A valuable insight into the rapidly changing economy, 16 Nov 2008
When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change
Mohamed El Erian has spent many years involved in the emerging markets and this book gives a very valuable insight into the impact that these markets are having on the financial landscape and how to capitalize on it.

In future the emerging markets will be much more important drivers of the world economy than the US, UK, Europe or Japan.

The book talks about the crisis caused by the undervaluation of risk combined with the under-assessment of the quantity of risk outstanding and the consequential fundamental changes taking place. The sheer complexity of the structure of financial products and the inability of the regulatory system to keep on top of these developments has been a catalyst in the resulting financial chaos as has the advance in technology. Technology has undermined the role of the sell side in price discovery which has caused the sell side to extend their activities into new and unfamiliar areas at greater risk of market accidents.

Derivative based products significantly reduced barriers to entry in a range of markets and the complexity stemmed from the ground upwards. Domestic mortgages are taken as a good example. Gone were the days of plain vanilla fixed or floating loans. Instead a plethora of structures were offered, many so complex that household borrowers didn't understand them.

The author emphasises the importance of interpreting signals and differentiating between what is noise and what are real structural changes. He focuses on China as being the most important contributor to world growth. Emerging economies which have greatly benefited from the US and parts of Europe by sustaining consumer demand way beyond income growth are now building up massive amounts of wealth.

Time and time again the Sovereign Wealth Funds are mentioned.

This book gives us food for thought about how to assess the new financial landscape given that many of the emerging markets have shifted from debtors to creditors and are now extremely important drivers of the world economy. It encourages the reader to keep a close eye on the SWFs and their allocation of capital. It gives us some ideas as to construct an international portfolio. It also talks about changes that will be required in organisations such as the IMF.

A valuable insight into the rapidly changing economy, 16 Nov 2008
When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change
Mohamed El Erian has spent many years involved in the emerging markets and this book gives a very valuable insight into the impact that these markets are having on the financial landscape and how to capitalize on it.

In future the emerging markets will be much more important drivers of the world economy than the US, UK, Europe or Japan.

The book talks about the crisis caused by the undervaluation of risk combined with the under-assessment of the quantity of risk outstanding and the consequential fundamental changes taking place. The sheer complexity of the structure of financial products and the inability of the regulatory system to keep on top of these developments has been a catalyst in the resulting financial chaos as has the advance in technology. Technology has undermined the role of the sell side in price discovery which has caused the sell side to extend their activities into new and unfamiliar areas at greater risk of market accidents.

Derivative based products significantly reduced barriers to entry in a range of markets and the complexity stemmed from the ground upwards. Domestic mortgages are taken as a good example. Gone were the days of plain vanilla fixed or floating loans. Instead a plethora of structures were offered, many so complex that household borrowers didn't understand them.

The author emphasises the importance of interpreting signals and differentiating between what is noise and what are real structural changes. He focuses on China as being the most important contributor to world growth. Emerging economies which have greatly benefited from the US and parts of Europe by sustaining consumer demand way beyond income growth are now building up massive amounts of wealth.

Time and time again the Sovereign Wealth Funds are mentioned.

This book gives us food for thought about how to assess the new financial landscape given that many of the emerging markets have shifted from debtors to creditors and are now extremely important drivers of the world economy. It encourages the reader to keep a close eye on the SWFs and their allocation of capital. It gives us some ideas as to construct an international portfolio. It also talks about changes that will be required in organisations such as the IMF.

A must read for the serious investor, 06 Aug 2008
The language may be a bit dated but the advice is still good, proving there is little new in the world of investing. If you follow Graham's practical advice on valuing companies, assessing risk and investing for the long term you will make money.

Lives up to the hype, 07 Jun 2007
Most investors seem to have heard of this book - many refer to it as the bible of value investing. I think that the esteem that it is held in is probably counter productive (Barton Biggs, hedge fund manager, talks about being asked to read and annotate it twice as a young man), but what impressed me is that it is a very simple readable book that explains how to invest long term, to maximise wealth.

I don't think that Zweig's commentary adds much - I would pay more for a version with it excised - it provides interesting detail on what Graham may have considered important which is great, but it also provides a lot of anecdotal evidence which could be misleading. It also triples the length and provides a lot of distraction.

Invest In This Book, Invest In Yourself, 24 Sep 2006
With more than one million copies sold and an endorsement on the cover by Warren Buffet, you know there has to be something to this book- and I think I know why. Simply because it is the first book ever to describe the emotional framework and analytical tools necessary for financial success for individual investors.

Probably the single best book on investing written for the lay-public and the stock market bible since its first appearance in 1949, it's a great resource, although it's quite a thick book and filled with detail- and probably not for anybody but the serious stock market investor. And if getting motivated to start investing is your problem, suggest The Sixty-Second Motivator. Good luck!



Two books: one old and good, one new and bad, 21 Sep 2006
This edition of The Intelligent Investor is really two books in one. There is the original 1973 edition of Ben Graham's classic on "value investing" and then a commentary on each chapter by Jason Zweig.
Graham's text is solid, a little heavy, sometimes a little out of date, and some of his tables a bit user-unfriendly; but no matter: it is the timeless lessons he teaches that matter. He is very methodical, a bit mathematical and -- if you follow him all the way -- will leave you with a good grounding in how to approach the stock market.
Basically his gospel is this: ignore all the hype and blather around the stockmarket. Invest for the long-term in big, rock-steady, simple businesses, after analysing them with a few financial criteria. But only buy when the market is offering them at a bargain price.
Unfortunately, each of Graham's sober tutorials is followed by a commentary by Zweig. He may claim to be a disciple of the great man, but he is certainly not cut from the same cloth. Zweig is just one more financial markets cheerleader: repetitive, pushy, and rolling out the same old disaster stories from the dot.com era ad nauseam, supposedly to show how wise Graham was (in case you didn't understand Graham's chapter). He also repeatedly cites his own magazine and keeps naming the same fund, which is annoying at the very least. He also resorts to a lot of "if you had bought shares on every third Wednesday since 1974 you would have made a 3,859 percent return!!" kind of hocus-pocus which is a complete waste of time.
Zweig could have used the opportunity to unpick some of the knottier points of Graham's book and help readers understand the harder parts. The worst thing is that he sometimes goes against Graham's teachings, so he should NOT be taken as an extension of Graham! (For example, on page 129 he says if you don't have time to choose your own stocks, there's no shame in hiring someone to pick them for you. On page 243, he says "In the financial markets, luck is more important than skill". Ben Graham must be turning in his grave.)
One more caveat: this volume boasts a preface and appendix by Warren Buffett, Ben Graham's most famous pupil. But don't be swayed by that. The preface is an obituary written by Buffett and the appendix is an edited talk that Buffett gave in 1984. They're okay but it doesn't mean that Buffett is backing this schizoid volume.
My advice: read the Graham chapters, ditch the Zweig commentary. You'll save time AND be wiser.

Definitive guide to value investing, 10 Sep 2006
This is probably the best place to start if you are interested in value investing. Although the latest revision by Graham was in the seventies, Jazon Zweig adds commentaries to each chapter to bring the information right up to date. The principles of investment are sound and the style of writing is very accessible. This is a classic investment book and should be read by most people planning for their financial future. Highly recommended.

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-honoured 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 seven or eight 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. 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, Amazon.com

A valuable insight into the rapidly changing economy, 16 Nov 2008
When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change
Mohamed El Erian has spent many years involved in the emerging markets and this book gives a very valuable insight into the impact that these markets are having on the financial landscape and how to capitalize on it.

In future the emerging markets will be much more important drivers of the world economy than the US, UK, Europe or Japan.

The book talks about the crisis caused by the undervaluation of risk combined with the under-assessment of the quantity of risk outstanding and the consequential fundamental changes taking place. The sheer complexity of the structure of financial products and the inability of the regulatory system to keep on top of these developments has been a catalyst in the resulting financial chaos as has the advance in technology. Technology has undermined the role of the sell side in price discovery which has caused the sell side to extend their activities into new and unfamiliar areas at greater risk of market accidents.

Derivative based products significantly reduced barriers to entry in a range of markets and the complexity stemmed from the ground upwards. Domestic mortgages are taken as a good example. Gone were the days of plain vanilla fixed or floating loans. Instead a plethora of structures were offered, many so complex that household borrowers didn't understand them.

The author emphasises the importance of interpreting signals and differentiating between what is noise and what are real structural changes. He focuses on China as being the most important contributor to world growth. Emerging economies which have greatly benefited from the US and parts of Europe by sustaining consumer demand way beyond income growth are now building up massive amounts of wealth.

Time and time again the Sovereign Wealth Funds are mentioned.

