Books on Investing: Discussions, Reports &amp; Suggestions

Top 57. Jul 22, 2001 12:52 PM

» SteveT - Re: What have you learned

In response to message posted by rckeys:

RC, to answer your question is difficult. I would say my favorite book on Mutual Funds is by John (AKA Jack) Bogle "Common Sense on Mutual Funds; New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor" It goes into detail why Index Funds work so well in the long run. The lower expense ratios make them a sure winner. Of course things like long term investing, proper asset allocation, tax savings sure don't hurt. Using a no load funds with the lowest expenses and truly Independent directors is also desirable.

If you choose to pick your own stocks I would say "Contrarian Investment Strategies: The Next Generation" by David Dreman. I reviewed the book on this thread, see post #31.

-- posted by SteveT

Top 58. Jul 22, 2001 1:17 PM

» jbking - Re: What have you learned

In response to message posted by rckeys:

My one favourite book would likely be "Common Sense on Mutual Funds" by John Bogle. There is a list of items that he gives as advice that have stuck with me in creating my investment strategy and philosophy like, "Invest you must, time is your friend, Impulse is your enemy, Basic arithemtic works, stick to simplicity, and stay the course" where the first few are keys in starting and the last couple are my maintaince where I don't plan on more than a half dozen funds covering market areas and stick with good funds once I get into them.

A close second would be "Mutual Funds for Dummies" by Eric Tyson and "New CommonSense Guide to Mutual Funds" by Mary Rowland that serve to re-emphasize some of Bogle's points.

-- posted by jbking

Top 59. Jul 24, 2001 7:53 PM

» rckeys - updating....

books, ect...

-- posted by rckeys

Top 60. Jul 27, 2001 7:28 AM

» Kirk - 2001 Stock Trader's Almanac

In response to message posted by Rande:

Yes, it has been reported that Brinker uses Yale Hirsch's work in the Stock Trader's Almanac as a major component of this timing model. The "off presidential year" data Bob Brinker is so fond of is supposed to come from this book. I've had this book on my reading list for some time at the recommendation of Art Cominio. (Hirsch revises it yearly... I guess all the market timers consider it key research.)

I wonder if anyone has read it and can give a review here?

-- posted by Kirk

Devil Take the Hindmost, by Edward Chancellor

Top 61. Aug 28, 2001 12:44 PM

» Rande - Here's an investment book you may want to consider

Perhaps too late for some, but here's an investment book you may want to consider adding to your library, especially if you enjoyed "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" --

Paperback

Some excerpts from the Amazon reviews (no surprise that perma-bears Grant and Biggs have high praise, but this is a good one whether you consider yourself a bull, a bear, or neither):

In Devil Take the Hindmost, Chancellor takes an entertaining, albeit sobering, look at the history of speculative manias and the mass delusion that surrounds them.

Beginning with the "tulipomania" that gripped Holland in the 1630s, Chancellor chronicles the formations and irrational euphoria that can inflate markets, from shares of South Sea stock in England in the 1720s to real estate in Japan in the late 1980s. He characterizes the speculative spirit as one that loves freedom, detests cant, and abhors restrictions. From the tulip Colleges of the seventeenth century to the Internet investment clubs of the late twentieth century, speculation has established itself as the most demotic of economic activities. Although profoundly secular, speculation is not simply about greed. The essence of speculation remains a Utopian yearning for freedom and equality which counterbalances the drab rationalistic materialism of the modern economic system with its inevitable inequalities of wealth.
But it's precisely such inevitability that always seems to win out, when "sharply rising prices followed by sudden panic without cause" bring speculative excess to an abrupt end.
Chancellor makes Devil Take the Hindmost especially relevant to today's U.S. investors by using his analysis of past speculative manias as a lens through which to view the current bull-market binge. No matter what his or her current investment outlook is--bull or bear--anyone with capital to invest would do well to spend a thoughtful weekend with this book. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

The New York Times Book Review, Adam Smith
"He seems to have read everything. What makes this account entertaining is the social context: ballads, newspaper accounts, gossip."

