Book Description
How do we find hot stocks without getting burned? How do we fatten our portfolios and stay financially healthy? Former hedge-fund manager and longtime Wall Street commentator Jim Cramer explains how to invest wisely in chaotic times, and he does so in plain English in a style that is as much fun as investing is -- or should be, when it's done right.
For starters, Cramer recommends devoting a portion of your assets to speculation. Everyone wants to find the big winners that can bring outsized gains, and Cramer explains how to allocate your portfolio so that you can afford to take this kind of risk wisely. He explains why "buy and hold" is a losing philosophy: For Cramer, it's "buy and homework." If you can't spend an hour a week researching each of your stocks, then you should hand off your portfolio to a mutual fund -- and Cramer identifies the very few mutual funds that he'd recommend.
Cramer reveals his Ten Commandments of Trading (Commandment #5: Tips are for waiters). He explains why he's not afraid to compare investing to gambling (and tells you which book on gambling you should read to become a better investor). He discloses his Twenty-Five Rules of Investing (Rule #4: Look for broken stocks, not broken companies).
Cramer shows how to compare stock prices in a way that you can understand, how to spot market tops and bottoms, how to know when to sell, how to rotate among cyclical stocks to catch the big moves, and much more. Jim Cramer's Real Money is filled with insider advice that really works, information that Cramer himself used to make millions during his fourteen-year career on Wall Street.
Written in Cramer's distinctive turbocharged style, this is every investor's guide to what you really must know to make big money in the stock market.
Download Description
"How do we find hot stocks without getting burned? How do we fatten our portfolios and stay financially healthy? Former hedge-fund manager and longtime Wall Street commentator Jim Cramer explains how to invest wisely in chaotic times, and he does so in plain English in a style that is as much fun as investing is -- or should be, when it's done right. For starters, Cramer recommends devoting a portion of your assets to speculation. Everyone wants to find the big winners that can bring outsized gains, and Cramer explains how to allocate your portfolio so that you can afford to take this kind of risk wisely. He explains why ""buy and hold"" is a losing philosophy: For Cramer, it's ""buy and homework."" If you can't spend an hour a week researching each of your stocks, then you should hand off your portfolio to a mutual fund -- and Cramer identifies the very few mutual funds that he'd recommend. Cramer reveals his Ten Commandments of Trading (Commandment #5: Tips are for waiters). He explains why he's not afraid to compare investing to gambling (and tells you which book on gambling you should read to become a better investor). He discloses his Twenty-Five Rules of Investing (Rule #4: Look for broken stocks, not broken companies). Cramer shows how to compare stock prices in a way that you can understand, how to spot market tops and bottoms, how to know when to sell, how to rotate among cyclical stocks to catch the big moves, and much more. Jim Cramer's Real Money is filled with insider advice that really works, information that Cramer himself used to make millions during his fourteen-year career on Wall Street. Written in Cramer's distinctive turbocharged style, this is every investor's guide to what you really must know to make big money in the stock market. "
Customer Reviews:
Very Useful.......2007-10-22
This book does a tremendous job explaining how to make money. Great read, good tips, excellent read.
Great book for learning about trading stocks.......2007-10-02
Jim Cramer's book is full of usefull and sound advice about investing in stocks. All his rules make common sense and should be easy for anyone to apply in thier own investing. Discipline is the key, and he stresses that. He didn't become a multi-millionaire and get his own show on CNBC by being a dummy. No one can be right all the time, and Cramer is no exception, but he is right much more than he is wrong. And that is all you need to make alot of money on Wall Street. Dont listen to the Cramer haters out there, THEY KNOW NOTHING!!! and will never come close to duplicating Cramer's investing success.
Great Book for any Investor........2007-10-01
I am just starting to dabble in the stock market so I'm trying to learn as much as I can right now.
This book is very easy to understand and a very fast read. Being a really big fan of Cramer already this was a 'no-brainer', and although he is very educated he really translates his thoughts and advice in an easy to understand way.
I strongly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the stock market.
Mad Man? Not really, more a Market Genius.......2007-09-29
Not much value on my side reviewing this book for the hundreds time. What's the take away?
I've been investing in stocks for nearly 20 years, with at least so much success that I keep with it, more or less. The difference is now I get why stocks move or don't (at least much more than I did before). And this book (and his show) is key to that. Awesome guiding priciples, rules of thumb, and market insights.
It's a fun book to read, if you have a certain level of interest in the business world, which is kind if key, of course. Many good laughs! I love his style (which I'm sure many might find offensive or so). But heck, it works for me. I bought both his other books as well. It's so good. The return on this "investment" can't be calculated. Hope this helps! :-)
Fundamental investing in a layman's language.......2007-09-23
Booya Jim!! This is a great book about investing using a fundamental approach. What is great is that the basics of investing are explained in a layman's language. You have to read chapter 5 to get a basic 101 on business cycles and how to exploit the cycle in buying and selling stocks.
I can list all the chapters and what they tell you about or list all the rules Jim explains - but that is rote repetition. Read chapter 4 about basics of evaluation. Jim does a wonderful job about comparing apples to apples e.g., Walgreen to RiteAid and goes into depth why he thinks what should be bought. This lesson alone is worth the price of the book for an investor starting out. Another good lesson is to evaluate the current value of a stock.
