Book Description

An intimate portrait of Warren Buffet, the world's richest man. With unprecedented access, Roger Lowenstein provides the definitive, inside account of the "Oracle of Omaha, " a true American original. 2 cassettes. ... Read more

Reviews (60)

An amazing American capitalist with principles.
The amazing securities investment analyst Warren Buffett is the focus of this near hagiographic biography that is filled with details about the life of an American capitalist that rivals the likes of Carnegie, Ford, or Morgan. Lowenstein has done a remarkable job in telling the financial story of Buffett's rise to securities fame, although not as much about his actual strategy (that's another story). The early years depict a precocious child adept at numbers in a household rich with a domineering mother and business-minded father. Buffett's early investments, his famous relationship with Katherine Graham of The Washington Post, his role in the Capital Cities purchase of ABC, his rescue of the Solomon Brothers, and his unique personal relationship with his wife all make for a highly interesting, fascinating tale, sure to be a hit in schools of business. Buffett's securities firm stock value has ranged from a meager $7, to an estimated 1994 value of over $20,000 per share, evidence enough of the sagacious leadership of this preeminent securities specialist. During the reckless '80s, Buffett's principle-centered approach to building value never wavered, thus solidifying his fame. James Lurie's powerful reading is dead on, evoking the power of this man's singular character. Highly recommended.

Proof that a book about investing can also be interesting
I picked up Roger Lowenstein's book because I had enjoyed his column in the Wall Street Journal. In a nutshell, he and Mr. Buffett explain the differences between investing and speculation. Purchasing a stock based on a cold-blooded assessment of its VALUE is investment; buying a stock based on guesses about the general market, the economy, the mood of the public or other factors that are inherently unknowable is speculation. Unfortunately, that distinction has largely been lost on the frenzied day-traders, the purchasers of Internet stocks and the legion of "expert" market prognosticators who ought to know better. If you are interested in investing successfully for the long term, you should read this book. Apart from all that, Lowenstein also gives us a highly readable story of Warren Buffett the person, and I came away with a strong sense of Mr. Buffett's personal integrity and intellectual discipline. (In a curious way, though, the laser-like focus and icy rationality that have made Buffett so successful as an investor have apparently made him less successful as a father and husband. Read the book and you'll see what I mean.) The book is worth reading simply for what it has to say about this remarkable man.

Best Buffett Book Ever
I've read a lot of books about Warren Buffett and this is by far my favorite. If you have to read only one, read this one.

Excellent reading
I found that I knew so little about Warren Buffett, and this gave me a wealth of knowledge. Unfortunately, the book was written before the tech boom and subsequent collapse. Therefore, you do not get a sense of what he did during that time of hysteria, but prior to that it gives an insight that most authors aren't capable of relaying.

How Buffett Thinks
This book helps you understand how one of the greatest business thinkers of all time got that way. (How would Buffett approach a paper route as a boy, for example?) If you are interested in getting inside his head, this book is a good way to start. ... Read more

Book Description

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

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

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

In Beating the Street, Lynch for the first time:

* Explains how to devise a mutual fund strategy
* Shows how he goes about picking stocks, step-by-step
* Describes how the individual investor can improve his or her investment performance to rival that of the experts of the investment clubs. ... Read more

Reviews (44)

Peter's Principles are great
They've has done it again, this book is very funny and filled with useful tips from seasoned investor Peter Lynch. This book has several of "Peter's Principles" (which are very humorous one-liners that make a lot of sense for investors.) My favorite parts of this book are: The story about the St. Agnes 7th grade portfolio managers (these kids beat out 99% of fund managers when they had a two year gain of 70%.) Another part of this book that I enjoy are the subtle tips for evaluating stocks. Mr. Lynch doesn't tell you to do this, that, and another thing to find the ten-baggers, but he does give clues throughout the text.

Reed Floren

Yet Another Mis-Leading Exhortation to Buy Stocks
This book, written in 1993, simultaneously comes at the end of Mr. Lynch's career in money management and the beginning of a long sprint in the broader stock market, largely fueled by tech/internet stocks. In any period, one can expect 1 of 100 money managers to far outperform both his or her peers and the broader market by chance. Mr. Lynch was that one money manager.

Mr. Lynch starts the book by turning investing into a game. Although his method was subtle (using an example of grammar school kids picking stocks), the implications are profound. Investing does share some resemblance to many games we play in life, and one of the Great Money Masters, the fictitious 'Adam Smith' readily admits this in his classic book on investment, The Money Game.

However, Mr. Lynch takes things one step beyond the game, and as the book's title hints, he turns all investment activities into a competition. In so doing, he pits the small investor against the institutional Players, and as a result, sets up the naive reader to walk a well-trodden path littered with sorrow and the bones of many foolish investors.

Granted, 'Adam Smith' once said, "The Players aren't smarter than you. They just have more information", and there also is a certain level of truth to Lynch's assertion that the Little Guy can outperform the Big Boys. However, Lynch fails to disclose one important and critical difference.

I believe it was Hemmingway who said, in response to Fitzgerald's observation that the rich were not like the ordinary schmuck, that "Yes, I know. They have more money." Something frightfully similar can be said of the key difference between the Little Guy and The Players, but with one critical insight: The Players do not merely have more money, they have a lot more of Other People's Money. That in essence is the fundamental difference between The Players and the Little Guy, who must wager his (or her) own hard-won funds in order to play the Grand Game- the stock market.

Needless to say (but will be said anyway), the consequences of one's actions weigh heavily on one's shoulders when one's own money is at stake, but really aren't felt when Other People's Money is on the line. The Players play with Other People's Money, but you, dear investor, play with your own hard-won earnings. That said, the intelligent investor must ask herself, 'Do I really want to play with my money?'.

Beating the Street rests heavily on this undisclosed truism and a host of faulty assumptions. The book really is a sales pitch to buy stocks and to participate as much as possible in stock mutual funds. To that end, Mr. Lynch places before the reader a number of questionable arguments. Here are just two:

First, perhaps the most flawed argument of the book is that the small investor, upon retirement, will spend more than she earns in investment income. This is stated as a bona-fide fact when in reality, it is a generous assumption. From this assumption, Mr. Lynch then argues that one should invest in stocks and use some portion of the capital appreciation in addition to the dividend income for the purpose of meeting one's spending needs. He then fortifies his argument by citing inflation and emphasizing its ability to erode fixed income.

The facts are 1) how much investment income you will need is determined by how much you plan to spend, 2) many people choose to work either part-time or full-time after retirement (either out of necessity or desire), and thus have some supplemental income, 3) though the general historical trend for stock prices has been 'up', there is nothing that says that stocks have to go up, and finally 4) inflation can adversely affect stock prices (and have actually done so in the past). Lynch invokes the inflation argument when trashing bonds, and abandons it when touting stocks, even though inflation acts on both. Nor does his idealized comparison of stocks vs. bonds on pages 52-56 take into account taxes and transaction costs incidentally.

Second, on page 69, Mr. Lynch boldly says that, "If you plan to to stick with a fund for several years, the 2-5 percent you paid to get in will prove insignificant". This last statement may actually be worse than his first (of many) flawed arguments, for the following reason: the money lost to the load fails to compound at whatever investment rate of return, and over long periods of time, the difference between what you committed and what gets actually invested grows- and this is before we even consider the effect of annual expenses.

These and other flawed but superficial arguments for stock investing make for very difficult reading. Apart from the gross argumentative errors, the book presents many of Mr. Lynch's reminiscences of a stock market long gone. However, there are some useful hints in the book, most likely put there by Mr. Rothchild, but they are far outnumbered and over-shadowed by Mr. Lynch's deceptive pitch to buy stocks.

