No comments about The Top 100 International Growth Stocks: Your Guide to Creating a Blue Chip International Portfolio for Higher Returns and.

2 comments about Break the Wall Street Rule: Outperform the Market With Relationship Investing.

1. Most investment books are written for speculators. They focus on a strategy for picking stocks though market timing, technical analysis, finding value stocks that are under priced, or growth stocks with good prospects. The problem is that over time, none of these methodologies achieve returns superior to the market average. As more and more investors realize this, they have chosen to invest in index funds. Yet, the more we do so, the less efficient our markets become since capital is no longer allocated to companies that produce the greatest wealth for each dollar invested.

   Jacobs identifies our most common fallacy; treating stocks like commodities. Each share of stock represents ownership and a vote in what is to be done with corporate assets. Index investors spread their stock holdings so thinly, they minimize any influence they can have on each company. Break the Wall Street Rule is about how to be an effective owner, how to focus your attention on factors over which you can have some control, rather than the market. It is the first book written specifically for intelligent individual investors. (for more, see http://www.corpgov.net/abreviews1.html#Jacobs)




2. Take power back from executives, admonishes this shareholder advocate. Should be a great read for investors who want to be active without trading all the time.

No comments about Safe Investing: How to Make Money Without Losing Your Shirt.

No comments about Essentials of Wealth Building.

No comments about Mergent's Dividend Achievers Summer 2007: Featuring First-Quarter Results for 2007 (Mergent's Dividend Achievers).

4 comments about Al Frank's New Prudent Speculator: The Master of Value Investing Shows You How To Pick Winning Stocks, Revised Edition.

1. Unlike some books, were authors write about great investors or skilled authors with little practical experience present their opinions, Al Frank is a great investor and a skilled author with lots of practical experience. Thus, the book is a pleasure to read, more comprehensive than most and presents conclusions drawn from decades of value investing in common stocks.

   With a folksy, down to earth approach, the author goes over what's most important for a long term investor: Patience, Stock Selection, Diversification and Risk Management. Important financial ratios are also explained and the use of margin is reviewed in great detail. In fact, there are very few investment books which deal with margin as well as this one. This is probably because not many investment book authors have as much experience in this area as Al Frank. However, this is not a get rich quick book, but instead the presentation of a logical, long term seasoned strategy.




2. THE THESIS OF THIS BOOK IS THAT YOU BUY THE MARKETS WORST STOCKS AND HOLD THEM FOR AT LEAST FIVE YEARS HOPING THEY WILL COME BACK TO GLORY. hE BUYS STOCKS THAT HAVE LOW P/E'S LOW PRICE TO SALES AND LOW PRICE TO BOOK. USUALLY THESE STOCKS HAVE LOADS OF DEBT, TERRIBLE PRODUCTs OR ARE IN A TERRIBLE INDUSTRY. eXAMPLE STEEL
   Most of the stocks he picks are terrible and will never make you any money and are the riskiest in the market.Example of stocks he tells you to buy in his newsletter kmart, wcom, conseco etc.
   all bankrupt. Once in while he gets lucky and has a big winner. Don't count on this. If you want to lose big money read his book and follow his insane advice on the use of margin.



3. Basically this is typical value investing with a small cap bent, though he will buy value at any price. Chapter two covers this and the rest of the book will put you to sleep. He's long winded, add small type and over 350 pages... it was a struggle to finish.

   Much of it could have been left out. 50 pages are a review and comments of past years portfolios. Another chapter is on his pet peeves, one on funds, one defending use margin and one on Tech analysis (he doesn't use it for individual issues, but he looks at a few general market indicators to guage risk and overbought levels in the market). Except for a chapter 9 analysis of Ford, there isn't much about selection besides chapter 2.

   His returns were made using full margin. His best contibution it to say don't be too rigid on the numbers, be flexible. Usually stocks will be undervalued on a couple measures but not all of them. I'd recommend any other book on value investing.




4. The book is a breath of fresh air, providing a solid value-based strategy for investment togethr with a sound intellectual justification for it. In my more than thirty years of investing life encompassing a bevy of strategies and literally hundreds of books on investment, I have not come across a professionally trained philosopher writing about investment. Al Frank is that investor philosopher. If you want an intellectual challenge coupled with a proven strategy of investing in stocks, read this book. Think, profit and enjoy!

5 comments about All About Options.

1. I read hundreds of books and never write reviews. This book is so poorly written that I was compelled to write this review.

   If you just read the first 5 pages of the book, you will get an idea how poor a writer its author is. The first chapter is about basics of Options. However, even for someone like me who is experienced in stock trading, it was most confusing.

   I dont know how to get a refund for this aweful book but I will stay away from any books written by this author and its publisher for publsihing this junk.




2. I don't know what the other reviewers were thinking. This is the best book I have read yet (and I have read quite a few) to give you a very clear understanding of the options market and how to play it. I highly recommend it as a great place to start if you ever thought about getting into it.



3. Mr. McCafferty's book seeks to provide a comprehensive review of options trading, and it is filled with what could be helpful and illustrative examples. Unfortunately, it suffers from a lack of editing. This means, for instance, that many of the examples appear to have incorrect math, as compared to the written description of how they are supposed to work. This can leave the reader confused as to which is correct.

   Similarly, because the details of the basic groundwork are partly contradictory, the reader is left with less confidence as the book becomes more complex.

   This is a great book for someone who is already comfortable with the basics of options, but if you are looking for an introductory text on options, try "Options for Dummies" or a similar book.




4. I was introduced to options with this book around 1999. As I tried to read it again today 8 years later with much gained experience I realized how poorly written and edited this book is. I'm sure it's not the editor's fault as they are most likely not familiar with derivatives. Even the basics of options are botched in this poor excuse of a book. The author emphasizes that you be clear in communication with your broker when taking/offsetting positions. How ironic. The author is not even capable of basic math. 5000 x $.01 = $500? or 5000 x $.02 = $1000? Sad. The product of our American public school system? Don't bother and look elsewhere. You'd be hard pressed to find anything more poorly written than this.



5. McCafferty may be a trader, but he's no writer. The book is like a cascade of thoughts and knowledge with no organization. Here's a thought, if I want to learn about futures, I'll look for a book called "All About Futures". Poor math aside, instead of babbling on about Deltas and Offset strategies in the first chapter, how about telling me how to read a quote, and where to go to get them. The cover says "The best software programs for hedging or speculating". In fifteen pages of "info" he happens to mention ONE fairly specialized software program. After learning all of the fundamentals of Options and Options trading, I might find value in some of the points in this book, but by then I'm sure I will have found one with a much less confusing approach.

1 comments about Successful Investing: Using Real Estate, Stocks and Bonds.

1. Successful Investing: Using Real Estate, Stocks and Bonds by certified public account and financial investment expert Don Chambers is a highly practical instructional concerning to the world of finance and investing, intended especially for the lay reader. Chapters delineate basic need-to-know information concerning equity building, real estate, portfolio design, investment advisory services, pitfalls to watch out for when investing in collectible items, and much more. A handful of charts and graphs add visual emphasis to the solid principles of this "must-read" financial primer for anyone considering putting their money to work.

No comments about Worth's Greatest Stock Picks of All Time: Lessons on Buying the Right Stock at the Right Time.

No comments about Money Markets and Bonds: How to Safely Earn Higher Rates of Return on Your Savings (Sound Mind Investing Strategies).