Of course, you can attend some expensive classes and get uncompreshensible instructions in an university, but for the price of the book, the value of the lessons here cannot be beaten.
In addition to business cycles, Jim gives some great insights e.g., he states that it is stupid to consider investing and trading as a dichotomy. How true! His famous buy-and-homework approach is like hearing a great 101 lesson from a Professor who also knows the real world. I haven't made any money in buying and holding. My emotions eventually have gotten hold of me. Instead, you need to know when to buy and when to sell. There are separate chapters on predicting tops and bottoms of both the market and individual stocks - again, wonderful reads.
In addition there are 40 rules about investing. Some gems are "I don't care what you paid for the stock, would you buy it now?" question to paraphrase. He gives a lot of credit to the Goddess, now his wife!
All in all, a great book and a must-have book in your investing library. I read the book almost two times so that I could reinforce the lessons, especially about valuation and business cycles. My style of investing, which has been pretty successful, is both a combination of fundamental and technical factors, while Jim's is more fundamental. But the fundamental 101s in the book is useful and should be a must background for anyone wanting to put their hard-earned money on the fire in the stock market.
Book Description
The bestselling author of Pioneering Portfolio Management, the definitive template for institutional fund management, returns with a book that shows individual investors how to manage their financial assets.
In Unconventional Success, investment legend David F. Swensen offers incontrovertible evidence that the for-profit mutual-fund industry consistently fails the average investor. From excessive management fees to the frequent "churning" of portfolios, the relentless pursuit of profits by mutual-fund management companies harms individual clients. Perhaps most destructive of all are the hidden schemes that limit investor choice and reduce returns, including "pay-to-play" product-placement fees, stale-price trading scams, soft-dollar kickbacks, and 12b-1 distribution charges.
Even if investors manage to emerge unscathed from an encounter with the profit-seeking mutual-fund industry, individuals face the likelihood of self-inflicted pain. The common practice of selling losers and buying winners (and doing both too often) damages portfolio returns and increases tax liabilities, delivering a one-two punch to investor aspirations.
In short: Nearly insurmountable hurdles confront ordinary investors.
Swensen's solution? A contrarian investment alternative that promotes well-diversified, equity-oriented, "market-mimicking" portfolios that reward investors who exhibit the courage to stay the course. Swensen suggests implementing his nonconformist proposal with investor-friendly, not-for-profit investment companies such as Vanguard and TIAA-CREF. By avoiding actively managed funds and employing client-oriented mutual-fund managers, investors create the preconditions for investment success.
Bottom line? Unconventional Success provides the guidance and financial know-how for improving the personal investor's financial future.
Customer Reviews:
Investment to avoid-buying this book.......2007-09-02
While I have a lot of respect for Swensen's practical success with the endowment, his book has some great advice and some really poor advice. Swensen is to be commended for steering the investments from the '85 asset allocation to where it is today. It was visionary, courageous, very rewarding.
The author does a great job of advising investors to reduce exposure to US large cap equities, and the rationale behind it. He also makes a logical case for increasing exposure to various international equity and fixed income markets.
Where he goes astray, in my opinion, is by suggesting that investors look to index funds as a panacea for investing. While he and his team at Yale have found exceptional managers who bring value (above index returns, on a net of fee basis), he assumes that individual investors cannot. While few investors have the negotiating skill set he has (due to his Assets Under Management), individual investors who spend a few hours a month can find money managers via mutual funds that consistently outperform their peers and benchmarks.
Let me sum up his book for you: own a LOT more baskets to put your eggs in, than just the standard 5-6 you may have in your 401k, and invest in low cost index funds.
My suggestion: take the first bit of advice, and instead of low-cost index funds, find managers who consistently beat the indexes, and rebalance annually.
Oh, and borrow the book from the library instead of padding his wallet.
Its clear Mr. Swensen has never held the hand of an Individual Investor.......2007-07-21
I loved David Swensen's white paper about institutional portfolio construction; I liked his book on Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment- with this book he stepped outside his area of expertise.
Among the rare few Investing Classics..........2007-04-26
This is a remarkably good book. Almost any investor will benefit from reading this book. Swensen distills a lot of wisdom into this volume touching on all aspects of Portfolio Policy. It would be rare for even very advanced investors to not gain a new insight or two from reading this book.
Having said that, I have a couple of issues with this book.
- Swensen's writing style is very labored. It was hard to read more than a few pages at a time. Not because the material was difficult, but because of his writing style.
- I am frankly puzzled by Swensen's glowing recommendation of Southeastern Asset Management (a Mutual Fund company that owns Longleaf Partners Funds). While Longleaf is a good fund outfit, I don't see how Longleaf is that much different from other, better Value style Mutual Fund companies out there. I don't see how Longleaf is any different from Dodge and Cox or Oakmark. I just don't see Longleaf being that special, so I am puzzled at Swensen's singling them out as exemplary. As I write this, Longleaf has one of the most expensive International Equity funds out there - with an Expense Ratio of 1.61%, compare that with an International Index Fund that you can buy at Vanguard for 25 basis points ! Charging almost 1.5%/year more in expenses will require some exceptional Active Management from Longleaf to generate returns, the odds are against investors in the active fund there.