Excellent
It's hard to find a better written book on investing that Beating the Street. Despite working in the industy for many years, Peter Lynch urges people to do it for themselves. He writes clearly giving examples of how one could do better than the Wall Street pros. This book is one of the best on investing that I have read.

Not Half Bad.
In my opinion, this book was a lot more readable than I would have expected a book about the stock market to be. The light humor (very light) kept the book interesting and there were plenty of good tips. The "20 Golden Rules" were great. Lynch obviously knows what he's doing and he proves it by giving real life examples from his own successful experience. The only setback I found was that the tips were made out to be really easy, but they sounded tough. Overall, though, I would recommend it to both beginners and pros involved in the stock market.

Learn from the Master
Lynch's success comes not from his complex algorithms and estoric financial modeling, but from opening his eyes to the world and noticing good businesses.

His success at Magellan is attributed to his ability to find good companies, at reasonable valuations, and be patient enough to watch them climb.

This book is much more specific than his other release. Here, he provides detailed accounts of stock picking strategy, including how to choose from different stocks, when to buy, when to buy more and when to sell.

This is a quick read, but there is a huge amount of information that the average investor can use to their benefit. ... Read more

Book Description

The classic bestseller by Benjamin Graham, perhaps the greatest investment advisor of the 20th century, The Intelligent Investor has taught and inspired hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Since its original publication in 1949, Benjamin Graham's book has remained the most respected guide to investing, due to his timeless philosophy of "value investing," which helps protect investors against the areas of possible substantial error and teaches them to develop long-term strategies with which they will be comfortable down the road.

Over the years, market developments have borne out the wisdom of Benjamin Graham's basic policies. Here he takes account of both the defensive and the enterprising investor, outlining the principles of stock selection for each, and stressing the advantages of a simple portfolio policy. Among the book's special features are the use of numerous comparisons of pairs of common stocks to bring out their elements of strength and weakness and the construction of investment portfolios designed to meet specific requirements of quality and price attractiveness.

The Intelligent Investor may be the most important book you will ever read on making your investments a success.

"The Intelligent Investor is the best book ever written for the stockholder," says author and investment counselor John Train. Benjamin Graham's classic work offers sound and safe principles for investing-principles that have worked for more than forty years since the first edition was published. With an introduction and appendix by Warren Buffett, one of Graham's most famous students in investing strategy, this book takes account of both the defensive and the enterprising investor.

"By far the best book on investing ever written." -- Warren E. Buffett

"There have been other good books written about money since 1841, but only a few hold up. The best known and most likely to make you money is The Intelligent Investor." -- Andrew Tobias

"Graham ranks as this century's (and perhaps history's) most important thinker on applied portfolio investment." -- John Train, author of The Money Masters ... Read more

Reviews (55)

One of the best books on investing ever written
This is a must read for any person serious about investing (ie not gambling) in the stock market. The book is rather easy to read. Graham was an investor but also a teacher (at Columbia). He has a good balance between technical yet simple explanation. If you know absolutely nothing about the stock market and financials, you may still find it a bit obscure at time, but you should probably not invest directly anyway (at least not right away). For everyone else, read it.
Yes the latest edition was written in 1972. It is amusing at time to see the evolution. But actually this evolution is also part of what you learn by reading the book. You do see that some things never change (like valuing a company!), and others do change quite a bit. it gives you a nice perspective. Now the intersting part of the book is to understand the logic of Graham, less its conclusions. The conclusions date a bit. Graham used to work at a time when most corporations where industrial companies, when nowadays services are dominant for example. So take graham conclucions with a grain of salt. But do read in depth and try to understand his logic.
Value investing won't make you rich overnight. But reasonnably well done, it will avoid having you lose money, and can even open you the doors of year by year over-performance in the market. Warren Buffett and several other successfull investors have followed the approach of Graham. But as they all say, when you first read about value investing, you either understand it right away, or you never will. But trust my 15 year of investing on the stock market, you're better of understanding the value of value investing. And this book is the key to it.

Somewhat out of date
Before deciding on whether to buy this book or not, one should take into account that even this version is 30+ years old, and that the original version was written over 50 years ago. Though successful investing for the greater part is founded on principles (which are timeless), the content, style and writing of the book is old-fashioned, which makes it a bit tedious to read.

Stock market history may be interesting, but the book continuosly refers to the 1971 - 1972 stockmarket, which is quite a bit out of date. There have been considerably better books written on investing since then (Hagstrom: "The Warren Buffett way", Lynch x 2: "Beating the Street, One up on Wall Street").

Yet there are still interesting chapters in the book, and some valuable pieces of advice as well. The book contains what Buffett views as the most valuable words ever written on investing: "Investing is most intelligent when it is most businesslike". Other valuable pieces of advice include why one should be careful about investing in IPOs.

Since one basically only has to understand and follow a couple of basic laws to become successful as investor (and those laws has nothing to do with beta or APT) and this book contains some of them, it can be recommended, with some reservation. But it is tediouos to read and better books on investing have been written since 1973.

Buy it !!! For any investor
The issue is how to make money on the stock market.

The conclusion is that if you have the discipline and follow the advise with rigour, you will make money on the stock market. It is not for a day trader but a genuine investor.

There are many pieces of sound advice. One of the recommended easy and time saving way to pick a stock: buy the stock of Dow Index companies with minimum P/E ratio.

It is a classic.

Use With Caution
It may seem an odd thing to say about a book whose hallmark is prudence, but this volume is dangerous. The general principles it inculcates are fine but be very wary of following its more specific recommendations such as avoiding a stock if its price/book ratio is greater than 2. Under current conditions you would end up with an odd, unbalanced portfolio. The basic premise of this book, that Mr. Graham could reduce his complex discipline of value investing to rules of thumb simple enough for individuals to follow, may just be a mistake.

Eye Opener
Graham's book is by far the most thorough, well thought out volume on investing that has ever been produced. Graham's thought processes and advice are indispensable. ... Read more

Book Description

This gimmick-free, irreverent, and vastly informative guide--with over half a million copies sold--shows how to navigate the turbulence on Wall Street and beat the pros at their own game. Skilled at puncturing financial bubbles and other delusions of the Wall Street crowd, Burton Malkiel shows why a broad portfolio of stocks selected at random will match the performance of one carefully chosen by experts. Taking a shrewd look at the high-tech boom and its aftermath, Malkiel shows how to maximize gains and minimize losses in this era of electronic brokers, virtual gurus, and flashy investment vehicles. Learn how to analyze the potential returns, not only for stocks and bonds, but for the full range of investment opportunities, from money market accounts and real estate investment trusts to insurance, home owning, and tangible assets like gold and collectibles. Decode the rating game for mutual funds and discover the unique advantages of index mutual funds over the wide range of riskier alternatives. Year in and year out the best investing guide money can buy, this enhanced edition includes an update of Malkiel's famous "Life-Cycle Guide to Investing," showing how to match an investment strategy to your stage in life. ... Read more

Reviews (109)

Quite true (in the long run).
Having a break from school, my Finance professor suggested I read a book to help prepare me for my future in Finance. Because I have a limited background in Finance, he suggested that I read "A Random Walk" because of my insistence of finding the truth if the Efficient Market Hypothesis/Random Walk is a plasusible theory. Before reading the book I did not completly understand the logic that markets are Semi-Strong Efficient (public information/fundalmental analysis is priced into markets). After reading "A Random Walk", I finally came to a conclusion that markets are Semi-Strong.

