About the Book:
A completely revised and updated edition of an investing classic to help readers make sense of investing today, full of “solid information and advice for individual investors” (The Washington Post).
Today, anyone can be an informed investor, and once you learn to tune out the hype and focus on meaningful factors, you can beat the Street. The Motley Fool Investment Guide, completely revised and updated with clear and witty explanations, deciphers all the current information—from evaluating individual stocks to creating a diverse investment portfolio.
David and Tom Gardner have investing ideas for you, no matter how much time or money you have. This new edition of The Motley Fool Investment Guide is designed for today’s investor, sophisticate and novice alike, with the latest information on:
—Finding high-growth stocks that will beat the market over the long term
—Identifying volatile young companies that traditional valuation measures may miss
—Using online sources to locate untapped wellsprings of vital information
The Motley Fool rose to fame in the 1990s, based on its early recommendations of stocks such as Amazon.com, PayPal, eBay, and Starbucks. Now this revised edition is tailored to help investors tackle today’s market. “If you’ve been looking for a basic book on investing in the stock market, this is it...The Gardners help empower the amateur investor with tools and strategies to beat the pros” (Chicago Tribune).
My Comments:
Conventional wisdom right now is that the best investment strategy for the average person is to invest in a diversified portfolio of low cost index mutual funds or ETFs. Studies show that few professional money managers are able to consistently beat the averages so just buying those averages puts you ahead of them.
Rather than espousing conventional wisdom, The Motley Fool Investment Guide says that you can be better than average by investing in individual stocks as opposed to mutual funds/ETFs. Their basic thesis is that fund managers are playing with too much money so that when they buy into a company it affects the price of the stock; and the same when they sell. It is the opinion of the authors that individual investors, even if they do not possess the expertise that some of the professionals do, are able to achieve better than average results if they gather the proper information, analyze it and purchase stocks that are likely to produce better than average gains.
The book is easy to read and it describes where to get information on public companies, how to interpret it and what qualities to seek.
While The Motley Fool Investment Guide gives a lot of good information, it is also a not-so-subtle sales pitch for the premium services offered via Motley Fool's website. Those services start at $99 per year. Still unlike some other books that seeks subscribers for websites, The Motley Fool Investment Guide tells you how to do it yourself--if you have the time, knowledge and resources. It makes outsourcing the job sound very attractive.
Still if you want to learn how to pick stocks, The Motley Fool Investment Guide is a good start.
I'd like to that the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley. Grade: B+
So glad you reviewed it. Have been tempted to purchase it.
ReplyDeleteFascinating! My Hubby loves tracking individual stocks. I think this book would be perfect for him. Thanks for the review.
ReplyDeleteI do get tempted to invest in individual stocks from time to time, but you're right, it takes time, knowledge, and resources to do it right, and I don't think I'd feel totally comfortable actually doing it.
ReplyDeleteI love investing in individual stocks. I generally go through Computershare or Wells Fargo Shareowner Services, but you can really go through several brokers. Anyway, like the post. Good details.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the review. I agree with the caveat that most people (this means you, readers) cannot beat low fee index funds with individual stock picks. I won't be buying this though Motley Fool has some good articles on backdoor IRA and the likes.
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