A Standout Book!.......2007-03-29
This is an indispensable investment book in my opinion. Swensen clearly has an original and unique perspective on investing. There are plenty of books out there in favor of passive management, low costs, and asset-class investing. Here are some of the ideas and concepts he presents in this book that make him stand out from the crowd:
1. He believes treasuries are practically the only bonds worth considering for the individual investor. The chapter in which he discusses it is very interesting, and his arguments are compelling.
2. He is not a devout believer of efficient markets, and acknowledges that superior active performance can be attributed to skill. He explains that there are two games being played: short-term and long-term active management. Unfortunately, since most managers are pressured to have good annual, quarterly, or even monthly returns, they must think short-term, and are unable to invest for the longterm. The longterm game, consisting of far fewer players, is a completely different playing field.
3. He focuses an extraordinary amount of time on the profit-seeking behavior of mutual fund companies, and why they are detrimental to investors. Alignment of interests between shareholders and managers is a major theme in his book.
He suggests investors to construct a portfolio of passive, capitalization-weighted index funds (or ETF's), combined with treasuries and TIPS. Unlike Bogle and other pro-indexing gurus, Swensen seems to focus more on avoiding shareholder-unfriendliness than he is on the other benefits of index funds (style-purity, low costs, etc.). He also ignores Fama-French size and value factor loading, which is fine. There are other great books on portfolio design (William Bernstein is pretty much all you need to read on that subject).
My only complaint about the book is that he seems to enjoy reemphasizing points. Swensen will summarize his thoughts throughout the chapter, and one more time at the end of each chapter, and then a whole final chapter devoted to more summarizing. I think this book could have been 2/3rds the length with essentially the same content. However, that is a minor complaint, compared to the vast amount of knowledge I gained from reading the book. Highly recommended!
Interesting book, but not quite what I expected/wanted.......2007-03-15
Based on the title, the author's background, and the little I'd read about the book, I expected this to be mainly a 'how to' manual - how to best manage one's funds for maximum returns.
While there was some of that in the book, in fact the focus seemed more on castigating much of the financial industry for their misdeeds and greed. If you've read John Bogle's writings, you've seen some of this before, but Unconventional Success is perhaps even a bit more detailed and clear on the misalignment of interests between investors and financial products providers, and how that leads to the investors being taken for a ride in various ways.
So, there's a lot of "don't do this, don't buy that product"-type information in the book. As far as what he DOES recommend, he's relatively brief, and, IMO, doesn't go into enough detail. He advocates splitting your money among 6 major asset classes, and staying with low cost funds, mainly those offered by non-profit companies (Vanguard and TIAA-CREF). But there's not enough support for his statements that asset class X should be 15% of your portfolio and asset class Y should be some other percentage. He briefly discusses historical returns for asset classes and touches on some reasons why returns may differ going forward, but again, there's not much detail there.
Yale's endowment (which Swensen manages, very well) is known for unconventional investments (thus, perhaps, the book's title). But if you want to read about timber or other natural resources, or see much detail on why Yale's endowment is so successful, you won't find it here. Admittedly, many of the options available to Yale are not available to the common investor, or if they are, are so watered down with extra fees as to be unsuitable. Still, I was little disappointed about the lack of reference to his own investment strategies at Yale, which are the reason most of us have heard of him and the reason I bought the book.
One thing that was interesting to me was his analysis of why some indexes aren't well suited for use as a mutual fund benchmark. I have a significant slice of my portfolio in a fund that uses the Russell 2000 value index as a benchmark, and the Russell indexes are called out for criticism in the book. I will keep the criticisms in mind in planning future allocations/re-allocations.
Overall, it was an interesting read - I blew through it in one night. But it was not quite what I expected...
Book Description
Gain the statistical tools and techniques you need to understand today's financial markets with the Second Edition of this critically acclaimed book.
Youll find a comprehensive and systematic introduction to financial econometric models and their applications in modeling and predicting financial time series data. This edition continues to emphasize empirical financial data and focuses on real-world examples. Youll master key aspects of financial time series, including volatility modeling, neural network applications, market microstructure and high-frequency financial data, continuous-time models and Ito's Lemma, Value at Risk, multiple returns analysis, financial factor models, and econometric modeling via computation-intensive methods.
This is an ideal textbook for MBA students and a key reference for researchers and professionals in business and finance. Order your copy today.
Download Description
Analysis of Financial Time Series, Second Edition provides a comprehensive and systematic introduction to current financial econometric models and their applications to modeling and prediction of financial time series data. It utilizes real-world examples and real financial data throughout the book to apply the models and methods described. The author begins with basic characteristics of financial time series data before covering three main topics: analysis and application of univariate financial time series; the return series of multiple assets; and Bayesian inference in finance methods.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent and detailed reference.......2007-05-03
The coverage of the topic is broad and deep. It is one of the few introductory books that devotes some space to transfer function modeling and does so intelligibly.
A must have for the novice as well as those more familiar with the topic that need a solid reference.
The best for Masters level, great all-around.......2007-02-12
This text is absolutely perfect for Masters students learning financial econometrics. There is a little theory, clear explanations, and quite a few real world examples. (I don't think any text would tell the reader what model to use when, because that's application-specific.) It assumes some knowledge of finance and basic econometrics/statistics, which is fair enough. To get more theory, Hamilton (1994) remains the authority, and Campbell, Lo, MacKinlay (1997) is a great introduction for PhD students, and generally an ideal companion volume to this one.