Looking at my other major (Information Systems), there is a strive to reduce the use of human intervention in systems. The goal is to automate the whole process in order to make it error proof against the human ability for failure. If companies pay for information systems with little human intervention to produce the most efficient system, then why do we hire managers to intervene in our money? Probably because of the flashy advertisments we see.

Reading the book and looking at the Wall Street Journal, I have come to the opinion that the index-fund is the best option for the individual. It is the most efficient (making the highest returns for a given level of risk) and the least prone to human errors. Index-funds are designed to not be flashy, does not have humans picking stocks, yet over the long run provides the most returns.

So why do we have fundalmental analysis, portfolio managers, reports, etc.? Most likely because we as humans always like to believe that we are better than our neighbors. We believe that we can pick a better portfolio. Unfortunatly, the odds are against you. To mettle is more likely to err.

Overall a very good book. I especially liked the history lesson of financial bubbles. If only I read this book before the Internet bust...

History Does Not Lie. Learn to Avoid The Madness of Crowds
As we are experiencing the bursting of another stock market bubble (the dot-com craze), Burton Malkiel's insights - first expressed in the first edition nearly 30 years ago - remain as pertinent as ever. Want to know why "reversion to the mean" is inevitable? Read Malkiel's descriptions of "The Tulip Bulb Craze", The "New Era" of the 1960's, and his insights into the dot-com craze (published before the 2000-2001 sell-off).

Burton Malkiel correctly states that stock markets are not always rational, but that markets do over time correct themselves. He successfully presents a rational case that true value is eventually recognized by the market and this is "the lesson that investors must heed."

This book explores in more detail than many others the underpinnings of efficient market theory and its implications for the individual investors. Should you have any doubts about the value of adopting a long-term strategy of matching, and not attempting to beat, the market, then you should read this book.

In terms of practical application to actual investment decisions, the text not only sets forth efficient market theory but also concludes with some insightful observations about low-cost stock index funds and, if you must, how to play the game of choosing individual stocks.

There will be a few people who have beat the market, and will beat the market in the future. As Malkiel notes, statistics tell us that a very few individuals and investment managers will randomly beat the market over a ten year period. But this is part of the randomness, not the counter to the underlying theory. Regarding the reviews posted on Amazon's site by individuals who seemingly reject Burton Malkeil's random walk theory - let's ask them again in 20 years what they think then, and I bet 9 of 10 of these individuals would have been better off (under an objective analysis) following the principles expressed in "A Random Walk Down Wall Street".

This book is a classic. Consider it and similar well-written others by John Bogle (Common Sense on Mutual Funds) and Larry Swedroe (What Wall Street Doesn't Want You To Know) as a core part of your library and a foundation of your knowledge on investing. After reading the foregoing, consider exploring more advanced texts - such as Bernstein's "The Intelligent Asset Allocator" and Bruce Temkin's insightful "The Terrible Truths About Investing." All of these books owe homage to the foundations laid down by Burton Malkiel some 30 years ago. Buy this most recent edition, and learn to avoid the next madness of the crowd.

An excellent primer
The book focuses on the efficient market theory. Whether or not you agree with the theory, this book provides a great deal of background on overall investing. Particularly interesting were the sections on investing fads and follies and how the perils of certain types of analysis. I wouldn't recommend working with an investement professional before you have read and digested this book.

Intermediate level Theory for the savy Investor or beginner
As a 25 yr old newbie with no investment experience and money not yet in the stock market, Malkiel does a great comprehensive job of laying out the theories which drive the market day to day. After reading an array of stock picking books and strategies such as Chicken Stocks or Penny stocks, it was refreshing to catch up on the history of the market and the theories central to an investor's future discipline. A must read which is intelligent enough to open itself up to criticism but still back up its principles. Does not get bogged down in advanced financial math or overly difficult concepts, but conveys the principles upon which the stock market operates and with which your financial planners guide your money. Good humor laced throughout and a great overview of the last 5 years, which have been rough to say the least.

The definitive tome on the "Chicago School"
This is the definitive tome on the "Random Walk" theory of economics - that you can't base tomorrow's price of stock based on it's historical price. The concept is deeper (stronger views claim you can't predict stock price on ANY known information - that it's already baked into the current price) and the book covers the various shades of gray.

The author acknowledges differing pricing theories, and presents data to support his ideas. Agree or not, this is the seminal book on the subject. It's core to the curriculum of the University of Chicago's finance program - and that is quite a reference. In fact - if you disagree with the idea, and take a more behavioral or trend-following point of view, the book is worth a read to understand your enemy. :-) ... Read more

Amazon.com

To Peter Lynch, success in the stock market is pretty basic: if a company's earnings rise, then the stock price goes up. "This simple point--that the price of a stock is directly related to a company's earning power--is often overlooked, even by sophisticated investors," the former Fidelity Magellan manager writes in Learn to Earn, his third book on investing. "This is the starting point for the successful stock picker: find companies that grow their earnings over many years to come."

One of the best managers in the history of mutual funds, Lynch is certainly the person to help people choose the right stocks and understand the market. More so than One Up on Wall Street or Beating the Street, this Lynch book is for beginning investors of all ages. Lynch and coauthor John Rothchild are family men who are worried that teenagers aren't learning enough about the importance of American companies in improving lives and creating wealth. Lynch questions why students are taught that Hamlet was a tragic hero and Napoleon was a great general, but they don't know that Sam Walton founded Wal-Mart. In fact, Lynch's grasp of the past is one of the strengths of the book. One of the best chapters is "A Short History of Capitalism," a witty and homespun look at characters like Karl Marx, the Communist who believed capitalism was doomed, and the robber barons, the shrewd railroad magnates of the late 19th century who amassed huge fortunes by manipulating the markets.

Unlike the robber barons, beginning investors, Lynch says, should stick to the basics: get in the habit of saving and investing and putting aside a certain amount every month; develop a strong stomach because the stock market is going to fall and there's no way to anticipate it; do a little homework so you can understand the reasons to own a particular stock; and buy shares in solid companies and don't let go of them without a good reason.

This book marks Lynch's coming out as a fan of "direct investment programs," which are offered by many good companies. You purchase a couple of shares or so directly from the company and then you enroll in a plan and buy more shares each month, in some cases without paying a penny in fees and always without a broker--the way Lynch likes it. Lynch loves these plans because they're a great vehicle for investing a little bit at a time over a long period. Grab onto a company and learn about it, Lynch writes. The more you learn, the more you'll earn. --Dan Ring ... Read more

Reviews (48)

A must for everyone
Unfortunately we'll have to read through passages where Lynch and Rothchild act like the readers are the 15 year-olds that they originally wrote the book for! There is information in this book that even seasoned investors do not know. Unfortunately it isn't all investment info! Lots of history here, which we really should have been taught when we were entering high school! I would recommend Learn to Earn to anyone. They will learn a lot. If you need to learn how to pick stocks based on earnings, try another book after you are done with this one! By the way, I read where Lynch donates all profits from this book to charity!

Awesome for beginners!
My friend lent me this book and I'm so glad he did. I'm a beginner in investing and didn't have a clue about stocks or investing. This book was very concise and clearly written for a beginner investor. I've tried to read other books and either got bored or confused and stopped reading. This one I couldn't put down...so easy to read! I learned A LOT! The chapter on the history of capitalism was also interesting and helpful -- even for someone with a bachelor's in economics. I plan to buy my own copy! Most importantly, it taught me the importance of NOT spending money and investing in it instead!!! AFter reading the book, I stopped wasting money! I plan to read more of Peter Lynch's books!