This book gives us food for thought about how to assess the new financial landscape given that many of the emerging markets have shifted from debtors to creditors and are now extremely important drivers of the world economy. It encourages the reader to keep a close eye on the SWFs and their allocation of capital. It gives us some ideas as to construct an international portfolio. It also talks about changes that will be required in organisations such as the IMF.

A must read for the serious investor, 06 Aug 2008
The language may be a bit dated but the advice is still good, proving there is little new in the world of investing. If you follow Graham's practical advice on valuing companies, assessing risk and investing for the long term you will make money.

Lives up to the hype, 07 Jun 2007
Most investors seem to have heard of this book - many refer to it as the bible of value investing. I think that the esteem that it is held in is probably counter productive (Barton Biggs, hedge fund manager, talks about being asked to read and annotate it twice as a young man), but what impressed me is that it is a very simple readable book that explains how to invest long term, to maximise wealth.

I don't think that Zweig's commentary adds much - I would pay more for a version with it excised - it provides interesting detail on what Graham may have considered important which is great, but it also provides a lot of anecdotal evidence which could be misleading. It also triples the length and provides a lot of distraction.

Invest In This Book, Invest In Yourself, 24 Sep 2006
With more than one million copies sold and an endorsement on the cover by Warren Buffet, you know there has to be something to this book- and I think I know why. Simply because it is the first book ever to describe the emotional framework and analytical tools necessary for financial success for individual investors.

Probably the single best book on investing written for the lay-public and the stock market bible since its first appearance in 1949, it's a great resource, although it's quite a thick book and filled with detail- and probably not for anybody but the serious stock market investor. And if getting motivated to start investing is your problem, suggest The Sixty-Second Motivator. Good luck!



Two books: one old and good, one new and bad, 21 Sep 2006
This edition of The Intelligent Investor is really two books in one. There is the original 1973 edition of Ben Graham's classic on "value investing" and then a commentary on each chapter by Jason Zweig.
Graham's text is solid, a little heavy, sometimes a little out of date, and some of his tables a bit user-unfriendly; but no matter: it is the timeless lessons he teaches that matter. He is very methodical, a bit mathematical and -- if you follow him all the way -- will leave you with a good grounding in how to approach the stock market.
Basically his gospel is this: ignore all the hype and blather around the stockmarket. Invest for the long-term in big, rock-steady, simple businesses, after analysing them with a few financial criteria. But only buy when the market is offering them at a bargain price.
Unfortunately, each of Graham's sober tutorials is followed by a commentary by Zweig. He may claim to be a disciple of the great man, but he is certainly not cut from the same cloth. Zweig is just one more financial markets cheerleader: repetitive, pushy, and rolling out the same old disaster stories from the dot.com era ad nauseam, supposedly to show how wise Graham was (in case you didn't understand Graham's chapter). He also repeatedly cites his own magazine and keeps naming the same fund, which is annoying at the very least. He also resorts to a lot of "if you had bought shares on every third Wednesday since 1974 you would have made a 3,859 percent return!!" kind of hocus-pocus which is a complete waste of time.
Zweig could have used the opportunity to unpick some of the knottier points of Graham's book and help readers understand the harder parts. The worst thing is that he sometimes goes against Graham's teachings, so he should NOT be taken as an extension of Graham! (For example, on page 129 he says if you don't have time to choose your own stocks, there's no shame in hiring someone to pick them for you. On page 243, he says "In the financial markets, luck is more important than skill". Ben Graham must be turning in his grave.)
One more caveat: this volume boasts a preface and appendix by Warren Buffett, Ben Graham's most famous pupil. But don't be swayed by that. The preface is an obituary written by Buffett and the appendix is an edited talk that Buffett gave in 1984. They're okay but it doesn't mean that Buffett is backing this schizoid volume.
My advice: read the Graham chapters, ditch the Zweig commentary. You'll save time AND be wiser.

Definitive guide to value investing, 10 Sep 2006
This is probably the best place to start if you are interested in value investing. Although the latest revision by Graham was in the seventies, Jazon Zweig adds commentaries to each chapter to bring the information right up to date. The principles of investment are sound and the style of writing is very accessible. This is a classic investment book and should be read by most people planning for their financial future. Highly recommended.

Basic Maths problems or just bad english ?, 22 Sep 2008
I was reading the book on the tube, and this just jumped out at me.

Page 22

'multiply 40 by 130% to see that the P/E ratio could possibly expand to 92'

Actually if you multiply 40 by 130% you get 52

If you increase 40 by 130% you get 92

This book did not deserve any more of my attention so I spent the remainder of my journey looking out of the window!!

A Gold Mine of Stock Investing Ideas!, 25 Aug 2008
William O'Neil, who started a successful financial paper known as Investors Business Daily, wrote How to Make Money in Stocks. Decade of research, critical thinking and common sense has helped O'Neil to create some very powerful ways of investing successfully.

This book isn't about getting rich quick. It takes time, study diligence and patience coupled with controlling ones emotions to become an excellent investor.

I have read many books, magazines and articles on investing in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and more over the years. O'Neil's ideas are some of the most solid and consistent I have found to apply to the stock market.

In the book he teaches his CAN SLIM method of investing. Looking at these indicators are powerful ways to find the right stocks. CAN SLIM stands for:

C = Current Quarterly Earnings per share: The Higher the Better
A = Annual Earnings Increases: Look for Growth
N = New Products, New Management, New Highs
S = Supply and Demand
L = Leader or Laggard
I = Institutional Sponsorship
M = Market Direction

There are other great ideas in the book such as: Nineteen Common Mistakes Most Investors Make, How to Cut Your Losses, When to Sell and Take Your Profit and much more.

As a side note, this book doesn't invest much time discussing mutual funds...but this is a book on stocks...not mutual funds.

How to Make Money in Stocks is a gold mine of ideas!


Perfect for beginners, 07 Aug 2008
I decided to enlighten myself on the mysterious of the stockmarket given that the housing market has lost steam and shares seem incredibly cheap. Before I read this book I had no idea how the stock market works or how to pick stocks and read markets but no I do. Highly recommended for novice investors and written in clear non-jargon langugage.

suspect people rating this book, 28 Jul 2008
Im nearly done reading this book, and im very new to the stock market. This is definately very interesting and worth taking notes of the main suggestions as you read along. Whether this will work in the long term remains to be seen, but the book is written well enough to try it out.


However a couple of things worth noting:
1. The book could be half the size. The amount of blagging in there is quite ridiculous.
2. Even more importantly, i only just realised how many anonymous people are making very similar comments here (as 'a customer') within the 58 reviews.

I'll let you know in the next 12 months how i get on :-)

Excellent, highly rated!, 01 Feb 2008
I'm new to investments and purchased this due to the previous glowing reviews. I was not disappointed; the book is well written and most importantly, very practical. It tells you exactly what to look for when purchasing stocks, when to sell, how to read the market and a whole lot more. It does push the IBD website and paper fairly heavily, but in fairness I think it would be difficult and very time consuming to pick CANSLIM stocks manually without the use of a website like IBD. There are thousands of stocks out there... do you want to narrow them down yourself, or let someone else do the hard work?

A valuable insight into the rapidly changing economy, 16 Nov 2008
When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change
Mohamed El Erian has spent many years involved in the emerging markets and this book gives a very valuable insight into the impact that these markets are having on the financial landscape and how to capitalize on it.

In future the emerging markets will be much more important drivers of the world economy than the US, UK, Europe or Japan.

The book talks about the crisis caused by the undervaluation of risk combined with the under-assessment of the quantity of risk outstanding and the consequential fundamental changes taking place. The sheer complexity of the structure of financial products and the inability of the regulatory system to keep on top of these developments has been a catalyst in the resulting financial chaos as has the advance in technology. Technology has undermined the role of the sell side in price discovery which has caused the sell side to extend their activities into new and unfamiliar areas at greater risk of market accidents.

Derivative based products significantly reduced barriers to entry in a range of markets and the complexity stemmed from the ground upwards. Domestic mortgages are taken as a good example. Gone were the days of plain vanilla fixed or floating loans. Instead a plethora of structures were offered, many so complex that household borrowers didn't understand them.

The author emphasises the importance of interpreting signals and differentiating between what is noise and what are real structural changes. He focuses on China as being the most important contributor to world growth. Emerging economies which have greatly benefited from the US and parts of Europe by sustaining consumer demand way beyond income growth are now building up massive amounts of wealth.

Time and time again the Sovereign Wealth Funds are mentioned.

This book gives us food for thought about how to assess the new financial landscape given that many of the emerging markets have shifted from debtors to creditors and are now extremely important drivers of the world economy. It encourages the reader to keep a close eye on the SWFs and their allocation of capital. It gives us some ideas as to construct an international portfolio. It also talks about changes that will be required in organisations such as the IMF.

