Investing and Diversifying

Beating the Street

By Peter Lynch

In his best-selling first book, One Up on Wall Street, Peter Lynch revealed the philosophy that guided him as manager of the Magellan Fund. Now he shows investors how he puts his investing philosophy and techniques into action as he takes readers step-by-step through the process of selecting the stocks he recommended at the 1992 Barron's Roundtable.

Lynch also examines his years at the Magellan Fund, analyzing the reasons why he outperformed all other fund managers. He discloses that it was a small number of major successes that were the principal reason for the fund's superior record.

He draws a lesson for the average investor: there are good companies looking for investors, and it takes only one or two good companies a decade to turn a portfolio from an average performer into a winner.

"This book is a treasure." —Adam Smith

"Investors would do well to heed this advice." —Wall Street Journal

"Stock tips from a master." —USA Today

"Once of the 'seven pillars' of investment advice." —Forbes

 

Bogle on Mutual Funds

By John C. Bogle

Rather than a quick route to "wealth without risk," this conscientious guide offers strategies for developing a diversified portfolio that will weather the market's short-term variations. With painstaking care, Bogle warns the reader of the major pitfalls common to mutual fund investing. Ideal for investors at every level of expertise, Bogle on Mutual Funds shows how to:

• Design a portfolio of funds to meet your current financial objectives
• The six common mistakes in retirement planning
• Design a portfolio of funds to meet your current financial objectives
• Recognize excessive fees, minimize taxes, evaluate risk, and spot false advertising claims
• Balance risk and return through asset allocation strategy and tactics, astute fund selection, and effective use of index funds
• Understand the important role of cost, the third leg (along with risk and return) of the eternal triangle of investing
• And much more

Bogle shares from his wealth of experience as the man who guided the Vanguard group of mutual funds to prominence over the past three decades.

 

Buying Stocks Without A Broker

By Charles B. Carlson, CFA

This is the book that ignited the commission-free investment revolution. In the second edition of Buying Stocks Without A Broker, Charles B. Carlson, CFA, has thoroughly updated his unique guide to dividend reinvestment plans—better known as DRIPs.

These investor-friendly programs provide a safe, proven method for buying stocks directly from issuing companies, often with a discount and always without paying commission fees to brokers. New features of this Second Edition include:

• An expanded directory listing nearly 1000 DRIPs—including brand-new, enticing DRIP opportunities
• Thumbs-up and thumbs-down "at-a-glance" ratings of every DRIP on the market
• New corporate profiles and performance ratings
• New model portfolios using stocks available through DRIPs

"Investors who want to own stocks but don't like paying brokers' commissions can have the best of both worlds...One useful source of companies that sell stocks directly or through DRIPs is Buying Stocks without a Broker." —Business Week

 

Common Sense On Mutual Funds:
New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor

John C. Bogle

In Common Sense on Mutual Funds, Bogle takes a critical look at the mutual fund industry and how we invest, and charts a compelling course for change. This book examines the fundamentals of mutual fund investing alongside industry practices that are often in conflict with a sound long-term investment program.

Common Sense on Mutual Funds shows investors how to revolutionize their portfolios by embracing simplicity and then avoiding industry pitfalls. Emphasizing long-term investing and asset allocation, Bogle finds in simplicity the solution to the riddle of fund selection by investors. From stock and bond funds to global investing and index funds, Common Sense on Mutual Funds provides insight, illumination, and enlightenment. Organized as a series of essays on the investment issues of the day, this insider's view of the industry makes vital information on mutual funds accessible to experienced investors as well as those just beginning.

 

Contrarian Investment Strategies: The Next Generation

David Dreman

David Dreman's name is synonymous with the term "contrarian investing," and his contrarian strategies have been proven winners year after year. His techniques have spawned countless imitators, most of whom pay lip service to the buzzword "contrarian," but few can match his performance. His Kemper-Dreman High Return Fund has been the leader since its inception in 1988 -- the number one equity-income fund among all 208 ranked by Lipper Analytical Services, Inc. Dreman is also one of a handful of money managers whose clients have beaten the runaway market over the past five, ten, and fifteen years.

Now, as the longest bull market in the history of the stock market winds down, there is increasing volatility and a great deal of uncertainty. This is the climate that tests the mettle of the pros, the worries of the average investor, and the success of David Dreman's brilliant new strategies for the next millennium.