Good for beginners like me
This book is apparently written for students, but the only way you feel that is the author's occasional attempt to be hip to what brand names his younger readers would recognize.

It is a solid introduction to how companies and the stock market works, with lots of interesting tidbits from history.

I wish he had written more about Index Funds, because further studies have shown me that many experts regard these as the closest thing to a safe bet you can make in stocks. But of course a book consisting of the one sentence "buy index funds" might not sell well. :)

Promotes Dangerous and Inappropriate Activity
Contrary to what the subtitle of this book says, it does not provide an introduction to investing or business. The book is in fact a blasphemous exhortation to 'dabble'- essentially to speculate, in the stock market.

The book, which was written in 1995, right around the middle of the greatest speculative bubble in United States history to date, fed into a common and pernicious malady among small investors- everyone it seems was making 'easy money' in stocks, and naturally many wondered how they too could get some of this 'easy money'. Lynch sought to answer that question within the confines of this misguided, thoroughly misleading book.

Well, of course you know the most recent ancient history. By the end of the 1990s and sometime around 2001, heaps of folks were lucky to have kept about half of what they put into the market, and many never even recovered (nor can they ever hope to recover) their losses to this day. More than a few readers of this book were led astray by the reckless stock cheerleading found throughout this book.

Learn to Earn... was a bad book because it gives the uninformed reader and financial novice just enough information (and an abundance of encouragement) to get himself or herself into a whole lot of trouble in the stock market. It lays out all the benefits of investing, defends with vigor the New Improved American Capitalism, and highlights all the fun and wonderful things that can happen when one one buys stocks and becomes an owner of a Great American Enterprise, without devoting any significant space to the pitfalls, costs and dangers of stock operations. Yet, I sensed in reading this book that the text was written two minds. While Mr. Lynch prattled incessantly about the wonderful world of stocks, with paragraph after paragraph of ebullient optimism, every so often Mr. Rothchild slips in a bit of sobering realism with a sentence or two here and there. In particular, really good morsels of information such as: starting a dedicated savings program before embarking on investing, managing and even better, avoiding, credit debt for investment success, and in any bull market, in the end the little guy gets killed and the Big Boys get bailed out by their rich and politically powerful cronies (as we saw in the last pass of the bull), could only have come from the level-headed and jaded mind of Mr. Rothchild (who by the way authored the cleverly titled gem, A Fool and His Money).

As can be expected with any investment book penned by Mr. Lynch, a number of statements are either half-truths or are just plain wrong. First, Mr. Lynch adheres to his flawed definition of an investor (which he uses in every book)- anyone that buys stocks and only stocks. From this flows his conviction, boldly stated on page 122, "If you are long-term investor, ignore all the bond funds and hybrid funds (those that invest in a mixture of stocks and bonds) and go for the pure stock funds." Throughout the book, he takes a similar stance on individual stock versus bond purchases.

Now, if you had not followed Mr. Lynch's brilliant and worldly wise 'investment counsel', you would have made pretty decent money in both high quality corporate bonds and US Treasuries (or even US Savings Bonds) over the last eight years, especially when compared against your peers who fully invested in stocks. Also, inflation, which Mr. Lynch (and many other scurrilous financial 'experts') uses to scare readers into buying stocks, was moderate during the eight year period, and we even had a spell of deflation at one point, thereby actually boosting bond returns. When all was said and done, it turned out that holding a combination of high quality bonds and high quality stocks out-performed total stock positions over the last few years.

Yet another of Mr. Lynch's erroneous convictions is that investors (buyers of stock) are the vanguards of capitalism. This is a half-truth. In fact, speculators are the vanguard of capitalism, as they provide venture capital and implicitly assume risk. Investors on the other hand, that is, those enterprising souls looking for income with (reasonable) security of capital, only come in after the enterprise has proven itself in the marketplace.

Thus, in essence, readers of this book receive good tutelage on how they too can become speculators, much like the 'stock operators' of the Roaring 1920s. Finally, the fact that the target audienc efor this book is young adults truly shocks me, as quite frankly, Mr. Lynch and others in the financial community are knowingly and purposefully engendering a nation of mindless, stock-buying drones hell-bent on gambling away their hard-won earnings, and their personal financial futures to boot.

Step One
Good beginning book if you have never taken a business class in school or are brand new to investing
Mr Lynch's advice:
Start now
Have a plan
Do your homework
Hang in there for the long term (a 20 year timeline)
I suppose you could apply it to almost anything in life. Losing weight, studying a foreign language, or starting a business etc.
This advice seems a little vanilla to me, however if you are just starting out this may be all you need.
Buy this book if you are in stage one of your investment path. ... Read more

Book Description

This classic book secured Benjamin Graham's status as a Wall street immortal. the carefully honed methods for finding undervalued stocks and bonds he described here have never been equaled, and have already outlived their author by more than 20 years. Even as Security Analysis has gone through five editions and nearly a million copes, you can learn time-tested investment secrets and strategies by going back to the source - THE ORIGINAL - and paying close attention to its wisdom. Written just five years after the crash, Security Analysis's message today is just as vivid, just as lucid, and just as vital as it was in 1934. ... Read more

Reviews (35)

must read
I just finished reading Grahm and Dodds Security Analysis, and
was completely overwhelemed. If you can read this book, understand everything in it, and be able to apply it, you are golden. However, if you do not really have much background in finance and accounting, it will be VERY hard to read certain parts. As a college sophomore, who has not yet taken any finance or accounting classes, i was only able to understand and benefit from perhaps 50% of the books content. This is a book where after further education in finance and accounting, it will be absolutley essential to successful investing. Also, because of the year the first edition was written, certain terminology, and examples (ie railroads) will not seem useful, however the principles those examples demonstrate are still very much applicable.
I would recommend reading the book to anyone who is interested in investing, however do not think it is something you can finish in a weekend or even a week. It took me a month.

Everything after 1934 looks suspicious
Someone wrote reviews to this book indicating that the major downside to it is its age. The book was written in 1934 therefore it misses all the modern developments of finance - modern portfolio theory for example - and all the new techniques that Wall Street "experts" use today.

As an answer I give an anecdote from Warren Buffett's life:
When stock investments started to become popular, the volume increased ten fold, and the modern techniques to make a profit were developed, Warren Buffet was extremely worried. He remembered what happened in 1929. He loathed the new trends in investment that tried to predict the future price of a stock. Therefore he had a meeting with all his fellow Graham students, he expressly forbid to bring anything newer than the 1934 edition of Security Analysis.

This happened decades ago, but history repeats. We all know what happened 3 years ago. We all know how "experts" thought that the market was booming, and how they let it crash. We all know how they made a profit on the money that private investors lost.

Nowadays when I go shopping for a book I always look at the date of pubblication, if it is between 1997 and 2000 I'm very wary. All those books about "new economy", "digital era", "e-commerce", "dot coms", etc. have to be taken with the maximum attention. Usually they contain a lot of inflated ideas that as we look at what happened after they were written we understand how much those "experts" really understand about stock investments.

If they were wrong then, why should they be righ now?
Trust me, but more importantly, trust Graham, trust Buffett, (those that have been consistently right for 50 years) this is the book to buy, "anything newer looks suspicious."