Excellent reference!.......2006-11-05
This book is an excellent toolbox for anyove dealing in the field of financial engineering, however, as a real toolbox, the author doesn't explain the exact use of all tools and how to interpret the results. This is why this book is for advanced users who need a well documented reference but it is not very suitable for beginners in the field. The Splus code is welcome.
Broad coverage, but not for the faint-hearted.......2006-07-05
Written by a University of Chicago professor, this book comprehensively covers times series topics relative to investment and trading-oriented finance (i.e., Wall Street money-making machines). Treatment is generally clear and thorough, but an advanced math and stat background is an absolute prerequisite for understanding the materials.
S-Plus/R code is given, but strangely, there is very little on *why* and
*when* one uses each of the techniques. Under what cirmcustances should I use or not use GARCH? What exactly is PCA good for in real-world applications? These important questions are not answered, in other words, you don't get a sense of the real-world context for these topics.
Best textbook I have ever read .......2005-09-19
First of all, it is well written in a very practical point of view. The whole book is aimed fullly to real financial data(appended in the author's web). People can gain not only the well-explained theories but the hand-on experience with data analysis using SPLUS or any other package.
Secondly, the author is a real expert in this field and has been publishing lots of nice work. All models in the book are clearly illustrated and commented.
Thirdly, it covers a lot of topics in analysis of FT. Reader can learn almost all the valuable things in this field from this book.
If anyone wanna truly learn this book, she/he has to sit down and plays some real data on computer. I think this is the best way and the only way to use this book.
Book Description
Expert tactics to become make the most of every swing trade
In Mastering the Trade, veteran trader and educator John Carter shares his hard-won five-point technique for successful swing trading. In addition, Carter helps you move to the next level of confidence by explaining how markets really work and detailing behind-the-scenes market mechanics.
Customer Reviews:
Too many incongruences.......2007-10-08
I have just bought this book. Went to Chapter 8 and study it deeply. I challenge anyone to understand the strategy explained as there are many incongruence between what explained and the example charts. How can a trading book be confusing?
Do not trust my opinion? I challenge anyone to find chapter eight congruent. I challenge anyone.
Suggestion: do not buy this book.
Excellent.......2007-09-30
Well rounded book on trading for people to gain an overview of all markets. The best ones like this are by those who actually trade.
This is one of the first I read as a beginner, where some of the things were over my head but still held a lot of interest. Re-reading it now brings out the full benefit. Great book.
Anyone knocking this book does not trade daily........2007-09-27
When I first heard the reviews of John Carter's Book ,I was a bit confused. Some people said the book was great, some said it sucks. Then I bought the book and read it. This book is a very good look at trading from top to bottom and in the middle. The people that are dogging this book must not trade at all period. These are very simple and easy strategies to follow with examples to support. PLEASE BACKTEST and USE TIGHTER STOPS, because the guy is either filthy rich or got balls of steel....I am sure Carter did not put a lot of his losers in the book but he did put some. I find it sad that people dog this guy so much. Yeah, he is greedy..very greedy, but his products are what they are, GOOD. My only complaint is his DVD's are 2400.00 and his open software indicators are copied from the Tradestation library and are 1600.00. ALL in all he has a great book and a good website with a free trial that is only 14 bucks. He has some excel downloads worth that alone. Buy this book if you want to day trade or get a better perspective of other succesful traders. You will learn a lot. Try to buy his other products 2nd hand they are too HIGH. If the guy's products wasn't so high he would be a lot more popular and respected. He has been called a snake oil salesman. He is not that,he is just a greedy salesman and a helluva trader... Great Book on trading!!!!!!!!!
Great Read.......2007-09-08
I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it!! It covers all aspects of trading not just strategies and setups e.g. trading tools, trading mindset etc....lots of great information on futures, equities, options and forex.
A great trader's course.......2007-08-10
This book is a great trader's course. The author tells you everything you need to know, from selecting computer hardware (this info might be a bit dated), to risk management, financial psychology, discipline needed to trade all markets. There are about 10 chapters with setups where the author shows you the entry, exit points and stop loss points and gives about 4 or 5 examples of how he successfully traded each of the setups he is showing you. My only complaint is that the author only shows 3 or 4 failures in the whole book. This might lead a person to be overconfident and think that trading is so easy a caveman can do it. :)
If the author has a dozen setups that can work in any market, and he can trade 24/7 on the global markets, forex, etc. and he applies the risk and money management techniques in his book and he only has a 6% failure rate, he should be a multi-billionaire by now.
Overall, a very good book, but the author makes trading seem a lot easier than it really is. In real life trading, unlike the book, you won't have only 3 failures for every 50 successes.
Book Description
From the time of its first publication five years ago, The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing has established itself as a clear, concise, and highly effective approach to stocks and investment strategy. Since the dot.com crash and ensuing bear market, significant changes have come about in the investing world, and The Neatest Little Guide takes this into account. In this revised edition, readers will learn:
€ Strategies on how to double the Dow with one simple investment and the latest products required for this approach
€ Methods investors can use to avoid disasters such as Enron and WorldCom
€ Thoroughly updated reference lists, including new websites, new software, new brokers, and new publications
With the right information for investors to keep pace, and rooted in the principles that made it invaluable from the start, The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing is a resource that no serious investor can be without.