Contrarian Investment Strategies: The Next Generation shows investors how to outperform professional money managers and profit from potential Wall Street panics -- all in Dreman's trademark style, which The New York Times calls "witty and clear as a silver bell." Dreman reveals a proven, systematic, and safe way to beat the market by buying stocks of good companies when they are currently out of favor. At the heart of his book is a fundamental psychological insight: investors overreact. Dreman demonstrates how investors consistently overvalue the so-called "best" stocks and undervalue the so-called "worst" stocks, and how earnings and other surprises affect the best and worst stocks in opposite ways. Since surprises are a way of life in the market, Dreman shows you how to profit from these surprises with his ingenious new techniques, most of which have been developed in the nineties.

 

A Fool and His Money

By John Rothchild

Do you wonder if the average investor really can make money on Wall Street? Do you want to know how the stock market works, where NASDAQ actually is, and how brokers are trained?

John Rothchild, armed with a modest financial stake and a hopeless case of irreverence sets out to answer these and other questions. He provides a list of 25 Useful Tips (like "Never buy anything from a broker at an airport."), and gives a true inside look at the financial marketplace.

The New York Post said: "A Fool and His Money may be the funniest book about investing ever written. It's the reader's capital gain."

And The Washington Post: "What makes this book so good is that Rothchild can explain things and leave the reader both edified and laughing... witty, fast-paced and educational."

This humorous account of one man's odyssey through Wall Street is an enjoyable way to learn about investing. It has been one of our best-selling books over the years.

 

The Fortune Sellers
By William A. Sherden

The Fortune Sellers contains in-depth explorations of the seven most prevalent forecasting professions today —meteorology, economics, investments, technology assessment, demography, futurology, and organizational planning. As Sherden uncovers their historical roots and traces their track records, he deftly reveals just how accurate—or inaccurate—their predictions really are. Fascinating historical facts, scores of actual examples, and a wealth of eye-opening statistics illuminate the difference between reliable real-world information and spurious guesswork.

In The Fortune Sellers, you'll discover how:

• Anyone who is counting on a weather forecast more than a day or two in advance might just as well flip a coin
• How economics earned its nickname—the "dismal science"—and why it sticks
• How profits from prediction work on Wall Street; how academia, business, and the media feed our fascination with science fact and fiction and future technology
• How futurists—predictors of societal change—use the infirm foundations of social science to predict everything from utopia to techno-totalitarianism
• And how prognosticators failed to predict many milestone events, including the stock market crash of 1929, the recession of the 1980s, and the fall of East Berlin

An intriguing and utterly fascinating exploration of the methods and the madness of today's growing number of future "experts," The Fortune Sellers is not to be missed—and that's no speculation.

 

Get Rich Slowly

By William T. Spitz

If your tired of losing money through fast-talking brokers or friends' "sure thing" advice, Get Rich Slowly is for you. The very first investment book to approach the art of accumulating wealth from a mature and realistic perspective. Get Rich Slowly cuts through all the get-rich-quick schemes. It offers an honest, straightforward account of how best to map out your financial goals and shows the best and most logical route to accomplishing those goals.

William Spitz, the treasurer of Vanderbilt University and recognized as one of the nation's leading experts in finance and investments, shows you how to:

• figure out what your long-range goals are;
• determine how much risk you should take with your money;
• better understand the various financial instruments that are available to the typical investor;
• plan out major future expenses, such as your retirement, paying for your children's college education, and so on.

By using easy-to-understand charts, simple financial logic, and at-a-glance chapter summaries, you can quickly plot out the best financial strategy to fit your personal needs. Spitz has done all the homework for you, complete with thorough explanations of various financial paths you can choose.

 

Investing for the Future

By Larry Burkett

In the introduction to this book, Larry writes: "The rules about investing given in God's Word still work. Apply them and you will prosper over the long run. Violate them and you will lose all that you have worked so hard to accumulate."

Larry speaks from the vantage point of one who works daily to help people avoid the financial pitfalls that are so plentiful in our world, and who has witnessed almost every foolish decision made in the handling and investing of money.

He offers his own approach to the world of investing. Beginning with how understanding the economy can help make you a better investor, he proceeds to key principles from God's Word, what he considers the best and worst investments, and his evaluations of the many types of investments.