The Wall Street Journal, Roger Lowenstein
"The book is worth reading ... in part because it is enjoyable to read of other people's folly, not to mention their avarice and stupidity. And Mr. Chancellor tells the tales well."

From Booklist
"For the subject of financial disasters, Charles Kindleberger's Manias, Panics, and Crashes and Robert Sobel's Panic on Wall Street are classics. Chancellor's book will well complement those two standards. Although speculation does not necessarily lead to disaster, the two often go hand in hand. Chancellor studied history at Cambridge and Oxford and contributes to the Financial Times and the Economist. He readily admits that his is not a comprehensive history; instead, he concentrates on notable "occurrences of speculation" and emphasizes their social context. He traces the antecedents of speculation to ancient Rome, but his account begins with a depiction of the tulipomania that swept the Dutch Republic in 1630. Other episodes include the South Sea Bubble, railway mania, the Gilded Age, the crash of 1929, and Japan's 1980s "bubble economy." Noticeably absent is the current craze for Internet-related stocks, but readers will be able to draw parallels from Chancellor's examples. Even though it is loaded down with erudite references, Chancellor's book remains fascinatingly readable." David Rouse

From Kirkus Reviews
"Cautionary armchair reading for the modern investor. The old mantra about history repeating itself has clearly inspired British financial journalist Chancellor (a contributor to the Financial Times and the Economist) to write this book at this point in time. Although many volumes have already appeared on both financial speculation in general and individual historic events in particular, even well-informed readers will find new material and interpretation here. From tulip bulbs in 17th-century Holland to the American stock crash of 1929and pointedly including the current boom in Internet stocksspeculation is presented by Chancellor as a common and very human behavior involving all classes of people. The author weaves together a descriptive narrative of major episodes with retrospective analysis by various authorities indeed, the change in expert opinion is often as intriguing as the manipulations of the speculators themselves, since over time conventional wisdom on almost all of these events has evolved. The most prominent and notorious speculators (Cornelius Vanderbilt, James Fisk, and Charles Keating, among others) earn biographical profiles in the text. Chancellor opens his financial adventure story with a rational and articulate description of speculation, then along the way introduces ever-more- convoluted investment strategies and practices, accompanied by articulate descriptions of terms. His book therefore provides a running primer on basic investment concepts alongside the tales of greed, political shenanigans, shrewd maneuverings, and obsession. The author largely succeeds in being fair to the variety of interpretations given to speculation, including opposing calls for looser and stricter controls. He has some misgivings, however, about the current prevailing belief that the market is ``inherently efficient'' and best suited to manage itself, at least in the long run. Chancellor closes with an admonition: ``As an anarchic force, speculation invites government restrictions yet it is only a matter of time before it slips its chains and runs amok.'' Timely, beautifully written, ruthlessly informative."

Barton M. Biggs, Chairman, Morgan Stanley Asset Management
"The best, most insightful study of speculation and bubbles I have read. It should be required reading for every investor."

James Grant, Author of Trouble With Prosperity
"A triumph of scholarship and understanding. Invest in this book!"

Charles P. Kindleberger, author of Manias, Panics, and Crashes
"Edward Chancellor has combined his considerable talents as historian and banker to produce a riveting account of financial bubbles, followed by busts, in Britain, the United States, and Japan . . . Here is a lagniappe for the banker, broker, investor, and idle Wall Street onlooker."

Book Description

Is your investment in that new Internet stock a sign of stock market savvy or an act of peculiarly American speculative folly? How has the psychology of investing changed--and not changed--over the last five hundred years? Edward Chancellor examines the nature of speculation--from medieval Europe to the Tulip mania of the 1630s to today's Internet stock craze. A contributing writer to The Financial Times and The Economist, Chancellor looks at both the psychological and economic forces that drive people to "bet" their money in markets; how markets are made, unmade, and manipulated; and who wins when speculation runs rampant. Drawing colorfully on the words of such speculators as Sir Isaac Newton, Daniel Defoe, Ivan Boesky, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Devil Take the Hindmost is part history, part social science, and purely illuminating: an erudite and hugely entertaining book that is more timely today than ever before.