A must read for the serious investor, 06 Aug 2008
The language may be a bit dated but the advice is still good, proving there is little new in the world of investing. If you follow Graham's practical advice on valuing companies, assessing risk and investing for the long term you will make money.

Lives up to the hype, 07 Jun 2007
Most investors seem to have heard of this book - many refer to it as the bible of value investing. I think that the esteem that it is held in is probably counter productive (Barton Biggs, hedge fund manager, talks about being asked to read and annotate it twice as a young man), but what impressed me is that it is a very simple readable book that explains how to invest long term, to maximise wealth.

I don't think that Zweig's commentary adds much - I would pay more for a version with it excised - it provides interesting detail on what Graham may have considered important which is great, but it also provides a lot of anecdotal evidence which could be misleading. It also triples the length and provides a lot of distraction.

Invest In This Book, Invest In Yourself, 24 Sep 2006
With more than one million copies sold and an endorsement on the cover by Warren Buffet, you know there has to be something to this book- and I think I know why. Simply because it is the first book ever to describe the emotional framework and analytical tools necessary for financial success for individual investors.

Probably the single best book on investing written for the lay-public and the stock market bible since its first appearance in 1949, it's a great resource, although it's quite a thick book and filled with detail- and probably not for anybody but the serious stock market investor. And if getting motivated to start investing is your problem, suggest The Sixty-Second Motivator. Good luck!



Two books: one old and good, one new and bad, 21 Sep 2006
This edition of The Intelligent Investor is really two books in one. There is the original 1973 edition of Ben Graham's classic on "value investing" and then a commentary on each chapter by Jason Zweig.
Graham's text is solid, a little heavy, sometimes a little out of date, and some of his tables a bit user-unfriendly; but no matter: it is the timeless lessons he teaches that matter. He is very methodical, a bit mathematical and -- if you follow him all the way -- will leave you with a good grounding in how to approach the stock market.
Basically his gospel is this: ignore all the hype and blather around the stockmarket. Invest for the long-term in big, rock-steady, simple businesses, after analysing them with a few financial criteria. But only buy when the market is offering them at a bargain price.
Unfortunately, each of Graham's sober tutorials is followed by a commentary by Zweig. He may claim to be a disciple of the great man, but he is certainly not cut from the same cloth. Zweig is just one more financial markets cheerleader: repetitive, pushy, and rolling out the same old disaster stories from the dot.com era ad nauseam, supposedly to show how wise Graham was (in case you didn't understand Graham's chapter). He also repeatedly cites his own magazine and keeps naming the same fund, which is annoying at the very least. He also resorts to a lot of "if you had bought shares on every third Wednesday since 1974 you would have made a 3,859 percent return!!" kind of hocus-pocus which is a complete waste of time.
Zweig could have used the opportunity to unpick some of the knottier points of Graham's book and help readers understand the harder parts. The worst thing is that he sometimes goes against Graham's teachings, so he should NOT be taken as an extension of Graham! (For example, on page 129 he says if you don't have time to choose your own stocks, there's no shame in hiring someone to pick them for you. On page 243, he says "In the financial markets, luck is more important than skill". Ben Graham must be turning in his grave.)
One more caveat: this volume boasts a preface and appendix by Warren Buffett, Ben Graham's most famous pupil. But don't be swayed by that. The preface is an obituary written by Buffett and the appendix is an edited talk that Buffett gave in 1984. They're okay but it doesn't mean that Buffett is backing this schizoid volume.
My advice: read the Graham chapters, ditch the Zweig commentary. You'll save time AND be wiser.

Definitive guide to value investing, 10 Sep 2006
This is probably the best place to start if you are interested in value investing. Although the latest revision by Graham was in the seventies, Jazon Zweig adds commentaries to each chapter to bring the information right up to date. The principles of investment are sound and the style of writing is very accessible. This is a classic investment book and should be read by most people planning for their financial future. Highly recommended.

Basic Maths problems or just bad english ?, 22 Sep 2008
I was reading the book on the tube, and this just jumped out at me.

Page 22

'multiply 40 by 130% to see that the P/E ratio could possibly expand to 92'

Actually if you multiply 40 by 130% you get 52

If you increase 40 by 130% you get 92

This book did not deserve any more of my attention so I spent the remainder of my journey looking out of the window!!

A Gold Mine of Stock Investing Ideas!, 25 Aug 2008
William O'Neil, who started a successful financial paper known as Investors Business Daily, wrote How to Make Money in Stocks. Decade of research, critical thinking and common sense has helped O'Neil to create some very powerful ways of investing successfully.

This book isn't about getting rich quick. It takes time, study diligence and patience coupled with controlling ones emotions to become an excellent investor.

I have read many books, magazines and articles on investing in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and more over the years. O'Neil's ideas are some of the most solid and consistent I have found to apply to the stock market.

In the book he teaches his CAN SLIM method of investing. Looking at these indicators are powerful ways to find the right stocks. CAN SLIM stands for:

C = Current Quarterly Earnings per share: The Higher the Better
A = Annual Earnings Increases: Look for Growth
N = New Products, New Management, New Highs
S = Supply and Demand
L = Leader or Laggard
I = Institutional Sponsorship
M = Market Direction

There are other great ideas in the book such as: Nineteen Common Mistakes Most Investors Make, How to Cut Your Losses, When to Sell and Take Your Profit and much more.

As a side note, this book doesn't invest much time discussing mutual funds...but this is a book on stocks...not mutual funds.

How to Make Money in Stocks is a gold mine of ideas!


Perfect for beginners, 07 Aug 2008
I decided to enlighten myself on the mysterious of the stockmarket given that the housing market has lost steam and shares seem incredibly cheap. Before I read this book I had no idea how the stock market works or how to pick stocks and read markets but no I do. Highly recommended for novice investors and written in clear non-jargon langugage.

suspect people rating this book, 28 Jul 2008
Im nearly done reading this book, and im very new to the stock market. This is definately very interesting and worth taking notes of the main suggestions as you read along. Whether this will work in the long term remains to be seen, but the book is written well enough to try it out.


However a couple of things worth noting:
1. The book could be half the size. The amount of blagging in there is quite ridiculous.
2. Even more importantly, i only just realised how many anonymous people are making very similar comments here (as 'a customer') within the 58 reviews.

I'll let you know in the next 12 months how i get on :-)

Excellent, highly rated!, 01 Feb 2008
I'm new to investments and purchased this due to the previous glowing reviews. I was not disappointed; the book is well written and most importantly, very practical. It tells you exactly what to look for when purchasing stocks, when to sell, how to read the market and a whole lot more. It does push the IBD website and paper fairly heavily, but in fairness I think it would be difficult and very time consuming to pick CANSLIM stocks manually without the use of a website like IBD. There are thousands of stocks out there... do you want to narrow them down yourself, or let someone else do the hard work?

The gold standard in investment titles, 07 Feb 2007
This classic book on investing belongs on the bookshelf of every investor. The principles that Benjamin Graham outlines are the very precepts that guided such great investors as Warren Buffett, and such mutual fund innovators as John Bogle, the noted Vanguard Group founder, who wrote this edition's foreword. First published in 1949, the text shows a few signs of age, most notably in its discussion of interest rates, investment vehicles such as savings bonds and other time-sensitive subjects. However, those are minor issues. When Benjamin Graham writes about categories of investors, approaches to security analysis, the proper disposition investors should have toward market moves, and other fundamental investment subjects, his advice is timeless. We highly recommend this seminal book.

A valuable insight into the rapidly changing economy, 16 Nov 2008
When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change
Mohamed El Erian has spent many years involved in the emerging markets and this book gives a very valuable insight into the impact that these markets are having on the financial landscape and how to capitalize on it.

In future the emerging markets will be much more important drivers of the world economy than the US, UK, Europe or Japan.

The book talks about the crisis caused by the undervaluation of risk combined with the under-assessment of the quantity of risk outstanding and the consequential fundamental changes taking place. The sheer complexity of the structure of financial products and the inability of the regulatory system to keep on top of these developments has been a catalyst in the resulting financial chaos as has the advance in technology. Technology has undermined the role of the sell side in price discovery which has caused the sell side to extend their activities into new and unfamiliar areas at greater risk of market accidents.

Derivative based products significantly reduced barriers to entry in a range of markets and the complexity stemmed from the ground upwards. Domestic mortgages are taken as a good example. Gone were the days of plain vanilla fixed or floating loans. Instead a plethora of structures were offered, many so complex that household borrowers didn't understand them.

The author emphasises the importance of interpreting signals and differentiating between what is noise and what are real structural changes. He focuses on China as being the most important contributor to world growth. Emerging economies which have greatly benefited from the US and parts of Europe by sustaining consumer demand way beyond income growth are now building up massive amounts of wealth.

Time and time again the Sovereign Wealth Funds are mentioned.