There is very little overlap with what you find in my new book or the SMI journal. Some of the chapters include:

• Why Invest?
• The Investment Hall of Horrors
• Following Solomon's Advice
• Financial Seasons of Life: Ages 20-40, Ages 40-60, and Ages 60-Up

Also included is an extensive appendix which is complete with names and addresses of many additional resources.

 

Investment Illusions

By Martin S. Fridson

Investment Illusions is an illuminating guide to the way Wall Street really works. One by one, securities expert Martin Fridson explodes dozens of the most widely held misconceptions about investing. Beyond his astute observations, he also gives you specific advice on how to separate reality from illusion and control your risk.

Each concise, highly-focused chapter in Investment Illusions reveals a real-life story of foolishness, deceit, or confusion that occurred in the financial world. You'll learn from the mistakes of the "experts"—from the purveyors of "foolproof" systems to the promoters of companies that become overnight, overbought sensations—all of whom, hilariously, ended up with egg on their faces. You'll discover how to see through get-rich-quick scams, media spins, and the hype of investment pundits. And you'll gain practical insights into the way the Street really works via Fridson's illuminating analogies to sports, gambling, and psychology.

Without offering any "sure-fire" magic formula, Investment Illusions does what few other investment books do. It strips away the illusion from an environment that is fraught with it, leaving you with unglamorous reality—which, along with the intense discipline and effort, provides your best shot at investment success.

 

Investment Psychology Explained:
Classic Strategies To Beat The Markets

By Martin J. Pring

It's no wonder Martin Pring is one of the most respected independent investment advisors in America. While so many were losing their heads and their money in the frenzied 1980s, he kept his, dispensing the kind of considered advice that enabled his readers to weather the worst market storms and secure steady profits.

Martin Pring's classic investment approach is even more welcome now, as many chastened investors have come to realize: There are no easy answers, no magic formulas.

Every page of Investment Psychology Explained reflects this refreshing sanity. Pring puts the emphasis back on the timeless values of hard work, patience, and self-discipline. But he does far more than this. Drawing on the cumulative wisdom of history's top investment minds and his own rich experience, Pring shows you how to:

• Overcome emotional and psychological impediments that can distort your decision making
• Map out an independent investment plan—and stick to it
• Know when to buck herd opinion—and "go contrarian"
• Dispense with the myths and delusions that drag down other investors
• Resist the fads and so-called experts whose siren call to success can lead to disaster
• Exploit fast-breaking news events that rock the market
• Deal adeptly with brokers and money managers—and much more
• Learn and understand the rules that seperate the truly great investors and traders from the rest

Reading Investment Psychology Explained you'll have a renewed appreciation of the classic trading principles that, time and again, through the bull and bear markets, have worked. You'll see, with the help of illustrative historical examples, what goes into making an effective investor—and how you can work toward achieving that successful profile.

 

Learn to Earn

By Peter Lynch and John Rothchild

For the basics on investing, get this book by mutual fund superstar Peter Lynch and author John Rothchild. It teaches the basic principles of business, the stock market, and investing in a primer that will enlighten and entertain anyone who is high-school age or older.

In Learn to Earn, they explain in a conversational, easy-to-understand style such matters as how to read a stock table in the daily newspaper, how to understand a company annual report, and why everyone should pay attention to the stock market. They explain not only how to invest, but also how to think like an investor.

Chapters include: A Short History of Capitalism, The Basics of Investing, The Lives of a Company, and Stockpicking Tools.

This book would make a great gift to a teenager. In fact, the authors often offer tips to the reader under the assumption he or she is a high school student. Highly recommended for the beginning investor!

 

One Up On Wall Street

By Peter Lynch

Peter Lynch knows how to make money. If you had invested $10,000 in the Fidelity Magellan Fund when Lynch became its manager, ten years later you would have $190,000!

In his plain-English and humorous style, he shows that for the average investor, the key to making money is sticking with what you know. As a mutual fund manager, his primary emphasis was on how to go about selecting individual stocks as good, long-term investments. (You'll not find much here on how to select mutual funds.)

Speaking from his years of experience, but with commendable humility, Lynch also explains Wall Street's jargon and much more. It is full of informative, sound advice. Co-authored by John Rothchild, this book also has a sense of humor. It was deservedly a fixture on the best-seller lists for many months.

More than 600,000 investors have bought this book, making it one of the most successful books ever written about the stock market. If I could give only one book to a young investor to help them get a fundamentally sound perspective on stock selection, this would be the one.