Packed With Knowledge!
A book that has been continuously in print for nearly 70 years obviously has timeless relevance. The principles of value investing, spelled out for the first time in Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham and David L. Dodd, have made fortunes for investors since it was first published in 1934. For example, Warren Buffett calls this book his Bible. Much has changed on Wall Street since the 1930s, but the concept of buying undervalued companies has not. In addition to its lucid explanation of investment basics, the book is a fascinating picture of a time when the lessons of the Great Depression were still being absorbed. The Securities Act of 1933 had just changed the rules of financial disclosure, and most public companies were manufacturers, mines, railroads or utilities - not the makeup of today's blue-chip portfolio. We recommend this book to serious investors who want to cut through modern Wall Street jargon, and to students of financial history.

ripping off graham and dodd
In a moment of confusion, I bought the so-called "fifth edition" of Security Analysis ... what a scam! This almost unreadable text may be more "up to date" than the 1934 or 1940 editions, but it completely lacks the beautifully elegant prose of the original.

The "fifth edition" is just another fat and overpriced textbook, taking advantage of the Graham and Dodd brand to sell a quite unrelated product. By all means, buy the classic written by the original authors (1934, 1940 editions), but stay away from this "fifth edition." It's really the "first edition" of something quite different and not very impressive.

Warning: Not Light Reading
Just like Intelligent Investor, my only complaint here is that they should make a travel sized version so you can keep it with you all the time. This one is at a higher level than any other investment book out there, but it is difficult without being convoluted. If you work in investing and have never read this, you should be ashamed. Of course, people who don't read this book are the people who make the market inefficient (thanks guys!). ... Read more

Book Description

New edition of the bestseller that started thousands on the road to commission-free investing!

It's been called "The investment guide Wall Street didn't want published," and it ignited the commission-free investment revolution! With Buying Stocks Without a Broker, Second Edition, Charles B. Carlson, CFA, thoroughly updates his unique guide to dividend reinvestment plans. Better known as DRIPs, these investor-friendly programs give you a safe method for buying stocks directly from issuing companies -- often with a discount and always without paying commission fees to brokers. If you want to own stock but resent paying commisions, you'll get the best of both worlds with this edition's...
*Directory of 1000 DRIPs -- with brand-new, enticing DRIP opportunities
*Thumbs-up/thumbs-down at-a-glance ratings of every DRIP on the market
*New corporate profiles and performance ratings
*New model portfolios using DRIPs
*Charles Carlson's favorite DRIP picks ... Read more

Reviews (11)

Excellent reference and guide for the $10.00 investor!
This book explains, in detail, the biggest investment secret on Wall Street- Dividend Reinvestment plans. Imagine- buying stocks without brokerage fees! This book tells you how- exactally how. Buying Stocks Without a Broker is a must for every small investor's library. This book can help you get into the stock market with a MIMIMUM of capital, as it describes companys, like IBM, with investment requirments as small as $10.00 per investment. A warning though; as some company's programs change, information in this book becomes inaccurate. Always first check with the company of interest as phone numbers and contacts are included in the book.

Helpful for the novice investor
This book was written before the likes of Ameritrade and E-Trade came along, and therefore is rather dated. The fees associated with most plans today and their minimum investments make DRIPs less attractive today then they were five years ago. However, for those who want to buy stock in companies and hold for ten or 20 years, they are worthwhile. Carlson writes in easy-to-understand language that a person not well-versed in Wall Street can grasp. Plenty of information on the company's listed along with telephone numbers and websites. Different kinds of portfloios are profiled so the investor can see what they can do with whatever funds they have to invest. The pros and cons of this kind of investing are listed so a person can decide if it is for them. It is a worthwhile read.

Helpful, But in Need of Updating
I first purchased this book years ago, and I have to admit at the time it was a revelation. I was trying to buy stocks and usually failed to do so simply because I did not want to pay broker fees and I was rarely in a position to buy 100 shares at a time (if you bought less, the stock price and the broker fee both usually went up). Back then, the book was a great aid. I still own a stock list in the book that I purchased thanks to this book.

But in many ways, this book has lost a lot of relevance. Now one can go online and purchase stocks in any amount with fees of as little as $3.00. And the fact that the book has not been updated since 1996 weighs heavily against recommending it be purchased by anyone today. Perhaps Carlson has not bothered to further update because of the ease with which stocks may eb purchased on-line.

Still, for someone who is a long term investor, it provides some choices as far as investing without involving a broker. And it is definitely an option if you have no desire to use the internet to make stock purchases. Just be aware that your options are limited; most companies do not offer direct purchase of their stock or Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRIPs) to the public at large.

Disappointed
I bought the book hoping to learn a few more things about DRIP investing, and did not learn a thing! I am sure that the book was good when it was written (especially the first edition), but there is simply TOO much free information available today.

I gave the book a sympathetic 2 stars because Carlson is (or was) the DRIP guru.

Waste of Money. Out of Dated Investment instrument
I read this book and would say this is a non-sense book. Who would bother the hassle to read this book and buy stcok directly from a compay if an online transcation (e.g, datek, eTrade, etc) only costs you a tiny amount of money? The Price of the book allows you to execute two instant online transactions.

Don't buy it. Please. I have already wasted my money. ... Read more

Amazon.com

From the school of unemotional investing comes the classic How to Make Money in Stocks, by Wall Street analyst and publisher William O'Neil. Readers new to securities will find it an excellent primer, one that relies on time-honored indicators such as quarterly earnings, market capitalization, and daily indexes. O'Neil's study of winning stocks stretches back to the 1960s, and he shares his insights here, describing what characterizes a growth stock, when to cut your losses (at 7 or 8 percent, no more), and how to spot a market top.

The techniques in How to Make Money in Stocks are hardly revolutionary, but therein lies their strength, as O'Neil claims his is "a winning system in good times or bad." Investors interested in Net stocks might be disappointed--the author's first rule is that a company must show a pattern of growing profits, which disqualifies many dot coms. (TryRule Breakers, Rule Makers for a different take.) O'Neil's approach to stocks is, above all, rational, and he pays little heed to market hype.

Those new to investing would do well to read this book before embarking, and even more seasoned traders may find How to Make Money in Stocks a refreshing return to basics. Markets may swing bull and bear, but O'Neil promises to stand firm. --Demian McLean ... Read more

Reviews (158)

An excellent book for the beginner to moderate investor.
This is an excellent book for someone starting out in investing. It teaches you WJ O'Neil's CANSLIM method of picking stocks.

What's CANSLIM you ask? CANSLIM is a method of picking stocks developed by William J. O'Neil. He's taken his years of investing knowledge and developed a system of picking stocks that has repeatedly proven to be successful.

The book takes you through each part of this method from quarterly earnings through annual earnings, when to buy, trading volume, stock leaders, institutional support and market direction.

He also teaches you when to sell a stock even in a bad market. He'll show you how to cut your losses and why it's important to sell at the right time to prevent major losses on a stock.

Finally he takes you through some of the best stocks in recent history and shows you how to read the signs that they put out. This will teach you how to recognize today's stocks that are ready to burst from the pack and soar to new highs.

This book pushes WJ O'Neil's newspaper, Investor Business Daily, as it has much of the information needed to use the CANSLIM method. But even without his paper this book teaches you the methods needed to make money in the stock market.

All in all I think this is a great book for investors.