This book gives us food for thought about how to assess the new financial landscape given that many of the emerging markets have shifted from debtors to creditors and are now extremely important drivers of the world economy. It encourages the reader to keep a close eye on the SWFs and their allocation of capital. It gives us some ideas as to construct an international portfolio. It also talks about changes that will be required in organisations such as the IMF.

A must read for the serious investor, 06 Aug 2008
The language may be a bit dated but the advice is still good, proving there is little new in the world of investing. If you follow Graham's practical advice on valuing companies, assessing risk and investing for the long term you will make money.

Lives up to the hype, 07 Jun 2007
Most investors seem to have heard of this book - many refer to it as the bible of value investing. I think that the esteem that it is held in is probably counter productive (Barton Biggs, hedge fund manager, talks about being asked to read and annotate it twice as a young man), but what impressed me is that it is a very simple readable book that explains how to invest long term, to maximise wealth.

I don't think that Zweig's commentary adds much - I would pay more for a version with it excised - it provides interesting detail on what Graham may have considered important which is great, but it also provides a lot of anecdotal evidence which could be misleading. It also triples the length and provides a lot of distraction.

Invest In This Book, Invest In Yourself, 24 Sep 2006
With more than one million copies sold and an endorsement on the cover by Warren Buffet, you know there has to be something to this book- and I think I know why. Simply because it is the first book ever to describe the emotional framework and analytical tools necessary for financial success for individual investors.

Probably the single best book on investing written for the lay-public and the stock market bible since its first appearance in 1949, it's a great resource, although it's quite a thick book and filled with detail- and probably not for anybody but the serious stock market investor. And if getting motivated to start investing is your problem, suggest The Sixty-Second Motivator. Good luck!



Two books: one old and good, one new and bad, 21 Sep 2006
This edition of The Intelligent Investor is really two books in one. There is the original 1973 edition of Ben Graham's classic on "value investing" and then a commentary on each chapter by Jason Zweig.
Graham's text is solid, a little heavy, sometimes a little out of date, and some of his tables a bit user-unfriendly; but no matter: it is the timeless lessons he teaches that matter. He is very methodical, a bit mathematical and -- if you follow him all the way -- will leave you with a good grounding in how to approach the stock market.
Basically his gospel is this: ignore all the hype and blather around the stockmarket. Invest for the long-term in big, rock-steady, simple businesses, after analysing them with a few financial criteria. But only buy when the market is offering them at a bargain price.
Unfortunately, each of Graham's sober tutorials is followed by a commentary by Zweig. He may claim to be a disciple of the great man, but he is certainly not cut from the same cloth. Zweig is just one more financial markets cheerleader: repetitive, pushy, and rolling out the same old disaster stories from the dot.com era ad nauseam, supposedly to show how wise Graham was (in case you didn't understand Graham's chapter). He also repeatedly cites his own magazine and keeps naming the same fund, which is annoying at the very least. He also resorts to a lot of "if you had bought shares on every third Wednesday since 1974 you would have made a 3,859 percent return!!" kind of hocus-pocus which is a complete waste of time.
Zweig could have used the opportunity to unpick some of the knottier points of Graham's book and help readers understand the harder parts. The worst thing is that he sometimes goes against Graham's teachings, so he should NOT be taken as an extension of Graham! (For example, on page 129 he says if you don't have time to choose your own stocks, there's no shame in hiring someone to pick them for you. On page 243, he says "In the financial markets, luck is more important than skill". Ben Graham must be turning in his grave.)
One more caveat: this volume boasts a preface and appendix by Warren Buffett, Ben Graham's most famous pupil. But don't be swayed by that. The preface is an obituary written by Buffett and the appendix is an edited talk that Buffett gave in 1984. They're okay but it doesn't mean that Buffett is backing this schizoid volume.
My advice: read the Graham chapters, ditch the Zweig commentary. You'll save time AND be wiser.

Definitive guide to value investing, 10 Sep 2006
This is probably the best place to start if you are interested in value investing. Although the latest revision by Graham was in the seventies, Jazon Zweig adds commentaries to each chapter to bring the information right up to date. The principles of investment are sound and the style of writing is very accessible. This is a classic investment book and should be read by most people planning for their financial future. Highly recommended.

Basic Maths problems or just bad english ?, 22 Sep 2008
I was reading the book on the tube, and this just jumped out at me.

Page 22

'multiply 40 by 130% to see that the P/E ratio could possibly expand to 92'

Actually if you multiply 40 by 130% you get 52

If you increase 40 by 130% you get 92

This book did not deserve any more of my attention so I spent the remainder of my journey looking out of the window!!

A Gold Mine of Stock Investing Ideas!, 25 Aug 2008
William O'Neil, who started a successful financial paper known as Investors Business Daily, wrote How to Make Money in Stocks. Decade of research, critical thinking and common sense has helped O'Neil to create some very powerful ways of investing successfully.

This book isn't about getting rich quick. It takes time, study diligence and patience coupled with controlling ones emotions to become an excellent investor.

I have read many books, magazines and articles on investing in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and more over the years. O'Neil's ideas are some of the most solid and consistent I have found to apply to the stock market.

In the book he teaches his CAN SLIM method of investing. Looking at these indicators are powerful ways to find the right stocks. CAN SLIM stands for:

C = Current Quarterly Earnings per share: The Higher the Better
A = Annual Earnings Increases: Look for Growth
N = New Products, New Management, New Highs
S = Supply and Demand
L = Leader or Laggard
I = Institutional Sponsorship
M = Market Direction

There are other great ideas in the book such as: Nineteen Common Mistakes Most Investors Make, How to Cut Your Losses, When to Sell and Take Your Profit and much more.

As a side note, this book doesn't invest much time discussing mutual funds...but this is a book on stocks...not mutual funds.

How to Make Money in Stocks is a gold mine of ideas!


Perfect for beginners, 07 Aug 2008
I decided to enlighten myself on the mysterious of the stockmarket given that the housing market has lost steam and shares seem incredibly cheap. Before I read this book I had no idea how the stock market works or how to pick stocks and read markets but no I do. Highly recommended for novice investors and written in clear non-jargon langugage.

suspect people rating this book, 28 Jul 2008
Im nearly done reading this book, and im very new to the stock market. This is definately very interesting and worth taking notes of the main suggestions as you read along. Whether this will work in the long term remains to be seen, but the book is written well enough to try it out.


However a couple of things worth noting:
1. The book could be half the size. The amount of blagging in there is quite ridiculous.
2. Even more importantly, i only just realised how many anonymous people are making very similar comments here (as 'a customer') within the 58 reviews.

I'll let you know in the next 12 months how i get on :-)

Excellent, highly rated!, 01 Feb 2008
I'm new to investments and purchased this due to the previous glowing reviews. I was not disappointed; the book is well written and most importantly, very practical. It tells you exactly what to look for when purchasing stocks, when to sell, how to read the market and a whole lot more. It does push the IBD website and paper fairly heavily, but in fairness I think it would be difficult and very time consuming to pick CANSLIM stocks manually without the use of a website like IBD. There are thousands of stocks out there... do you want to narrow them down yourself, or let someone else do the hard work?

The gold standard in investment titles, 07 Feb 2007
This classic book on investing belongs on the bookshelf of every investor. The principles that Benjamin Graham outlines are the very precepts that guided such great investors as Warren Buffett, and such mutual fund innovators as John Bogle, the noted Vanguard Group founder, who wrote this edition's foreword. First published in 1949, the text shows a few signs of age, most notably in its discussion of interest rates, investment vehicles such as savings bonds and other time-sensitive subjects. However, those are minor issues. When Benjamin Graham writes about categories of investors, approaches to security analysis, the proper disposition investors should have toward market moves, and other fundamental investment subjects, his advice is timeless. We highly recommend this seminal book.

Every new trader needs this book, 15 Nov 2008
I started reading Bets in the City the same time I started my adventure into the world of Forex. Forex is a serious business but the book helped me keep my sense of humour, get over my losses and to keep trading. Not only is it a hilarious book but you learn so much without realising you are learning. I do hope Sally brings out a sequel.

5/5, 09 Nov 2008
Unless you're a humourless, pompous professional spread better (no not all pros are humourless and pompous) you'll probably enjoy this book. You won't actually learn how to successfully spread bet by reading it, but that so obviously wasn't ever it's intention. Yes you will hear about some classic early mistakes that many fledgling betters make. You'll see some clear examples of both how easy it is to loose money and just how much you can loose overall, without proper planning and risk management. For that I believe it's a worthy read for anyone who is thinking about spread betting as a hobby. It may even put you off completely, which may be for the best as sadly lots of people do loose lots of money spread betting.

