought!

User manual for stock investing
The book title is the best way to describe the book content; a rare phenomenone though. Rrecommended, to put you on track for stock investing.

Extremely Useful!
I bought this book to start learning stock market investing. I had read other books or should I say I have tried to read other books. This is a very easy book to read and understand. I bought a few more for members of my family for part of their Christmas presents one year. Investing does not need to be rocket science and with all the resources on the web now, with some knowledge from this book and resources out there for free. It is a great investment.
http://www.sheboomers.com/

Practical and Easy to Understand
The material is very practical and it is easy to use the analysis tools described by the author. ... Read more

Product Description
Dividends are king in today's uncertain stock market, with more investors every day looking to add the stability and long-term performance of dividend-paying stocks to their portfolios

All About Dividend Investing takes a clear-eyed look at this new environment, then provides a comprehensive, step-by-step dividend-investing approach designed to reduce short-term risk while maximizing long-term growth.

This timely book introduces popular methods for screening dividend-paying companies, explains how the new tax laws will affect corporate policy and investor behavior, and more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A must Read!
Great reading for the average investor who directs his/her's own investments and wants a solid foundation about dividends and how they work for you over time.

Very basic
I have been a big fan of dividend investing for years. Generally its not exciting but its dependable. Its often the only money you get to see in a share for a long time.

A plus is as the writer states is the market goes down the shares rarely drop that much as it reaches a point where people will buy it just for the dividend rate.

Having made this one observation, a few times in his book, you will find that if you know something about shares then there is little new or orginal here.

By the way the negative about dividend investing is what this writer does not tell you is if the company has a bad year and cuts its dividend, then the price can drop dramatically. So you still can get burnt badly.

A Must Have
If you're fairly new to investing and have gone beyond mutual funds and dipped your toes into a pool of stocks, you're probably like most new investors... you picked a few growth stocks because those are the stocks that are exciting and sexy. I always wondered what a "Value" stock was and why anyone except our elder citizens would want dividend stocks in boring industries like utilities.

This book will help open that world to you and give you some basic tools to start with in picking valuable, dividend producing stocks. It has actually made it exciting for me to search, pick, and buy those boring stocks!

I'm still young and new to investing, and I found this book, and a few other "All About" books, to be my favorite. They're technical enough without being too technical. And broad enough to give you a general view from which you can then dig deeper.

Best Points are Made Early
This recent entry in the "All About..." investment series covers a lot of territory, but many of its most useful points are made in the first few pages. Dividend paying stocks should be in your portfolio because their cash flow provides steady income with less price volatility in up and down markets. Dividends offer the possibility of positive returns during extended periods when there is little or no price appreciation in the equity markets. In fact, the authors believe that we are in for a "fairly long stretch" of disappointing returns based on their reading of bull and bear market cycle history. Retiring baby boomers looking to squeeze more income from their financial assets will want dividend producing stocks - another reason to own them ahead of their demographic buying wave. Recent tax law changes that include a low maximum 15% rate for most common stock dividends have also made these investments more attractive.

Much of what follows will be of interest to the Do It Yourself portfolio builder. The authors provide advice on analyzing a company's financial ratios to determine the sustainability of a company's dividend and their ability to raise it in the future. Investors are advised how to diversify their portfolio and suitable criteria for screening their holdings. Managing the portfolio with an automatic stop-loss sell discipline to preserve capital in declining markets is a much discussed and infrequently used strategy. Here it gets close attention. My sense of this book is that readers will pick and choose ideas and pieces of their strategy rather than try to follow their methodology step by step. Chapter 11 on DRIPS, Folios, and Mutual Funds and the final Chapter 12 can be skipped.

Very useful book
This is a very good book, full of pratical advices. It is easy to read and understand. It's useful for planning a rational investment strategy. Recommended! ... Read more