The Book I Started Trading With...
Ten years ago, this book probably launched tens of thousands of eager investors on a journey towards riches. Two years ago, it probably ruined thousands more. I'm not saying that O'Neil's methodology doesn't work. In fact, I have great respect for O'Neil and this book because it launched me on my journey into the markets just a few years ago. The only drawback is that this methodology works best in a bull market environment. When you hit a persistent bear market like we've seen for nearly 2 years now, you are basically sitting in cash spending endless hours looking for that perfect stock to break out of a long-term consolidation. If you don't have the time to search chart-after-chart every night for the perfect setup then you should try a great investment book I just heard about called the 401(k) MarketBuster. The 401(k) MarketBuster will probably find you the same, or better, account returns in the long-run that you'd find with intermediate-term trading; at a fraction of the research time (literally minutes a year). If you are like me and have the time and inclination to learn more about the markets so you can find that elusive "perfect" setup to trade (Lord help you), then you might want to take a look at Dave Landry's book on swing trading. It will offer you more opportunities more often.

The best you'll find.
This is the best system you'll find anywhere. I originally worked as a broker for a firm that followed the Bill O'Neil philosophy and that firm made $$ for their clients consistently. Now I follow this system and trade for my own accounts with even better results. My last stock, TASR, was up roughly 100% (much more on margin) in one month and I found this stock by using the fundamental & technical analysis that I've learned through Investors Business Daily along with dailygraphs (www.dailygraphs.com). His strategy of cutting losses quick and letting winners ride is necessary to preserve capital and maximize gains. AAII (American Association of Individual Investors) rated this as the best performing strategy over several years period.

sparse on some concepts, but relevant in bull markets
First, I would have to comment that the criticism about IBD as a normal newspaper is unfair. Its analysis and opinions are encapsulated in the numbers, systematically compiled for any common stocks worth considering as investments. Any individual investor would see that at one dollar, IBD is a bargain. "How to Make Money in Stocks" is the guide to understanding the ratings of IBD, as well as a clear introduction to O'Neill's investing philosophy. The prevailing market conditions are very important to the success of CANSLIM, and reviews of the book written in the depths of the 2000-2002 stock funk may be colored indeed.

I, too, had some questions about "pivot points," etc. that seem sparsely described. This is because you are supposed to look at the charts. If this isn't enough, look at more charts (the book has plenty). "Pivot points" and "accumulation" are not exact concepts, so one has to practice looking at the chart and acquire an understanding of these concepts. "How to Make Money in Stocks" is one of those rare books that relies on the graphical presentation of data as much as copy writing to communicate its sometimes fuzzy ideas.

This book is superb at describing the CANSLIM method on analysis, which can be done these days with free internet sources. An excellent description for novices of investing research.

My advice would be to pick up this book, read it, buy a copy of IBD, and keep track of ten or so stocks for 60 days or so. If the market goes up and these stocks don't, look for a better method. If you need more comforting words in the newspaper to guide your money decisions, drop this stuff and hire some investment professional.

Invest comfortably
I have been investing in the stock market since 1998. I've made my share and lost my share. However, it was always a chaotic affair. I wasn't investing based on anything solid, it was just going with the market. Besides who could lose in the 90's? Then came 2000 and 2001.
Lucky for me I ran into this book and let me tell you something, it has made me comfortable with the way I invest. I don't need to keep up with the market every minute and I don't stress as much. I also understand better how to read graphs and how to interpret market activities. A book well worth it.
It does mention the Investors Business Daily paper a lot because they publish it but it's a worthy paper also so I don't see anything wrong with that. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Investors -- be they aggressive or conservative, self-directed or professionally managed -- are always on the lookout for an edge. And in James O'Shaughnessy's What Works on Wall Street: A Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time, they'll find a solid one: authoritative analysis of popular practices from the past. The author examines three decades of stock market data to show how 15 of the most common investment tactics have fared over time. ... Read more

Reviews (49)

Buy value sell fashion, winners win and losers lose.
What Works on Wall Street? According to a study of 45 years of stock market data in a book called "What works on Wall Street" by O'Shaughnesy he came to the conclusion that some strategies would have produced greater returns than the S&P 500 whilst others produced less. He tested a range of strategies, re-balancing the strategies annually, with each strategy involving the 50 stocks which met the criteria for inclusion.

The worst strategy that you could have adopted was to buy last year's losers each year. The message is clear - losers carried on being losers. Sometimes the weak beats the strong, but it's not the way to bet your money.

The next ten worst strategies involved buying Companies on high multiples such as high price to sales ratio companies. These companies were generally on high multiples because they were thought to be high growth or sexy companies with lots of potential. They were the then current stock market darlings that investors were prepared to pay up for in order to join in with the latest investment fad or fashion.

As far as the best performing strategies are concerned, he found that the top 6 strategies all involved buying companies with high relative strength in combination with a value factor such as low p/e or low price to sales ratio. These companies were generally on low multiples because they were in out of favour sectors or old economy share that had been overlooked. By combining it with high relative strength (i.e. shares which were rising), these strategies caught those shares whose under-valuation was finally starting to be recognised by the market.

The book found that over long periods, adopting the following rules would have proved to be more profitable than buying the S&P 500: Low price to sales stocks out-perform the higher p/s stocks. Low price to cash flow stocks do better than high p/cfl stocks. Low price to book stocks tend to perform better than high p/b stocks. Other conclusions reached in the book are as follows: Price to sales ratio is the best single value ratio to use for buying market beating stocks. Last years biggest losers are the worst stocks you can buy. Last years earnings gains alone are worthless when determining if a stock is a good investment. You can do four times as well as the S&P 500 by concentrating on large well known stocks with high dividend yields. Relative strength is the only growth variable that consistently beats the market.

Buying Wall Street's current darlings with the highest price to earnings ratios is one of the worst things you can do.

Other lines from the book: Growth investors believe in a Company's potential and think a stock's price will rise with its earnings.

Value investors believe in a company's balance sheet, thinking a stock's price will eventually rise to meet its intrinsic value.

The S&P 500 tracker strategy is a strategy making disciplined bets on large cap companies. This strategy is just one of hundreds of strategies which could exist. For example another strategy might be to measure the performance of all stocks that begin with the letters h,l,m,n, and p. There are many other strategies which have given higher returns in the past than the S&P 500 strategy, some for no logical reason, others with a certain logic. Examples of logical strategies include a disciplined small cap strategy, or a disciplined low price to sales strategy or a disciplined high yield strategy etc. Some of those strategies also performed more consistently than the S&P 500 strategy, ie with less risk.

For example if in the 1950s the editors at Dow Jones had decided to revamp the index buying the 50 stocks with the lowest price to sales ratio, then the Dow Jones Industrial Index would be at 4 times the level of today.

People want to believe the present is different from the past. The price of a stock is still determined by people. As long as people let fear, greed, hope and ignorance cloud their judgement they will continue to mis-price stocks and provide opportunities to those who rigorously use simple time tested strategies to pick stocks. Names change, industries change. Styles come in and out of fashion, but the underlying characteristics that identify a good or bad investment remain the same.

Statistics you can't afford to ignore
The author went through the Compustat database to study the effects of eleven financial ratios on a hypothetical portfolio that was rebalanced once a year. The financial ratios or parameters are: market cap, price to earning, price to book, price to cash flow, price to sales, dividend yield, 1 year earning's growth, 5 year earning's growth, profit margin, return on equity, and price momentum. The study spans over 45 years. For each parameter he reports the portfolio return by year, and the return's arithmatic mean, standard deviation, geometric mean, Sharpe ratio, and how often it beats (or conversely underperforms) the broad market.

He then studies performance of portfolios that combine high or low values of several of the above financial parameters. And he does present some very interesting and useful results here.

Arguably one must already have some familiarity with various stock picking strategies, and some comfort with statistical analysis, to profit from this book. The book has two main weaknesses: (1) The author gives no reason to believe that the past performance will indeed guide future performance, and (2) The author gives no information on the turnover encountered by each portfolio strategy. Hence unless your investment portfolio is limited to your retirement account, you don't know whether following the conclusions from this study will really make you additional AFTER TAX money, compared to a low turnover S&P500 indexing strategy.