However what it is for the most part is a light, well written, very funny and irreverent look at spread betting. Treat it as such and you'll be having a good read. Of course a sense of humour is a prerequisite. It seems too many 'pros' lost theirs somewhere along the way. And so I cling to what's left of mine ever more tightly. Enjoy

Utter nonsense..., 03 Nov 2008
Oh, if only we all had an aged relative who'd conveniently kick the bucket just in time to leave us the money to bankroll our trading. The people who've posted 4 and 5 star reviews on here must have VERY low standards. It's drivel, it's wannabe fantasy and it's not even well written or remotely amusing. Went straight in the bin. Save your money and buy a decent trading book - or invest in rat poison to bump off those pesky old aunts and uncles, folks!! (Incidentally, I've checked out Sally's blog, she's appears to be strictly a nickel and dime "pound a tic" punter, hardly inspires confidence, does it)?

Good Place to Start, 02 Nov 2008
This is very easy and fun to read and a good way in to the topic if you're thinking of dipping a toe into the water. I read through once quickly and then went through again marking the key trading info. with a pencil. Highly recommended as a starting place.

It's a MUST!!!, 16 Oct 2008
Having been spread betting for around a year and reading more technical jargon than you could shake a stick at, i found this book an absolute breath of fresh air. I wish i had found it before i started trading because it would deffinately have led me in the right direction sooner.
Sally was brilliant throughout.

A valuable insight into the rapidly changing economy, 16 Nov 2008
When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change
Mohamed El Erian has spent many years involved in the emerging markets and this book gives a very valuable insight into the impact that these markets are having on the financial landscape and how to capitalize on it.

In future the emerging markets will be much more important drivers of the world economy than the US, UK, Europe or Japan.

The book talks about the crisis caused by the undervaluation of risk combined with the under-assessment of the quantity of risk outstanding and the consequential fundamental changes taking place. The sheer complexity of the structure of financial products and the inability of the regulatory system to keep on top of these developments has been a catalyst in the resulting financial chaos as has the advance in technology. Technology has undermined the role of the sell side in price discovery which has caused the sell side to extend their activities into new and unfamiliar areas at greater risk of market accidents.

Derivative based products significantly reduced barriers to entry in a range of markets and the complexity stemmed from the ground upwards. Domestic mortgages are taken as a good example. Gone were the days of plain vanilla fixed or floating loans. Instead a plethora of structures were offered, many so complex that household borrowers didn't understand them.

The author emphasises the importance of interpreting signals and differentiating between what is noise and what are real structural changes. He focuses on China as being the most important contributor to world growth. Emerging economies which have greatly benefited from the US and parts of Europe by sustaining consumer demand way beyond income growth are now building up massive amounts of wealth.

Time and time again the Sovereign Wealth Funds are mentioned.

This book gives us food for thought about how to assess the new financial landscape given that many of the emerging markets have shifted from debtors to creditors and are now extremely important drivers of the world economy. It encourages the reader to keep a close eye on the SWFs and their allocation of capital. It gives us some ideas as to construct an international portfolio. It also talks about changes that will be required in organisations such as the IMF.

A must read for the serious investor, 06 Aug 2008
The language may be a bit dated but the advice is still good, proving there is little new in the world of investing. If you follow Graham's practical advice on valuing companies, assessing risk and investing for the long term you will make money.

Lives up to the hype, 07 Jun 2007
Most investors seem to have heard of this book - many refer to it as the bible of value investing. I think that the esteem that it is held in is probably counter productive (Barton Biggs, hedge fund manager, talks about being asked to read and annotate it twice as a young man), but what impressed me is that it is a very simple readable book that explains how to invest long term, to maximise wealth.

I don't think that Zweig's commentary adds much - I would pay more for a version with it excised - it provides interesting detail on what Graham may have considered important which is great, but it also provides a lot of anecdotal evidence which could be misleading. It also triples the length and provides a lot of distraction.

Invest In This Book, Invest In Yourself, 24 Sep 2006
With more than one million copies sold and an endorsement on the cover by Warren Buffet, you know there has to be something to this book- and I think I know why. Simply because it is the first book ever to describe the emotional framework and analytical tools necessary for financial success for individual investors.

Probably the single best book on investing written for the lay-public and the stock market bible since its first appearance in 1949, it's a great resource, although it's quite a thick book and filled with detail- and probably not for anybody but the serious stock market investor. And if getting motivated to start investing is your problem, suggest The Sixty-Second Motivator. Good luck!



Two books: one old and good, one new and bad, 21 Sep 2006
This edition of The Intelligent Investor is really two books in one. There is the original 1973 edition of Ben Graham's classic on "value investing" and then a commentary on each chapter by Jason Zweig.
Graham's text is solid, a little heavy, sometimes a little out of date, and some of his tables a bit user-unfriendly; but no matter: it is the timeless lessons he teaches that matter. He is very methodical, a bit mathematical and -- if you follow him all the way -- will leave you with a good grounding in how to approach the stock market.
Basically his gospel is this: ignore all the hype and blather around the stockmarket. Invest for the long-term in big, rock-steady, simple businesses, after analysing them with a few financial criteria. But only buy when the market is offering them at a bargain price.
Unfortunately, each of Graham's sober tutorials is followed by a commentary by Zweig. He may claim to be a disciple of the great man, but he is certainly not cut from the same cloth. Zweig is just one more financial markets cheerleader: repetitive, pushy, and rolling out the same old disaster stories from the dot.com era ad nauseam, supposedly to show how wise Graham was (in case you didn't understand Graham's chapter). He also repeatedly cites his own magazine and keeps naming the same fund, which is annoying at the very least. He also resorts to a lot of "if you had bought shares on every third Wednesday since 1974 you would have made a 3,859 percent return!!" kind of hocus-pocus which is a complete waste of time.
Zweig could have used the opportunity to unpick some of the knottier points of Graham's book and help readers understand the harder parts. The worst thing is that he sometimes goes against Graham's teachings, so he should NOT be taken as an extension of Graham! (For example, on page 129 he says if you don't have time to choose your own stocks, there's no shame in hiring someone to pick them for you. On page 243, he says "In the financial markets, luck is more important than skill". Ben Graham must be turning in his grave.)
One more caveat: this volume boasts a preface and appendix by Warren Buffett, Ben Graham's most famous pupil. But don't be swayed by that. The preface is an obituary written by Buffett and the appendix is an edited talk that Buffett gave in 1984. They're okay but it doesn't mean that Buffett is backing this schizoid volume.
My advice: read the Graham chapters, ditch the Zweig commentary. You'll save time AND be wiser.

Definitive guide to value investing, 10 Sep 2006
This is probably the best place to start if you are interested in value investing. Although the latest revision by Graham was in the seventies, Jazon Zweig adds commentaries to each chapter to bring the information right up to date. The principles of investment are sound and the style of writing is very accessible. This is a classic investment book and should be read by most people planning for their financial future. Highly recommended.

Basic Maths problems or just bad english ?, 22 Sep 2008
I was reading the book on the tube, and this just jumped out at me.

Page 22

'multiply 40 by 130% to see that the P/E ratio could possibly expand to 92'

Actually if you multiply 40 by 130% you get 52

If you increase 40 by 130% you get 92

This book did not deserve any more of my attention so I spent the remainder of my journey looking out of the window!!

A Gold Mine of Stock Investing Ideas!, 25 Aug 2008
William O'Neil, who started a successful financial paper known as Investors Business Daily, wrote How to Make Money in Stocks. Decade of research, critical thinking and common sense has helped O'Neil to create some very powerful ways of investing successfully.

This book isn't about getting rich quick. It takes time, study diligence and patience coupled with controlling ones emotions to become an excellent investor.

I have read many books, magazines and articles on investing in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and more over the years. O'Neil's ideas are some of the most solid and consistent I have found to apply to the stock market.

In the book he teaches his CAN SLIM method of investing. Looking at these indicators are powerful ways to find the right stocks. CAN SLIM stands for:

C = Current Quarterly Earnings per share: The Higher the Better
A = Annual Earnings Increases: Look for Growth
N = New Products, New Management, New Highs
S = Supply and Demand
L = Leader or Laggard
I = Institutional Sponsorship
M = Market Direction

There are other great ideas in the book such as: Nineteen Common Mistakes Most Investors Make, How to Cut Your Losses, When to Sell and Take Your Profit and much more.

As a side note, this book doesn't invest much time discussing mutual funds...but this is a book on stocks...not mutual funds.

How to Make Money in Stocks is a gold mine of ideas!


Perfect for beginners, 07 Aug 2008
I decided to enlighten myself on the mysterious of the stockmarket given that the housing market has lost steam and shares seem incredibly cheap. Before I read this book I had no idea how the stock market works or how to pick stocks and read markets but no I do. Highly recommended for novice investors and written in clear non-jargon langugage.

suspect people rating this book, 28 Jul 2008
Im nearly done reading this book, and im very new to the stock market. This is definately very interesting and worth taking notes of the main suggestions as you read along. Whether this will work in the long term remains to be seen, but the book is written well enough to try it out.