Customer Reviews:
Best Investing Book I have read so far!!!.......2007-10-15
AS I was looking for another book, someone left a book saying,"... if your a beginner at investing check out The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing." I am so thankful to that person, best decision of my life. If you know nothing about investing this book is for you. If your an investor and want to add a different strategy to your porfolio, check this book out.
Out of the several books I have read on the subject of investing this was not boring at all. At times, the author throws humor into this book. I love this book and can't wait to get the 2008 edition.
Review of Revised Editon NLG to Stock Market Investing.......2007-10-14
I am constantly on the lookout for books that I am comfortable sending my children to educate them about investing. Particularly with respect to managing your own portfolio rather than settling for the SP500 with mutual funds (or chasing it depending on your funds). This book is a good introduction to the language of the stock market, develops a model for stock picking, and a system to manage stocks currently invested and stocks under consideration for investing. This lays the groundwork for investing in a non-emotional way.
I can only add; I purchased a second copy for my daughter after passing on the first copy to my son with my recommendation.
EXCELLENT LITTLE BOOK!!!.......2007-10-02
If you are looking for simple and direct answers on how to invest in the stock market, then this book is for you. I also would recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn the basics but does not have the technical background needed to go deeper in financial analysis. Great book!!!
Great Book for Market Begginers.......2007-08-28
I found this book a great starting point in my investment journey. There are lots of great basioc information, yet i found the book a joy to read.
Great Introduction to stock market investing!.......2007-08-28
An easy to read introduction to stock investing! I have not yet finish it (since I just got it recently) but what I have seen so far could get someone from having no real knowledge to having a kick start about stock market investing. The great thing about the book is that the end of the book is not really the end, as there is the website, which provides even more useful articles on investing and personal finance. For those who are really interested in investing could also subscribe to the news letter that the author has put out, which has a small subscription fee but it is really nothing compared to other sites that offer similar services.
Amazon.com
Personal-finance guru Andrew Tobias slams online trading and praises the Roth IRA in his newly revised The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need. This investment bible remains as stimulating and meaningful as it was when it was first published 20 years ago. It's packed with ideas about stocks, living beneath your means, tax planning, retirement, and just about everything else in the financial world. And all of it is presented with Tobias's trademark brevity and ingenuity.
Last revised in 1995, the guide takes aim at a new game in town--online trading. By all means, use the Internet for buying a car or for research, Tobias says. But avoid cyberspace brokers, he says. Point and click enough and you will get slaughtered by commissions, spreads, taxes, and human nature. "It's so easy to click 'OK' a few times and make a $10,000 bet," he warns. "Look how mesmerized we become on a stool in front of a slot machine. Internet investing positively teases you to play." Tobias's favorite new entry is the Roth IRA, which allows you to withdraw your money tax-free when you retire. It's far better than a traditional IRA, he asserts. "Save yourself the trouble of agonizing over the choice and go with the Roth IRA," he writes. "Forget the worksheets." Sometimes caustic and always a skeptic, Tobias believes readers can shape their own financial futures. Just stick to the basics, he says. "By and large, you should manage your own money, via no-load mutual funds," he writes. "No one is going to care about it as much as you." It doesn't matter if it's 1978, 1998, or even 2008. The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need still is exactly that. Some things never change. --Dan Ring
Book Description
For more than twenty-five years, The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need has been America's favorite finance guide, winning the allegiance of more than a million readers across the country. Now this indispensable book has been fully revised and updated-covering all the new tax laws-and reorganized with a new user-friendly design. Concise, witty, and truly understandable, Andrew Tobias shows you how to use your money to your best advantage-no matter how much or how little you have.
o How to spend smarter-and save $1,000 or more
o When to invest in stocks, and how
o The ins and outs of investing on the Internet
o Tax strategies, from tuition to retirement
o Whom-if anyone-you can trust to manage your money
and much, much more
How to spend smarter--and save $1,000 or more
When to invest in stocks, and how
The ins and outs of investing on the Internet
Tax strategies, from tuition to retirement
The basics of life insurance
Who--if anyone--you can trust to manage your money
The inside skinny on annuities, real estate, and Social Security
and much, much more
Customer Reviews:
The Gift of a Lifetime.......2007-10-18
When I was a young lieutenant, my uncle gave me a copy of this book. I always had a pretty good attitude towards money, and over the years I grew rich. My secrets? Hard work, savings, investments. All of them are outlined here.
Now I am an uncle. Each niece and nephew get this book when they graduate.
Each copy has a nice little check inside too.
Trite.......2007-10-17
Not an interesting read. Reads like an encyclopedia. Everything is there. A reference, not a strait through read!
Very Conservative Approach.......2007-10-05
A better title for this book would be " The Only Really, Really Conservative Investment Guide You'll Ever Need." In the author's preface. Mr Tobias marvels how the world has changed since the original publication in 1978. The Guide has been updated frequently so that you will not find any outdated references. In fact, you will be referred to numerous websites in the course of the author's discussions.
Mr Tobias is an advocate of "minimal risk" which is to say he thinks the majority of us would be better off saving rather than trying to get rich by investing. Well there is nothing new about that and it is presented in a flippant and I thought condescending tone.
So the first half of the book is very conservative advice although why he advocates Timber as an investment is beyond me. I think the same argument could be made for soybeans or for sod.