"Entertaining, useful, admirable scholarship . . . Chancellor seems to have read everything." --Adam Smith, The New York Times Book Review

"Anyone contemplating a stock market venture and certainly anyone now involved should read this book."--John Kenneth Gailbraith

Ingram
Focusing on speculation as it developed in the world's leading stock markets, Chancellor's comprehensive history is interspersed with trenchant commentary on speculation in the 1990s, including such current issues as emerging markets, Internet and foreign-currency speculation, rogue traders, and the great U.S. bull market. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap
Many modern economists hold that speculation is a benign economic activity, that it is always rational in motivation and rarely adverse in its effects. The struggles of the United States after the Crash of 1929 and of Japan in the 1990s suggest otherwise. Some commentators, the billionaire financier George Soros among them, believe that growing speculative forces threaten a global financial crisis.

Devil Take the Hindmost is an original and challenging history of stock-market speculation from the seventeenth century to the present day. Through vivid accounts of the speculative activities (wise and unwise) of investors ranging from Daniel Defoe and Benjamin Disraeli to Ivan Boesky and Hillary Rodham Clinton, Edward Chancellor shows that speculation is not driven solely by the desire to make money--by fear and greed--but springs from a wider range of human compulsions and aspirations.

Chancellor traces the origins of the speculative spirit back to ancient Rome and chronicles its revival in the modern world: from the Tulip Mania in Holland in the 1630s and the stock-jobbers in London's Exchange Alley at the end of the seventeenth century to the on-line "day-traders" of the information age.

Devil Take the Hindmost charts the development of speculation in the United States from the middle of the nineteenth century in chapters on Jay Gould and the Gilded Age, the Roaring Twenties, and the junkbond mania of the 1980s. According to Chancellor, the American passion for speculation derives from the notion's fierce competitiveness and appetite for risk. This is a source both of the nation's strength--as shown by the vibrant U.S. economy in the 1990s--and of its potential weakness, as the lessons of the Great Depression of the 1930s suggest.

A chapter on the 'bubble economy" of the 1980s shows how the anarchic force of speculation undermined the Japanese economic system; and in an epilogue, Chancellor examines contemporary arguments for and against speculation in light of the recent crisis at the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author
Edward Chancellor studied history in Great Britain at both Cambridge and Oxford Universities. In the early 1990s he worked for the investment bank Lazard Brothers. He is a freelance journalist.

-- posted by Rande

Investment Books Turn More Bearish, Following the Stock Market's Tone

Top 62. Aug 30, 2001 6:35 AM

» JenL_2 - Bearish Reading

This from 8/30 WSJ...

By CASSELL BRYAN-LOW

It isn't just the stock market that has taken on a cautious tone. Books about investing have become bearish, too.

Titles about day trading, initial public offerings and Internet stocks no longer crowd the shelves. Instead, publishers are pushing a more conservative approach to investing. Among recent titles or those slated soon to appear: "Bear-Proof Investing," "Investing for Cowards," and "Value Investing for Dummies."

"It's been an almost tectonic shift," says Steve Ross, editorial director of Random House Inc.'s Crown Business unit in New York. The Nasdaq was like a huge slot machine at the market's peak, Mr. Ross says, and people who saw friends and co-workers get giddy about their investments "wanted to see how to jump in and get involved in the action," too. As a result, "almost anything in the personal-finance arena had an unusually strong advantage in the bookselling marketplace."

Now, says Mr. Ross, "there is a real struggle among people who had gotten their feet wet during the wild, great slot-machine era to learn what the long-term, sound investment principles are."

Consider Sean Liesenberg, a 35-year old computer consultant in New York, who has seen the value of his 401(k) retirement plan drop about 10%. The market's downturn "has made me more cautious," he says. Rather than trying to strike it rich, Mr. Liesenberg is looking for books that offer strategies for protecting his retirement money.