Nevertheless the book presents ORIGINAL reliable and FACTUAL informaion regarding how the US market behaved between 1951 and 1996. That in itself makes it more useful than most investment books. If you happen to be serious about investing in stocks, you simply can't afford to ignore these results.

Common Sense Leads To Un-Common Performance !!
James O'Shaughnnessy's book is the latest to engage the Age Old Question: growth stocks or value stocks? Instead of focusing on those 2 sectors specifically, he meticulously looks at the multi-decade history of various metrics -- price-sales, price-book, price-earnings, etc -- in making sound investment decisions.

The books major highlights are as follows:

(1) A bent towards small and microcap stocks, particularly value-oriented stocks, works very well. Buying microcaps is difficult for institutions but NOT for most individual investors.

(2) Price-sales is underused as a method for finding good (value) stocks and market-beating performance.

(3) Price-earnings and dividend yield are also good indicators, especially in the context of larger cap stocks.

(4) Value edges out growth. (NOTE: The starting and ending points for measuring long-term cycles are so important that changing the dates by a few years can often reverse the results. While value stock investing might have a slight edge in the time frames studied in "What Works On Wall Street", keep in mind that depending on where growth and value stocks are in their respective cycles when you decide to invest is very important to your portfolio choices. For instance, after a big value runup, growth stocks often outperform for a decade or so.)

(5) Using more than 1 metric is important in helping outperformance while reducing risk/volatility.

The book has tons of data and backs up its claims well. Keep in mind, this book was published in 1998 with the data going through 1996. Had the data stopped at 1999, the results would have looked VERY DIFFERENT! And, of course, had it been updated through recent years, different again.

All in all, a very worthwhile book, though you can get lost and immersed in so many numbers at various times that you forget "the big picture" which thankfully O'Shaugnnessey repeats often enough to make sure the reader comes away with the basics.

Take with a grain of salt...
The key findings of O'Shaughnessy are the slight superiority of returns for small cap stocks and larger excess returns for value stocks, and therefore the combination of both is ideal.

Of course, Ben Graham said this 70 years ago but approached the topic from the bottom up, while this book analyzes top-down.

I would however steer cleer of his idea about relative price momentum that he claims does 18.11% a year. Note that O'Shaughnessy started several funds, which did absolutely miserably and then he jumped ship having made a small fortune in book sales.

Read this book, but read Graham&Dodd as well.

Better than "How to Retire Rich" but not much better.
This book is for long term investors who want to rotate their portfolios once per year. Basically the author looked at several strategies ranging from low p/e's to high annualized growth rates and everything in between. He back tested the strategies from 12/31/1954-12/31/1996 he then would purchase the bottom 50 and the top 50 for that screening category and ranked the results. The highest strategy was Price to Sales ratio under 1, with high relative strength, this strategy returned a compound interest of 18.62% over the 45 year time span. Thus a $10,000 investment would become $12,999,698!

Now if I were you I'd just go to the library and check out the book since only the results are really the important part of the book.

Reed Floren ... Read more

Amazon.com

Should you let a Fool tell you where to invest your money?If he's aMotley Fool, the answer is a resounding YES!David and Tom Gardner launchedthe most successful investment information service ever to grace cyberspace,and now they show you how to beat the market, even if you don't know adividend from a divining rod.With this guide, you'll find out how theinformation revolution can put money in your pocket. ... Read more

Reviews (100)

Finally, an investment guide for normal people
Dave and Tom have created an immensely readable and informative book for the average Joe who wants to learn how to invest in the stock market. Their liberal use of humorous examples makes the book hard to put down. They explain why mutual funds are usually a bad choice, how to do your own research, how to avoid sky-high commissions, how to do your own research on companies, the difference between fundamental analysis and technical analysis (and which one is basically worthless), and even how to make money in a bear market (yes, it can be done, and it's a lot easier than you might think). Overall, if you are looking for a simple and fun explanation of how to get started in investing, you can't possibly go wrong with this one.

Foolish, in the Very Best Sense
So, are you young enough to be looking at 10 to 30 years ahead of you to cosset your investments into something bigger than a breadbasket? Are you, at the same time, flush enough to have (perhaps after a few years of scrimping) 25 to 50 thousand dollars that YOU DON'T NEED? Are you comfortable with numbers? Can you, or can you learn to, look annual reports and financial statements in the face without flinching (or glazing over)? Does making an average of 15 to 20 percent per year on your portfolio over the long haul (for the ride may be bumpy, with some dives as well as climbs) sound sufficiently enticing? Do you have a day job that you intend to keep? Do you have a life outside of playing the market that you intend to live? Then, and only then, this could be the book for you!

I love these guys. They're a couple of fresh-faced young men, brothers, who treat investing seriously, but that doesn't mean somberly. The first chapter or so of this book was so jokey I thought the ratio of matter to chatter was going to be about 1:1, but they got down to business, as it were, soon enough.

Their basic point is that anybody who is willing to do some work looking at the fundamentals of companies can find some to invest in and, usually, stay with, that will significantly outperform the market. A person can build a portfolio of stocks that will beat the Dow, or the S&P 500, by several percentage points every year. Since the market, overall, is rising at 10 or 11 percent (ok, bad year to convince you of THAT) annually, over the long haul this 15 or 18 percent compounding of one's portfolio can lead to significant gains.

And the lovely thing is, most of these are tax-deferred, since only the dividends of stocks that you hold are taxed, and the plan is to hold your stocks, not to churn them. If you do your homework well you should have stocks that you stay with for years - perhaps even leave to your loved ones, who will therefore treasure your memory.

Yeah, yeah (I can hear you muttering): "willing to do some work"? Well, yes. YOU CAN'T GET AROUND IT! You have to crunch a few numbers, but it's fifth-grade math (some long division is required). You have to get cozy with financial statements. It'd be nice, moreover, if you understood something of what the company you want to own a chunk of does for a living (it might become YOUR living!), and some of the high points of its spectrum of the economic universe.

The brothers will introduce you to some good ideas, and puncture some bad ones. They demonstrate why small caps are so great for the individual investor, for example. They tell you when, with impeccable logic, it is a bad idea to short a stock (even a stock about to plummet). They talk turkey about the real costs of trading - the commissions AND the spread. They quickly demolish the allure of day-trading. They campaign tirelessly for honesty and transparency in investment advice, and point out the problem with almost all mutual funds (except for the index funds, which they like, but just not as much as individual stocks).

Oh, and they run a web site, which no doubt nets them a few bucks, which I certainly don't begrudge them. They are for power to the people, online power to the upwardly-mobile investor-class of people, anyway. (Hey, you have to start somewhere!)

Mostly, this book is inspirational. It's message is that you, the ordinary Joe or Jane, can put away a few bucks and then invest it intelligently. If you're not using the rent money, and if your time horizon is meaningful - 10 to 30 years - you can come out the other end with a real, honest-to-goodness nest egg. This is NOT a book about making quick profits, or getting wealth without work. It DOES say that it doesn't take too much work, and it does take several years, but that if you apply yourself, and hold the course, you will do better in the long run than all the fund managers in the financial industry. But more importantly, you'll do well. Also they start the book with a snippet from one of my favorite poems, so I have to trust them!