The second half is an excellent primer on the stock market which I feel
is worth the price of the Guide alone. I would recommend this book for anyone looking for a basic investment guide with the understanding that it is not a get rich quick reference.
Good updates.......2007-08-07
We were very pleased with the updates Mr. Tobias has made to his book. It lives up to its title. Well worth the price.
Ok.......2007-08-06
The book is decent but "A random walk down wall street" contains the same information this book does (and more). Random Walk is also written better with more details.
Book Description
Learn about today's hottest new risk management tools
One of the hottest areas of finance today, alternative risk transfer, or ART, refers to the use of various insurance products to manage market, credit, operational, legal, environmental, and other forms of risk. As the capital and insurance markets continue to converge, the number and complexity of new risk-defraying insurance products available to corporations, brokerages, money managers and other financial professionals will continue to grow. Expert Christopher L. Culp uses case studies of recent ART transactions used by risk managers to put the field into perspective for financial professionals and to acquaint them with the various types of risk control products now available. In addition he explores, in-depth, the links between ART, derivatives and bank-arranged risk financing, and he explains the key differences between classic insurance products and financial guarantees, risk financing, bundled layering, and other ART forms.
Customer Reviews:
For Useless Academics.......2004-04-03
If you are a practicioner, skip this book. Even academics will find this rehash (and outright clone) of better material a waste of time.
Packed with Knowledge!.......2002-11-12
Finance professional and professor Christopher L. Culp tells all, that is, all about alternate risk transfer (ART) products. Culp discusses corporate finance in detail, covering different types of capital. He sets out the risk control and capital structure functions of various classical and alternative risk transfer steps, such as derivatives targeted at market and credit risk, asset divestiture, insurance and reinsurance. Don't even go here if you aren't already familiar with (or studying) the sophisticated basics of finance, since this is highly technical reading, including numerous formulas, charts and graphs describing financial theories and processes. But if you are an expert, we from getAbstract congratulate you on finding your way to Culp, who aimed his book at the already-savvy: corporate treasurers, financial officers and those who participate in capital markets and the reinsurance industry.
Book Description
This comprehensive book on bonds takes a practical real-world approach to the subject, and includes a detailed discussion of each type of bond including a wide range of products. Specific chapter coverage discusses not only the instruments, but their investment characteristics, the state-of-the art technology for valuing them, and portfolio strategies for using them. For portfolio managers, fixed income trades, and salespeople.
Customer Reviews:
Don't be misled by the title........2007-03-19
I purchased this book with a lot of expectations. But this book contains neither analysis nor strategies. It only contains glossary of terms used in various Bond markets. Don't be fooled by the planted reviews :)
I reviewed this book for the publisher (prior edition).......2004-04-22
I was a major peer reviewer for the publisher of "Bond Markets, Analysis and Strategies," and have used it several times (perhaps as many as 10 semesters) for both undergrads and MBAs. I have no incentive to give this book any particular rating, but I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT TO EITHER PRACTITIONERS AND ACADEMICS, AS IT IS AN EXCELLENT TEXT! There are very few weaknesses, and I disagree with most of those cited by the other reviewers listed here. It is clear, concise, loaded with examples, and beautifully written. It is also closely tied to real-world practice without sacrificing the mathematical modeling. Of course, it is no high-level bond pricing text, but it is not supposed to be--it is a broad introduction to bond markets. As such, it succeeds remarkably. In fact, I often refer to it to refresh my own understanding of the structure and pricing of these markets.
I highly endorse it, and will continue using it.
Lots of Jargon.......2002-11-06
I am a senior majoring in finance at the Curtis L. Carlson School of Management, at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. I just got done taking a bond course called: Financial Markets and Interest Rates. For the class we used this text book. Although it is a well-rounded book on bonds, it is very hard to understand if you do not have other examples describing what is going on. My professor who holds an MBA had alternative notes on Microsoft PowerPoint made for us to supplement the hard to understand text. The examples do not fully give a clear idea of what is happening, especially to the beginner learning bonds. I would rate this book 2/5 stars and would look elsewhere for an easier type of book, perhaps a tutorial. This book is used at high level universities including mine and Princeton University. Fabozzi is not fooling around when displaying info on bonds.
Excellent introduction to Bond Markets - VERY well written.......2002-06-15
If you think of this as an introductory book to the world of Bonds rather than a field manual for professionals you will find this to be a wonderful book. I find it to be engagingly written (yes, engaging!) with well-chosen examples. It is very nice to be able to read a book about Bonds and find it stimulating. It would have been easy to write a book that could act as a sleep-aid. Instead, this book provides learning objectives for each chapter and the prose is so inviting that I felt the book to be a page-turner.
The math used is not complicated and is chosen to help understanding rather than demonstrate the sophisticated math used in the actual world of bond trading. If you want that kind of material this isn't the book for you.
I don't know if there is a solutions manual available, but I couldn't find it. If there isn't, there should be. I have never had a college course that used the problems in the book for actual coursework and yet, no matter how simple the problems seem, it is nice for the student to be able to confirm that he or she has indeed found the right answer.
There are also many helpful footnotes that point to materials for further and deeper reading on the subjects introduced in this fine book.