Publishers have little choice but to reshuffle their investment-book lineups to attract readers like Mr. Liesenberg. While book sales in general are down, sales of investment-related books have declined to about half or less of what they were at the market's peak, those in the industry say.

"Clearly the interest is not there," says Harry Edwards, business and investing editor at online retailer Amazon.com in Seattle. Roughly 20% of all books sold by Amazon in 1999 were investment-related, but now that number is closer to 9% or 10%, he says. That is partly because there are just far fewer investing titles coming out.

<img src="/files/mysites/jen2/bearbooks.gif" width=449 height=211>
Bearish Books: New titles espouse a more conservative approach to investing

The arrival of more-bearish investment books isn't expected to pump sales up to their levels during the go-go stock-market days. People "are more likely to buy books on stock investing when it appears an easy way to make a profit, as was the case during the past few years," explains Richard Delahunty, a buyer in the merchandising department of Borders Group Inc., based in Ann Arbor, Mich. "Once the easy way disappears, as it did several months ago, so does the urge to buy the books and dive into the market unassisted by professional advisers."

Now, the better sellers, Mr. Edwards says, are those espousing more traditional advice or a holistic approach to money, and typically are penned by better-known authors. Among those: personal-finance guru Suze Orman's "9 Steps to Financial Freedom"; "You're Fifty, Now What?" a guide to retirement by Charles Schwab, father of the discount-brokerage firm; and "The Intelligent Investor: A Book of Practical Counsel," by investors Warren Buffett and the late Benjamin Graham.

Less than two years ago, such books, just like Mr. Buffett's "value" investing strategy, were out of style. "In 1999 day trading was all the rage," Mr. Edwards remembers. Among Amazon's best-sellers at that time were titles such as: "The Electronic Day Trader," "Trading for a Living" and "Electronic Day Traders' Secrets."

Now many readers are looking for titles that help them diversify out of turbulent stock markets. That is part of the reason that books on real estate continue to sell well.

As he thumbs through a copy of "Buy, Rent and Sell: How to Profit by Investing in Residential Real Estate," in a New York branch of book chain Borders, 29-year-old Gifford Lee says he wants to buy real estate for both personal and investment reasons. "I am looking for the long term," says Mr. Lee, who markets mutual funds for a Wall Street investment bank.

Publishers are playing up the conservative side of their investment books. Some publishers have added reassuring subtitles. The cover of Ms. Orman's latest guide, "Road to Wealth," for example, includes the teaser line: "Everything you need to know in good times and bad."

"You can't pretend everything is rosy," says Julie Grau, editorial director of the book's publisher, Riverhead Books in New York, owned by Pearson's Penguin Putnam Inc. "People want to feel they are doing the right thing."

Ms. Orman notices the change when she give talks to readers these days. Common questions now are: "I have 60% losses in my portfolio, what should I do?" and "Should I sell, take it as a tax loss or just ride it out?" she says. At the market's peak, it was very different. Back then, she says, "people would rush to me and brag about how well they've done."

Now books about investing snafus are making a comeback. At the Borders book store near New York's Wall Street, there has been an increase in sales of such titles as "Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes" and "Irrational Exuberance."

The book industry hopes the slump in investment-book sales overall is temporary. With many more people invested in the stock market than a decade ago, thanks largely to exposure through 401(k) and other retirement plans, when the stock market does eventually stabilize "that appetite will increase," says Mr. Ross of Crown Business, whose Random House parent is owned by Germany's Bertelsmann AG. But, he adds, "I don't think it will be anything like we saw over the last three- or four-year period."

Subscribe to WSJ Online @ http://www.wsj.com

.....Jen

-- posted by JenL_2

Top 63. Aug 30, 2001 1:02 PM

» SteveT - Re: Bearish Reading

In response to message posted by JenL_2:

Jen let's hope that is a sign of the first stage of capitulation. I got my shopping list assembled and many stocks are getting close to what appears to be a buy point that takes much of the risk out.

-- posted by SteveT