However a couple of things worth noting:
1. The book could be half the size. The amount of blagging in there is quite ridiculous.
2. Even more importantly, i only just realised how many anonymous people are making very similar comments here (as 'a customer') within the 58 reviews.

I'll let you know in the next 12 months how i get on :-)

Excellent, highly rated!, 01 Feb 2008
I'm new to investments and purchased this due to the previous glowing reviews. I was not disappointed; the book is well written and most importantly, very practical. It tells you exactly what to look for when purchasing stocks, when to sell, how to read the market and a whole lot more. It does push the IBD website and paper fairly heavily, but in fairness I think it would be difficult and very time consuming to pick CANSLIM stocks manually without the use of a website like IBD. There are thousands of stocks out there... do you want to narrow them down yourself, or let someone else do the hard work?

The gold standard in investment titles, 07 Feb 2007
This classic book on investing belongs on the bookshelf of every investor. The principles that Benjamin Graham outlines are the very precepts that guided such great investors as Warren Buffett, and such mutual fund innovators as John Bogle, the noted Vanguard Group founder, who wrote this edition's foreword. First published in 1949, the text shows a few signs of age, most notably in its discussion of interest rates, investment vehicles such as savings bonds and other time-sensitive subjects. However, those are minor issues. When Benjamin Graham writes about categories of investors, approaches to security analysis, the proper disposition investors should have toward market moves, and other fundamental investment subjects, his advice is timeless. We highly recommend this seminal book.

Every new trader needs this book, 15 Nov 2008
I started reading Bets in the City the same time I started my adventure into the world of Forex. Forex is a serious business but the book helped me keep my sense of humour, get over my losses and to keep trading. Not only is it a hilarious book but you learn so much without realising you are learning. I do hope Sally brings out a sequel.

5/5, 09 Nov 2008
Unless you're a humourless, pompous professional spread better (no not all pros are humourless and pompous) you'll probably enjoy this book. You won't actually learn how to successfully spread bet by reading it, but that so obviously wasn't ever it's intention. Yes you will hear about some classic early mistakes that many fledgling betters make. You'll see some clear examples of both how easy it is to loose money and just how much you can loose overall, without proper planning and risk management. For that I believe it's a worthy read for anyone who is thinking about spread betting as a hobby. It may even put you off completely, which may be for the best as sadly lots of people do loose lots of money spread betting.

However what it is for the most part is a light, well written, very funny and irreverent look at spread betting. Treat it as such and you'll be having a good read. Of course a sense of humour is a prerequisite. It seems too many 'pros' lost theirs somewhere along the way. And so I cling to what's left of mine ever more tightly. Enjoy

Utter nonsense..., 03 Nov 2008
Oh, if only we all had an aged relative who'd conveniently kick the bucket just in time to leave us the money to bankroll our trading. The people who've posted 4 and 5 star reviews on here must have VERY low standards. It's drivel, it's wannabe fantasy and it's not even well written or remotely amusing. Went straight in the bin. Save your money and buy a decent trading book - or invest in rat poison to bump off those pesky old aunts and uncles, folks!! (Incidentally, I've checked out Sally's blog, she's appears to be strictly a nickel and dime "pound a tic" punter, hardly inspires confidence, does it)?

Good Place to Start, 02 Nov 2008
This is very easy and fun to read and a good way in to the topic if you're thinking of dipping a toe into the water. I read through once quickly and then went through again marking the key trading info. with a pencil. Highly recommended as a starting place.

It's a MUST!!!, 16 Oct 2008
Having been spread betting for around a year and reading more technical jargon than you could shake a stick at, i found this book an absolute breath of fresh air. I wish i had found it before i started trading because it would deffinately have led me in the right direction sooner.
Sally was brilliant throughout.

Brilliant Book, worth every penny., 15 Aug 2008
I think that Van Tharps' work is essential reading whatever your level of trading, whether you are a pro or not. Some of the parts of the book are a little hard going, but in my opinion this book contains a ton of material that will positively impact your bottom line in a mesurable and positive way. Definitely one for your trading library.


Only just a beginning, 25 Aug 2007
What this book discusses are futures and other highly leveraged financial products which are sum-zero games. This means that if you make a profit then someone, somewhere, makes a loss. It also means that the longer you play the game the more likely you are to run into a prolonged losing streak with serious financial consequences. To be able to stay in the game your trading strategy needs to be superior to the majority of other traders who are also playing. Many are professionals with access to considerable computing power and the ability to constantly analyse in depth such factors as entry and exit points and profit expectancy. The expertise of the other players means that the man in the street is likely to enter these markets with both hands tied behind his back and discover it is a very easy way to lose money!

Even the author of this book, Van Tharp, doesn't demonstrate that he is a successful trader. Consequently, it is not surprising there is no evidence that the ideas he puts forward actually currently work over a meaningful time scale. It is obvious that Van Tharp has researched the subject in depth and this is impressively reflected in the book which makes for interesting reading. However, it is important to realise that this book primarily reviews the work of others rather than calls on his own personal experience. One of the major drawbacks of that is trading strategies which have been successful in the past cease to be so once they are in the public domain and simply to repeat them is rarely a recipe for success. This is particularly true of the trend following techniques he advises.

To have any hope of achieving what the title of this book suggests depends on two ingredients. The first which is essential is the ability to select stocks that are more likely than not to move in your favour. It is here that the book is especially weak. More of that in a moment. The second which is highly desirable is to bet on these stocks in such a way as to maximise profit but at the same time to minimise risk. This second ingredient is bound up in what is known as position sizing which is a rabbit which Van Tharp pulls out of the hat with a great deal of panache. Clearly, from the number of 5 star ratings this book has achieved, both in the UK and US, readers are impressed and reflects how easily Van Tharp has been able to convince people who have little or no understanding or experience of these markets and who are not in a position to evaluate this book objectively.

What Van Tharp says about position sizing is fundamentally correct. However, it is important to realise that to work out the figures you must have a history of profitable trading. If you don't then this book will be of little practical help to you. Nor will it help you to make your trading profitable. If, however, you are already trading successfully then this book deals with the subject of position sizing at too superficial a level to be particularly useful. You will also need to look elsewhere. Van Tharp directs the reader to his own website, for which this book acts largely as a platform, where further information is available at significant cost. An alternative is the bibliography which is a little goldmine!

As far as the most important aspect of trading is concerned, that of stock selection, Van Tharp suggests it isn't possible to forecast how stocks will move and consequently it is largely pointless to try. He therefore attaches minimal importance to stock evaluation and selection. His advocates keeping control of a portfolio by using trend following techniques and stop losses which are well known strategies that weed out the losers while allowing the winners to advance. By their nature they produce a large number of small losses and a few large gains. In the right hands they can be sensible strategies but Van Tharp implies they are inherently capable of achieving a profit. Basically, all you have to do is to use any one of a variety of stock selection strategies, which one is not especially relevant, apply to it the stop loss principles and also the appropriate position sizing and maximise the profits. Wonderful - a free lunch. If only it was that easy!

Van Tharp gives examples of how position sizing affects profits. The models were back-tested using a trading strategy that involved breakouts and stop losses. The strategy was employed very successfully by a group of traders in the 1970's. His best model demonstrates a compound annualised profit of 23%. This appears to be attractive until you apply the strategy to different time frames and to different markets and realise that it is now just as likely to produce similar losses. Position sizing techniques haven't stopped working. What has happened is whereas in the past the strategy selected stocks that were more likely to advance than not, now it doesn't. Too many people are on the bandwagon and have eroded away the advantage.

The simple fact is it is impossible to trade these markets successfully without stock selection expertise, irrespective of how good the position sizing strategy might be. Position sizing, itself, will not produce profits. All it can do is to maximise an already profitable trading strategy. The bottom line is that this, in turn, depends on being able to select stocks that are more than likely to perform in your favour. There is no free lunch! The question of selection and bet size are comprehensively and authoritatively dealt with in the book "Commonsense Betting" by Dick Mitchell. Although written for the race-goer, the principles are the same and clearly explained by someone who, unlike Van Tharp, speaks from practical experience and success.

Yet another pyschobabble book posing as science, 14 Feb 2002
Sorry Van but I was taken in by your cult of expectancy for a while, and suffered as I consequence. Reader beware, you are entering the world where you can be seduced by delicious notions of logic with liberal portions of self-help nonsense. The basic remit of this book and all Van Tharps work is that once you have established your expectancy, that is your probability of winning and the amount you win per trade/bet, you are able to use money management to best fit your system and maximise your profit. It is true to say that Van Tharp has made a fascinating study into this and the maths are quite compelling even to a non numerical student. However, Tharp compares trading to a game where the expectancy can be foreseen as in the marble games that he uses to promote his ideas. Unfortunately trading is not like that. Its very interesting that like so many gurus Tharp chooses to teach trading rather trade himself. I am sure that he realises that the expectancy of running a business charging thousands of dollars to teach traders his "secrets" is far easier to predict than a trading system.