A lot of hand waving, but does help.......2002-04-04
A little too wordy, but as a management text, I guess its a prerequisite. It covers the gamut of fixed income securities, but only approaches the problems deterministically. The first thirteen chapters are "text" chapters, with the real math starting in chapter 14. However, the math used is elementary, and will not be of much help in the real world. For the fixed income math portion look into "Bond Pricing and Portfolio Analysis" by Olivier de La Grandville.
For a first course in bonds, and if the student has no prior background, this book will indeed be useful. But, for advanced students the book mentioned above should be more insightful.
Book Description
Praise for Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management
“A must-have reference for any equity portfolio manager or MBA student, this book is a comprehensive guide to all aspects of equity portfolio management, from factor models to tax management.” ERIC ROSENFELD, Principal & Co-founder of JWM Partners
“This is an ambitious book that both develops the broad range of artillery employed in quantitative equity investment management and provides the reader with a host of relevant practical examples. The book excels in melding theory with practice.” STEPHEN A. ROSS, Franco Modigliani Professor of Financial Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“The book is very comprehensive in its coverage, detailed in its discussions and written from a practical perspective without sacrificing needed rigor.” DAVID BLITZER, Managing Director and Chairman, Standard & Poor's Index Committee
“Making the transition from the walls of academia to Wall Street has traditionally been a difficult task…This book provides this link in a successful and engaging fashion, giving students of finance a road map for the application of financial theories in a real-world setting.” MARK HOLOWESKO, CEO and Founder, Templeton Capital Advisors
“This text provides an excellent synthesis of a broad range of quantitative portfolio management methods…In addition, there are a number of insightful innovations that extend and improve current techniques.” DAN DIBARTOLOMEO, President and Founder, Northfield Information Services, Inc.
Capitalize on Today's Most Powerful Quantitative Methods to Construct and Manage a High-Performance Equity Portfolio
Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management is a comprehensive guide to the entire process of constructing and managing a high-yield quantitative equity portfolio. This detailed handbook begins with the basic principles of quantitative active management and then clearly outlines how to build an equity portfolio using those powerful concepts.
Financial experts Ludwig Chincarini and Daehwan Kim provide clear explanations of topics ranging from basic models, factors and factor choice, and stock screening and ranking…to fundamental factor models, economic factor models, and forecasting factor premiums and exposures.
Readers will also find step-by-step coverage of portfolio weights… rebalancing and transaction costs…tax management…leverage…market neutral…Bayesian _…performance measurement and attribution…the back testing process…and portfolio performance.
Filled with proven investment strategies and tools for developing new ones, Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management features:
A complete, easy-to-apply methodology for creating an equity portfolio that maximizes returns and minimizes risks
The latest techniques for building optimization into a professionally managed portfolio
An accompanying CD with a wide range of practical exercises and solutions using actual historical stock data
An excellent melding of financial theory with real-world practice
A wealth of down-to-earth financial examples and case studies
Each chapter of this all-in-one portfolio management resource contains an appendix with valuable figures, tables, equations, mathematical solutions, and formulas. In addition, the book as a whole has appendices covering a brief history of financial theory, fundamental models of stock returns, a basic review of mathematical and statistical concepts, an entertaining explanation and quantitative approach to the casino game of craps, and other on-target supplemental materials.
An essential reference for professional money managers and students taking advanced investment courses, Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management offers a full array of methods for effectively developing high-performance equity portfolios that deliver lucrative returns for clients.
About the Authors
Ludwig B. Chincarini, Ph.D., CFA, is a professor of finance at Georgetown University as well as a financial consultant to institutional investors. Previously, he was director of research at Rydex Global Advisors, the index mutual fund company. Prior to that, Dr. Chincarini was director of research at FOLIOfn, a brokerage firm that pioneered basket trading. He also worked at the Bank for International Settlements and holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Daehwan Kim, Ph.D., is a professor of economics at the American University in Bulgaria. Previously, he was employed as a financial economist for FOLIOfn. Dr. Kim also worked as a financial journalist, writing regular columns on financial markets for business media in Asia. He also holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University.
Customer Reviews:
restricted by the author's own experiences.......2007-10-11
First, I would say this book would be much better if it is reduced to 300 pages. Much of the materials such as the long long history desribed are useless.
Second, it is restricted by the author's own experiences which is actually not that complete. For example, it focus a lot on the sale side and the bond market.
Overall, it is a book for some one totally not familiar with this field.
The book on factor models.......2007-08-22
Should you buy this book if you already have Grinold and Kahn? Yes, if you are interested in factor models of equity returns: about 200 pages of CK are devoted to them, compared to a few in GK. If you are not, I would still recommend the purchase, but expect CK's stay on your bookshelf to be brief - enough time to read through, and spot things not found in GK, such as discussion of leverage and tax management. Finally, if you do not have Grinold and Kahn, read this, more accessible, book as as a warm-up, but do graduate to the GK tome. Alas, this, too, is a book for MBAs: it does not reflect state-of-the-art, and shies away from math or statistics. Finding good technical reading on QEPM remains a challenge, but Chincarini and Kim (2006) is good to consult.
Excellent Book - Highly Recommend.......2007-01-25
This is a strong learning guide as well as a useful reference. The book takes the subject of portfolio management the next logical step after a fourth year finance course. The classic topics of undergrad finance are taken to a new level. For example, the book assumes the reader previously understands Mean variance optimization, the topics are Mean variance optimization with constraints and/or transaction costs. Also an excellent introduction to Factor models in context of forecasting security pricing. Highly recommend.