 

The Roaring 2000s

By Harry S. Dent

One of the world's most prescient economic forecasters unveils his predictions for the beginning of 21st century — and shows readers how we can take advantage of the unprecedented opportunities that will accompany the great financial boom to come. In The Roaring 2000s, Dent focuses on the full spectrum of changes that will follow in the wake of the burgeoning turn-of-the-century economy. According to Dent, how and where we work and live is about to change more drastically than at any time in our history due to the convergence of the mainstreaming of the Internet and other technologies, and the peak spending years of the aging baby boomers.

This will result in nothing less than the greatest boom in history and an unprecedented opportunity for investors and entrepreneurs, great buys in real estate, and a wealth of high-quality lifestyle choices for the savvy people who anticipate these changes. We will see such rapid and exciting change as we have not seen since the dizzying pace of the productivity revolution unleashed by the assembly line in the Roaring Twenties. Dent not only offers detailed investment strategies aimed at exploiting the coming boom for the next 15 years, but also explains future trends in the job market, technology, demographics, and real estate.

 

A Short History of Financial Euphoria

By John Kenneth Galbraith

How is it that, with all the financial know-how and experience of the wizards on Wall Street and elsewhere, the market still goes boom and bust? How come people are so willing to get caught up in the mania of speculation when history tells us that a collapse is almost sure to follow?

Renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith calls this book "a hymn of caution" as he reviews, with insight and wit, the common features of the great speculative episodes of the last three centuries—the seventeenth-century craze in Western Europe for investing in an unusual commodity: the tulip; Britain's South Sea Bubble and the eighteenth century's fascination with the joint-stock company, now called the corporation; and, more recently, the discovery of leverage in the form of junk bonds.

Along the way, Galbraith explains the new types of debt that different generations have dreamt up, and he entertains with anecdotes about the ingenuity with which some of the more notorious charlatans have convinced people to invest in their recommendations.

 

The Sound Mind Investing Handbook

By Austin Pryor

As a subscriber to the SMI newsletter, we strongly encourage you to purchase Austin's book, The Sound Mind Investing Handbook. Although you can get by without it, it will surely enhance your understanding of the articles in the monthly journal and make using it easier. Plus, it's a thorough and convenient reference at a great price. Concerning the book, Dr. D. James Kennedy has said, "A comprehensive handbook for any person seeking professional guidance in investments. I am especially appreciative of the godly orientation manifest throughout..."

For additional information, click here.

 

Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes — and How to Correct Them, Lessons from the New Science of Behavioral Economics

By Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich

Why do so many otherwise smart people make foolish financial choices? Why do investors sell stocks just before they skyrocket — and cling to others as they plummet? Why do shoppers overspend when using credit cards rather than cash? What do our habits of tipping or buying lottery tickets indicate about our relationship with money?

In this fascinating investigation of the ways we spend, invest, save, borrow, and waste money, Gary Belsky and Thomas Gilovich reveal the psychological causes — the patterns of thinking and decision making — of irrational behavior. Most important, they focus on the decisions we make every day and, using entertaining examples, provide invaluable tips on avoiding the financial faux pas that can cost thousands of dollars each year.

Winning the Loser's Game, Timeless Strategies
for Successful Investing

By Charles D. Ellis

Charles Ellis has 40 years of experience working with the leading investment organizations around the world and is in the unique position to tell it like it is. Winning the Loser's Game provides dozens of sound ideas on how to be a smarter investor, and for plugging the leaks in your investment returns. From preventing unnecessarily high taxes to avoiding unconscionably high fees, this common-sense guidebook for independent investors reveals how to:

• Match your investment program to the realities of the market and work effectively with your investment managers
• Make the most of the "unfair" index fund advantage in today's tumultuous market environment
• Keep from getting burned by the market's inevitable up-and-down cycles
• Institute an annual review process that includes both your and your heirs' lifelines
• Maximize financial success through five stages, from Earning, Saving, and Investing through Estate Planning and Giving

In today's markets, an unprecedented quarter-century of performance has blinded investors to the historical base rate of investment returns. Winning the Loser's Game cuts through the fog like a beacon of common sense and clarity, and helps you to see how today's most highly touted shortcuts and secrets are almost always guaranteed to hurt you in the long run. With updated facts and figures and six new chapters, it sidesteps complications and formulas to provide you with the straight-talking secrets to winning investing.