Good intro for wannabee Fools
This book is pretty good for first time or novice investors, the Gardner brothers discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different investment methods most notably: mutual funds, index funds, and stocks. Also it seems these Fools (yes they like to be called that) like investing in Dow stock, much of their information regarding Dow stocks appears to come from Michael O'Higgins author of Beating the Dow. Another method that the brothers introduce is one of their own for picking out small cap growth stocks, here's what they look for:

Sales of less than $200 million
Daily Dollar Volume of $3 million or less
Low Price $5-$20
Net profit margin of 10% or more
Relative Strength (IBD) of 90 or higher
Earnings and sales growth for the most recent quarter of 25+ or more
Insider holdings of 15%+
Cash flow from operations should also be a positive number

This book is primarily aimed at beginning investors who want to hold growth stocks for a year or more, however a lot of this book is focused on them talking about their website www.fool.com

My favorite part of this book would have to be the chapter on Zeigletics: The Penny Stock That Never Was.

Reed Floren

Decent Investing Primer, but not much more
The Motley Fool Investment guide by the Gardners was a fairly interesting primer on the subject of investing, with a particular emphasis on stockpicking. However, that is ALL you should take it as. It should merely be viewed as ONE type of overview of the stock market that may or may not be valid under current market conditions.

Note: Beginning investors should be very wary of following the strategies outlined in this or ANY investing book with any significant sum of money. Run a simulation portfolio and test out the validity of these methods before you plunk your hard earned cash into some particular system. Be warned. My opinions may sound very negative and you may be at a loss of confidence, but I do believe you'd rather take a beating in your emotions before you take one with your portfolio.

Now, overall, the book offers some nice stratagems for newer investors and is written in a very friendly style to keep people interested. The book is laced with the Gardners' personal style of humor(which I wasn't particularly fond of), but they did manage to keep the book fairly light-hearted and easy to read. With that said, I believe a key flaw of this book is that it makes achieving market-beating returns seem fairly easy.

Would it be feasible to believe that anyone could suddenly start playing NBA quality basketball were that person to read and follow some simple exercises in a book entitled "Play Basketball like Michael Jordan"? How about "Tiger Woods in 20 Minutes"? Yes my friends, it is very possible to play pro ball by doing my secret exercises for only 20 minutes a day, because in my new book, I have outlined some very secret and powerful methods that will make your growth in talent and muscle EXPLODE! *cue slightly altered techniques found in a basic exercise manual wrapped around in clever and seductive writing.

The notion that someone can play professional, all-star level ball by reading a book and following simple exercises would quickly be dismissed as utter BS. But in the world of investing, 'secret methods,' 'the methods of the pros,' etc. etc., always seem to entice new investors into buying a $15 manual to learn the secrets to beat the market. Maybe Peter Lynch can get by on beating the pros by looking at investments only a few hours a week because his decisions are built on experience... It may be easy for a professional bodybuilder to lift 350 lbs, but does that mean the average man can expect to do the same? To suggest that the newcomer can beat the pros by spending only a few hours a week and using a very simple system sounds quite like the 'pro ball' scenario, no?

You certainly won't get consistent market beating returns by following the very scanty guidelines offered in this book. Another area of fault with the book is that, at times, it seems like you've just spent your hard-earned money on a big advertisement. The constant plugging of their website is extremely annoying to say the least. It almost seems as this book was geared to get you to join their website.

With all of that said, the book offers a decent, easily followed write-up of long term investing fundamentals. It's a nice overview of the subject of investing, and beginners will learn some good lessons, but by no means should they believe that by reading a couple of investing books and following the simple guidelines within should they expect to beat the market over the long-term. There's a reason most mutual funds don't consistently beat the market over the long-term. And no, it's not because the majority of mutual funds are run by complete dunces (some of you may tend to disagree). The objective of obtaining market beating returns isn't nearly as easy as it seems.

this book is bad
The information contained in this book has been discredited by lots of academics and yes, even by the Gardner brothers themselves. Don't buy this or any of their terrible books. ... Read more

Book Description

Here are insights into nine of the most successful investors of our time --Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, John Templeton, and Philip Fisher, among others. In these fascinating profiles John Train reveals the unique investment styles that have made each a master: the traits that distinguish them from the crowd and the techniques that create the single characteristic unifying them all -- consisently profitable investments. Their methods, Train reveals, include those both the nonprofessional and the seasoned investor can apply for profit. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Good read but nothing mind blowing
If you want to read a concise book about the investment styles and philosophies of historic "golden age" investors this book might be the one for you. Any student considering asset management as a career should read this one as well as The New Money Masters, its counterpart that highlights investors post 1975 or so.

I would encourage everyone to understand the difference from this book and its latter brother, the NEW MONEY MASTERS. This book is primarily focused on investors that became household names via the companies that are their legacy such as T. Rowe Price, John Templeton and Warren Buffett. Other notable investors are Paul Cabot, Philip Fisher, Benjamin Graham, Stanley Kroll, Larry Tisch, and Robert Wilson. If you want to know how the experts do it, this is a great anthology to get you started. Listen to the best and forget the rest!

Both of Train's books are in the form of interviews he has with them. Train's writing is crisp and entertaining, and his interviews uncover many pearls of wisdom applicable to any investor's philosophy.

The Money Masters covers the origins of the value and growth philosophies of investing that many managers practice variations of today. The sections on Ben Graham and Sir John Templeton both outline the development of the fundamental approach to valuation as well as its original application in stock markets throughout the world. Phil Fisher and T. Rowe Price represent the two most celebrated proponents of what has come to be known as the growth strategy, adding the additional rigor of another layer of criteria to the value-style approach. Warren Buffett stands as one of the first great synthesizers of the ideas of both Graham and Fisher, while other investors like Larry Tisch represent variations on one particular strand, in Tisch's case that being value-investing.

If anyone is interested in books on the people behind the financial industry read Money Masters, New Money Masters, Predators Ball, Money Culture, Den of Theives and F.I.A.S.C.O. 25 Investment Classics and Goldman Sachs: the Culture of Success are other notable books. I gave the book 4 stars because; while it was very concise and well written I didn't find any information within the book that was of great help to me. It was entertaining and informative but not ground breaking or made me say "AH HAH" or have that light bulb go off in my head.

perhaps the BEST get started primer on investing
Perhaps the best place to start learning about investing. Read the conclusions first, then read the book, then re-read the conclusions. Peter Lynch said he read this book 3 times. I have read it probably 5 times over the years (Lynch may have caught up by now). I would give this more than 5 stars if I could. After reading the Money Masters, then you may be ready for The Intelligent Investor (Graham), A Random Walk down Wall St (Malkiel), & Where are the Customers Yachts (Schwed). then start investing for real. VERY readable, VERY enjoyable, BEST insights.

Surprisingly Thorough Compendium
I studied Ben Graham, Warren Buffett and Phil Fisher fairly carefully and came to this book after the fact. And I was surprised how thoroughly John Train neatly encapsulates the approaches of these investment masters. The chapter on Ben Graham may in fact be the definitive place to start one's study of this great thinker's initially intimidating body of work.

I'd give the book 5 stars, but the author sometimes uses finance terms loosely when clarity is absolutely critical (when he's describing key financial insights). For instance, in the chapter on Warren Buffett, Train notes that one of the ways Buffett distinguishes winners from losers via the balance sheet is to make sure payables are more than offset by receivables. Train's description appears to provide a key insight, but it's vague to the point of being meaningless. (He does it again in his follow-up book THE NEW MONEY MASTERS when in a discription of how Train's firm estimates approximate growth in unit sales from financial statements, he writes that he multiplies "the retained operating margin on sales and the turnover rate of gross operating assets.")

An excellent primer
The Money Mast