A practical entry-level quant equity portfolio management book.......2006-12-01
This is a very practical entry-level quant equity portfolio management book (more practical and easier than Grinold & Kahn's book). It's a good place to start if you are interested in building quant models to manage equity portfolios. The book started from the beginning (e.g., how to pick factors), to how to build models to forecast returns, risk, and how to run optimization. This book didn't get into enough details about econometrics, database management, optimization, and programming, which are all essential to build a robust quant model. The authors mentioned pooled time-series cross-sectional econometric models, but didn't go beyond the surface. Overall, it's a good introduction book, but could be better.
A very readable primer on quantiative equity portfolio management.......2006-09-07
In my opinion, this book should be on the bookshelf of every quantitative equity portfolio manager right next to his Grinold & Kahn. In addition to the basics, it covers a lot of the more practical aspects of quantitative euqity portfolio management compared to the Grinold & Kahn, but is not lacking any academic rigour. It is very readable and accessible for anyone with a professional finance background or interest.
Product Description
An accessible, reliable course for the trader looking for profits in the competitive, dynamic world of trading. Each section of the book offers clear examples, concise and useful definitions of important terms, over 90 charts used to illustrate the challenges and opportunities of the market; and how you can take advantage of patterns. Written in the parlance of the day trader s world, you ll enjoy the experience of being taught trading skills by the best of the best. This focused and effective trading resource features seven key lessons to further a trader s education including market basics, managing trades, psychology in trading and planning, technicals, utilizing charts, income versus wealth building producing trades, and classic patterns. It truly is as Paul Lange says, Many of these lessons have been taught to students worldwide over a span of 4 years. These lessons contain powerful information that goes far beyond the basics you may find in many introductory trading books.
Customer Reviews:
A disappointment.......2007-06-10
Although there are many insightful and terrific lessons to be learned here if you are a Pristine Trained Trader you will recognize the book to be a compilation of Paul Lange's weekly trading lessons. A free weekly service from Pristine. I suspect Mr. Velez' name was added for name recognition and, thus more sales. It is Mr. Lange's book, however, make no mistake. That said Paul Lange is one of the most astute traders and best educators around. I had the pleasure of working with Mr. Lange and was constantly amazed at his trading prowess and his ability to convey the information. It's simply this book offered nothing new.
A very poorly written book !.......2007-05-25
I went through this book and its not as good as the original
Velez/Capra "Tools and Tactics for the Master Day Trader" which I purchased in the past.
It's a book you just skim through and that's about it.
I agree with the last reviewer comments. Close to the poorest written book I've read...
Very poorly written, but some useful info.......2007-04-28
This is close to the poorest written book I've read. However there is useful info in it if you can decipher Velez's lingo. Basically Lange, the "co-author" typed what Velez recorded in his classes at Pristine. After I started crossing out hype and BS, I found the book much clearer.
Also I agree with other reviewers comments that the book is an advertisement for Pristine. You can get some details on how Pristies are taught to trade, but don't think like I did that Velez covers much of it.
The hardest part in finding useful info is that it appears Velez is so "elite" that he has to use his own slang in lieu of standard trading terminolgy (Ex: a play ILO a trade, topping tails ILO shooting stars on candle charts.) Velez names trade set-ups as though he discovered them. If he knew candlesticks he would realize many of his ideas are not his discovery. So why name them? Maybe because Velez seems to have a "special" word for almost every normal trading term. That's not teaching, nor conveying information which is what books like this should be written for, that's probably just to intimidate clients, make them feel like he is the master.
I don't know that I would recommend buying it as I own it and am not sure I will ever reread it to jot down the useful parts.
Sloppy edition.......2007-03-20
The senior author uses green and red candles in his website. Hasn't any reviewer, including Velez himself, noticed that the candles' colors should have been changed to black and white before publishing the book? A bad start for an otherwise welcome addition to every trader's library.
Not to be Missed.......2007-03-18
I just finished "Strategies for Profiting on every trade". Just a couple of comments up front; first, I suspect that Paul Lange had much more to do with this book than he was given credit. Second, there were constant references to the color of bars and indicators in the book but the book is in black and white. At one point they labeled the lines "red", "blue" etc. but otherwise, throughout the book you had to find the lines based on the text, not the color.
Having said that, this is not a book to be missed, especially for intraday traders. Although the writers make it clear that most of the techniques can be applied to any time frame and that the daily charts normally set up the trade, you will find charts all the way from the weekly level to the 2 minute level, with the majority of the lessons seemingly taught and the trades played out on the 5 and 15 minute time frame.
This is a much smaller book that the original Velez/Capra "Tools and Tactics for the Master Day Trader" and doesn't contain the psychology offered in that book, but it is, never the less, a book packed with information and insights focused on bar by bar chart analysis, much of it, I believe, gleaned from Paul Lang's daily, live, real world experience in the Pristine trading rooms.
If you are new to Pristine trading methods, this will give you an insight and depth into chart reading that you may not have realized is possible. If you are a Pristine trained trader, as I am, this book reinforces what you should already know but will give you many "gems" that I am sure will be new and of value. In either case, this is a "must" book for the serious trader.
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- McMillan on Options, Second Edition (Wiley Trading)
- New International Bible Dictionary
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