Like all the rest of these types of books treat it with a very big pinch of salt and ask yourself the obvious question - why trade when you can tell other people how to do it.

Psycology is the most important thing in trading, 09 May 2001
This is a good place to start if you can't afford the $US100,000 for Van's 5 day course or your company isn't one of the elite investment banks that pays their top traders to attend. I have not personally met Van, but I have met his students and read this book. The information is critial to trading success. If you want to make a couple of bucks a year (a buck is $US1million in trading terms) you better start here.

Not the book to find out how to trade your way to financial, 26 Feb 2000
You have to read the small print because if you expect this book to give you the ABC of how to transform your stake into riches, you'd be buying the wrong book. First of all the author is a psychologist not a trader - "Listen carefully to what I say because I will tell you only once." The problem is that his message is short and he tells it to us countless times with a complete lack of wit or humour. Lesson 1. - manage your stops. Lesson 2. - Position sizing is important i.e. consider each investment in terms of its risk and size it appropriately. He provides ways to calculate this but most of us do it intuitively or according to how much we can spare. It is also Old Wall St. - He likes to talk about futures, commodities and traditional Dow Jones companies. For those of us in the tech sector most of these people have lost the plot. So save your money and add it to your next share purchase.

A valuable insight into the rapidly changing economy, 16 Nov 2008
When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change
Mohamed El Erian has spent many years involved in the emerging markets and this book gives a very valuable insight into the impact that these markets are having on the financial landscape and how to capitalize on it.

In future the emerging markets will be much more important drivers of the world economy than the US, UK, Europe or Japan.

The book talks about the crisis caused by the undervaluation of risk combined with the under-assessment of the quantity of risk outstanding and the consequential fundamental changes taking place. The sheer complexity of the structure of financial products and the inability of the regulatory system to keep on top of these developments has been a catalyst in the resulting financial chaos as has the advance in technology. Technology has undermined the role of the sell side in price discovery which has caused the sell side to extend their activities into new and unfamiliar areas at greater risk of market accidents.

Derivative based products significantly reduced barriers to entry in a range of markets and the complexity stemmed from the ground upwards. Domestic mortgages are taken as a good example. Gone were the days of plain vanilla fixed or floating loans. Instead a plethora of structures were offered, many so complex that household borrowers didn't understand them.

The author emphasises the importance of interpreting signals and differentiating between what is noise and what are real structural changes. He focuses on China as being the most important contributor to world growth. Emerging economies which have greatly benefited from the US and parts of Europe by sustaining consumer demand way beyond income growth are now building up massive amounts of wealth.

Time and time again the Sovereign Wealth Funds are mentioned.

This book gives us food for thought about how to assess the new financial landscape given that many of the emerging markets have shifted from debtors to creditors and are now extremely important drivers of the world economy. It encourages the reader to keep a close eye on the SWFs and their allocation of capital. It gives us some ideas as to construct an international portfolio. It also talks about changes that will be required in organisations such as the IMF.

A must read for the serious investor, 06 Aug 2008
The language may be a bit dated but the advice is still good, proving there is little new in the world of investing. If you follow Graham's practical advice on valuing companies, assessing risk and investing for the long term you will make money.

Lives up to the hype, 07 Jun 2007
Most investors seem to have heard of this book - many refer to it as the bible of value investing. I think that the esteem that it is held in is probably counter productive (Barton Biggs, hedge fund manager, talks about being asked to read and annotate it twice as a young man), but what impressed me is that it is a very simple readable book that explains how to invest long term, to maximise wealth.

I don't think that Zweig's commentary adds much - I would pay more for a version with it excised - it provides interesting detail on what Graham may have considered important which is great, but it also provides a lot of anecdotal evidence which could be misleading. It also triples the length and provides a lot of distraction.

Invest In This Book, Invest In Yourself, 24 Sep 2006
With more than one million copies sold and an endorsement on the cover by Warren Buffet, you know there has to be something to this book- and I think I know why. Simply because it is the first book ever to describe the emotional framework and analytical tools necessary for financial success for individual investors.

Probably the single best book on investing written for the lay-public and the stock market bible since its first appearance in 1949, it's a great resource, although it's quite a thick book and filled with detail- and probably not for anybody but the serious stock market investor. And if getting motivated to start investing is your problem, suggest The Sixty-Second Motivator. Good luck!



Two books: one old and good, one new and bad, 21 Sep 2006
This edition of The Intelligent Investor is really two books in one. There is the original 1973 edition of Ben Graham's classic on "value investing" and then a commentary on each chapter by Jason Zweig.
Graham's text is solid, a little heavy, sometimes a little out of date, and some of his tables a bit user-unfriendly; but no matter: it is the timeless lessons he teaches that matter. He is very methodical, a bit mathematical and -- if you follow him all the way -- will leave you with a good grounding in how to approach the stock market.
Basically his gospel is this: ignore all the hype and blather around the stockmarket. Invest for the long-term in big, rock-steady, simple businesses, after analysing them with a few financial criteria. But only buy when the market is offering them at a bargain price.
Unfortunately, each of Graham's sober tutorials is followed by a commentary by Zweig. He may claim to be a disciple of the great man, but he is certainly not cut from the same cloth. Zweig is just one more financial markets cheerleader: repetitive, pushy, and rolling out the same old disaster stories from the dot.com era ad nauseam, supposedly to show how wise Graham was (in case you didn't understand Graham's chapter). He also repeatedly cites his own magazine and keeps naming the same fund, which is annoying at the very least. He also resorts to a lot of "if you had bought shares on every third Wednesday since 1974 you would have made a 3,859 percent return!!" kind of hocus-pocus which is a complete waste of time.
Zweig could have used the opportunity to unpick some of the knottier points of Graham's book and help readers understand the harder parts. The worst thing is that he sometimes goes against Graham's teachings, so he should NOT be taken as an extension of Graham! (For example, on page 129 he says if you don't have time to choose your own stocks, there's no shame in hiring someone to pick them for you. On page 243, he says "In the financial markets, luck is more important than skill". Ben Graham must be turning in his grave.)
One more caveat: this volume boasts a preface and appendix by Warren Buffett, Ben Graham's most famous pupil. But don't be swayed by that. The preface is an obituary written by Buffett and the appendix is an edited talk that Buffett gave in 1984. They're okay but it doesn't mean that Buffett is backing this schizoid volume.
My advice: read the Graham chapters, ditch the Zweig commentary. You'll save time AND be wiser.

Definitive guide to value investing, 10 Sep 2006
This is probably the best place to start if you are interested in value investing. Although the latest revision by Graham was in the seventies, Jazon Zweig adds commentaries to each chapter to bring the information right up to date. The principles of investment are sound and the style of writing is very accessible. This is a classic investment book and should be read by most people planning for their financial future. Highly recommended.

Basic Maths problems or just bad english ?, 22 Sep 2008
I was reading the book on the tube, and this just jumped out at me.

Page 22

'multiply 40 by 130% to see that the P/E ratio could possibly expand to 92'

Actually if you multiply 40 by 130% you get 52

If you increase 40 by 130% you get 92

This book did not deserve any more of my attention so I spent the remainder of my journey looking out of the window!!

A Gold Mine of Stock Investing Ideas!, 25 Aug 2008
William O'Neil, who started a successful financial paper known as Investors Business Daily, wrote How to Make Money in Stocks. Decade of research, critical thinking and common sense has helped O'Neil to create some very powerful ways of investing successfully.

This book isn't about getting rich quick. It takes time, study diligence and patience coupled with controlling ones emotions to become an excellent investor.

I have read many books, magazines and articles on investing in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and more over the years. O'Neil's ideas are some of the most solid and consistent I have found to apply to the stock market.

In the book he teaches his CAN SLIM method of investing. Looking at these indicators are powerful ways to find the right stocks. CAN SLIM stands for:

C = Current Quarterly Earnings per share: The Higher the Better
A = Annual Earnings Increases: Look for Growth
N = New Products, New Management, New Highs
S = Supply and Demand
L = Leader or Laggard
I = Institutional Sponsorship
M = Market Direction

There are other great ideas in the book such as: Nineteen Common Mistakes Most Investors Make, How to Cut Your Losses, When to Sell and Take Your Profit and much more.

As a side note, this book doesn't invest much time discussing mutual funds...but this is a book on stocks...not mutual funds.

How to Make Money in Stocks is a gold mine of ideas!


Perfect for beginners, 07 Aug 2008
I decided to enlighten myself on the mysterious of the stockmarket given that the housing market has lost steam and shares seem incredibly cheap. Before I read this book I had no idea how the stock market works or how to pick stocks and read markets but no I do. Highly recommended for novice investors and written in clear non-jargon langugage.

suspect people rating this book, 28 Jul 2008
Im nearly done reading this book, and im very new to the stock market. This is definately very interesting and worth taking notes of the main suggestions as you read along. Whether this will work in the long term remains to be seen, but the book is written well enough to try it out.


However a couple of things worth noting:
1. The book could be half the size. The amount of blagging in there is quite ridiculous.
2. Even more importantly, i only just realised how many anonymous people are making very similar comments here (as 'a customer') within the 58 reviews.

I'll let you know in the next 12 months how i get on :-)

Excellent, highly rated!, 01 Feb 2008
I'm new to investments and purchased this due to the previous glowing reviews. I was not disappointed; the book is well written and most importantly, very practical. It tells you exactly what to look for when purchasing stocks, when to sell, how to read the market and a whole lot more. It does push the IBD website and paper fairly heavily, but in fairness I think it would be difficult and very time consuming to pick CANSLIM stocks manually without the use of a website like IBD. There are thousands of stocks out there... do you want to narrow them down yourself, or let someone else do the hard work?

The gold standard in investment titles, 07 Feb 2007
This classic book on investing belongs on the bookshelf of every investor. The principles that Benjamin Graham outlines are the very precepts that guided such great investors as Warren Buffett, and such mutual fund innovators as John Bogle, the noted Vanguard Group founder, who wrote this edition's foreword. First published in 1949, the text shows a few signs of age, most notably in its discussion of interest rates, investment vehicles such as savings bonds and other time-sensitive subjects. However, those are minor issues. When Benjamin Graham writes about categories of investors, approaches to security analysis, the proper disposition investors should have toward market moves, and other fundamental investment subjects, his advice is timeless. We highly recommend this seminal book.

Every new trader needs this book, 15 Nov 2008
I started reading Bets in the City the same time I started my adventure into the world of Forex. Forex is a serious business but the book helped me keep my sense of humour, get over my losses and to keep trading. Not only is it a hilarious book but you learn so much without realising you are learning. I do hope Sally brings out a sequel.

5/5, 09 Nov 2008
Unless you're a humourless, pompous professional spread better (no not all pros are humourless and pompous) you'll probably enjoy this book. You won't actually learn how to successfully spread bet by reading it, but that so obviously wasn't ever it's intention. Yes you will hear about some classic early mistakes that many fledgling betters make. You'll see some clear examples of both how easy it is to loose money and just how much you can loose overall, without proper planning and risk management. For that I believe it's a worthy read for anyone who is thinking about spread betting as a hobby. It may even put you off completely, which may be for the best as sadly lots of people do loose lots of money spread betting.

However what it is for the most part is a light, well written, very funny and irreverent look at spread betting. Treat it as such and you'll be having a good read. Of course a sense of humour is a prerequisite. It seems too many 'pros' lost theirs somewhere along the way. And so I cling to what's left of mine ever more tightly. Enjoy

Utter nonsense..., 03 Nov 2008
Oh, if only we all had an aged relative who'd conveniently kick the bucket just in time to leave us the money to bankroll our trading. The people who've posted 4 and 5 star reviews on here must have VERY low standards. It's drivel, it's wannabe fantasy and it's not even well written or remotely amusing. Went straight in the bin. Save your money and buy a decent trading book - or invest in rat poison to bump off those pesky old aunts and uncles, folks!! (Incidentally, I've checked out Sally's blog, she's appears to be strictly a nickel and dime "pound a tic" punter, hardly inspires confidence, does it)?

Good Place to Start, 02 Nov 2008
This is very easy and fun to read and a good way in to the topic if you're thinking of dipping a toe into the water. I read through once quickly and then went through again marking the key trading info. with a pencil. Highly recommended as a starting place.

It's a MUST!!!, 16 Oct 2008
Having been spread betting for around a year and reading more technical jargon than you could shake a stick at, i found this book an absolute breath of fresh air. I wish i had found it before i started trading because it would deffinately have led me in the right direction sooner.
Sally was brilliant throughout.

Brilliant Book, worth every penny., 15 Aug 2008
I think that Van Tharps' work is essential reading whatever your level of trading, whether you are a pro or not. Some of the parts of the book are a little hard going, but in my opinion this book contains a ton of material that will positively impact your bottom line in a mesurable and positive way. Definitely one for your trading library.


Only just a beginning, 25 Aug 2007
What this book discusses are futures and other highly leveraged financial products which are sum-zero games. This means that if you make a profit then someone, somewhere, makes a loss. It also means that the longer you play the game the more likely you are to run into a prolonged losing streak with serious financial consequences. To be able to stay in the game your trading strategy needs to be superior to the majority of other traders who are also playing. Many are professionals with access to considerable computing power and the ability to constantly analyse in depth such factors as entry and exit points and profit expectancy. The expertise of the other players means that the man in the street is likely to enter these markets with both hands tied behind his back and discover it is a very easy way to lose money!

Even the author of this book, Van Tharp, doesn't demonstrate that he is a successful trader. Consequently, it is not surprising there is no evidence that the ideas he puts forward actually currently work over a meaningful time scale. It is obvious that Van Tharp has researched the subject in depth and this is impressively reflected in the book which makes for interesting reading. However, it is important to realise that this book primarily reviews the work of others rather than calls on his own personal experience. One of the major drawbacks of that is trading strategies which have been successful in the past cease to be so once they are in the public domain and simply to repeat them is rarely a recipe for success. This is particularly true of the trend following techniques he advises.

To have any hope of achieving what the title of this book suggests depends on two ingredients. The first which is essential is the ability to select stocks that are more likely than not to move in your favour. It is here that the book is especially weak. More of that in a moment. The second which is highly desirable is to bet on these stocks in such a way as to maximise profit but at the same time to minimise risk. This second ingredient is bound up in what is known as position sizing which is a rabbit which Van Tharp pulls out of the hat with a great deal of panache. Clearly, from the number of 5 star ratings this book has achieved, both in the UK and US, readers are impressed and reflects how easily Van Tharp has been able to convince people who have little or no understanding or experience of these markets and who are not in a position to evaluate this book objectively.

What Van Tharp says about position sizing is fundamentally correct. However, it is important to realise that to work out the figures you must have a history of profitable trading. If you don't then this book will be of little practical help to you. Nor will it help you to make your trading profitable. If, however, you are already trading successfully then this book deals with the subject of position sizing at too superficial a level to be particularly useful. You will also need to look elsewhere. Van Tharp directs the reader to his own website, for which this book acts largely as a platform, where further information is available at significant cost. An alternative is the bibliography which is a little goldmine!

As far as the most important aspect of trading is concerned, that of stock selection, Van Tharp suggests it isn't possible to forecast how stocks will move and consequently it is largely pointless to try. He therefore attaches minimal importance to stock evaluation and selection. His advocates keeping control of a portfolio by using trend following techniques and stop losses which are well known strategies that weed out the losers while allowing the winners to advance. By their nature they produce a large number of small losses and a few large gains. In the right hands they can be sensible strategies but Van Tharp implies they are inherently capable of achieving a profit. Basically, all you have to do is to use any one of a variety of stock selection strategies, which one is not especially relevant, apply to it the stop loss principles and also the appropriate position sizing and maximise the profits. Wonderful - a free lunch. If only it was that easy!

Van Tharp gives examples of how position sizing affects profits. The models were back-tested using a trading strategy that involved breakouts and stop losses. The strategy was employed very successfully by a group of traders in the 1970's. His best model demonstrates a compound annualised profit of 23%. This appears to be attractive until you apply the strategy to different time frames and to different markets and realise that it is now just as likely to produce similar losses. Position sizing techniques haven't stopped working. What has happened is whereas in the past the strategy selected stocks that were more likely to advance than not, now it doesn't. Too many people are on the bandwagon and have eroded away the advantage.

The simple fact is it is impossible to trade these markets successfully without stock selection expertise, irrespective of how good the position sizing strategy might be. Position sizing, itself, will not produce profits. All it can do is to maximise an already profitable trading strategy. The bottom line is that this, in turn, depends on being able to select stocks that are more than likely to perform in your favour. There is no free lunch! The question of selection and bet size are comprehensively and authoritatively dealt with in the book "Commonsense Betting" by Dick Mitchell. Although written for the race-goer, the principles are the same and clearly explained by someone who, unlike Van Tharp, speaks from practical experience and success.

Yet another pyschobabble book posing as science, 14 Feb 2002
Sorry Van but I was taken in by your cult of expectancy for a while, and suffered as I consequence. Reader beware, you are entering the world where you can be seduced by delicious notions of logic with liberal portions of self-help nonsense. The basic re