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Summary: great text for all seanoned as well novice investors
Review: Babin and Donovan have done an excellent job of bringing time tested investment philosophies and practices together that today's seasoned investment professionals as well as individual investors can apply and profit from.
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Summary: A Secret Masterpiece!
Review: Every once in a while a book comes along that opens a door to the future. This book is it! It is a simple, understandable road map to deal with investing for one's prosperous future. These sensational ideas are an asset to anyone that applies its lessons. It's definitely been the right book at the right time for me. By following the wise advice in this great book you'll be financially comfortable too!
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Summary: Sane Investment Strategies in an Insane Market
Review: If you fancy yourself a day trader, stop here. This book isn't for you. If however you are like most of us and are interested in the long term accumulation of wealth then I highly recommend the book. Investing requires a strong stomach, steady nerves and a long view. The authors do a wonderful job of explaining a reasonably simple, straighforward, and conservative strategy that works. The urge to make trades is strong in all of us. Unfortunately when that urge strikes, it's usually a bad move. If you follow their advice, you won't be the life of the party, bragging about 200% returns in a month (and keeping quiet about your losers). You will however have the security of knowing that you will be able to acheive a reasonable measure of economic well being. The first chapter was particularly inspiring. It should be required reading for everyone before they make their first trade. If you want to gamble, go to Vegas or day trade. Not for me! I want to retire one day and not have to worry about money.
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Summary: At most a supplement. Far from a "whole" investment book
Review: Instead of investment secrets or unique skills of gurus projected by the book title and its cover design, it was the authors' free writing, primarily fundamental analysis oriented, of asset allocation, diversification, interest rate, GDP, tax, dividend payout ratio etc etc and their effects on investment return well supported by the authors' own unscientific choice of data within a 10 yr range skewed favorably towards the authors' points of view. I dont mind reading just another investment book (and not the investing secrets advertised) if it "shows me the money", as I had already read over tens of them. However, I am disappointed by the authors' poor writing skill and the limited knowledge presented. In research term: Sell.
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Summary: A Good Read!
Review: Investing in IPOs describes the process behind taking a private company public in the United States. The book lists the players in an initial public offering and describes the documents that must be filed with securities regulators. It also offers suggestions about what characteristics lead to successful IPOs, such as a history of profits, a strong management team and a lack of strong competition. Also noteworthy are the advance warning signs which point to losers. These signs include pending lawsuits, low-price stock and recently changed business plans. We at ... recommend this book with its exhaustive and useful look at the IPO process to investors and to companies pondering an IPO. This clearly written book includes specific examples that use real-world companies to illustrate points.
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Summary: THE guidebook to a winning portfolio
Review: Mr. Babin and Mr. Donovan have provided the investment tools necessary for any investor to make educated and wise decisions on how to create and/or maintain a winning portfolio. As relatively new investors, my wife and I are confident that by putting these "investing secrets" to work for us, our financial future is on solid ground. The ideas and strategies presented are logical and easy to follow and understand. TOPTHEDOW.com, the book's companion, is well worth the time to explore. We have done our homework and believe that this book is a must read for all investors-both novice and seasoned!
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Summary: THE guidebook to a winning portfolio
Review: Mr. Babin and Mr. Donovan have provided the investment tools necessary for any investor to make educated and wise decisions on how to create and/or maintain a winning portfolio. As relatively new investors, my wife and I are confident that by putting these "investing secrets" to work for us, our financial future is on solid ground. The ideas and strategies presented are logical and easy to follow and understand. TOPTHEDOW.com, the book's companion, is well worth the time to explore. We have done our homework and believe that this book is a must read for all investors-both novice and seasoned!
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Summary: Portfolio Strategy Based on only 11 Years of Data
Review: The book's Total Return Strategy focuses on stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average with increasing dividend payouts. With decades of data on the stocks comprising the Dow Jones Industrial average, the authors recommended Total Return Portfolio Strategy is based on only 11 years of data (1987-1997). This is troubling and raises suspicion that the strategy may not have been as successful in previous years. I would of gladly given this book a high rating if the authors presented data for the Total Return Portfolio for the last 50 years. Instead, I will return this book to Amazon.
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Summary: High yield and low volality
Review: The main idea is too invest money, make a profit, and get the money back. Losing the initial investment money to speculation is not acceptable. Investing is not speculating. High yielding stocks often correlate with higher prices.
The message is clear, investing is about risk management. Lets use the following example of five periods of returns: 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. The total number of items is five. The mean=(8+9+10+11+12)/5=10. The mean represents the average. The Delta is the difference between the return and the mean: -2, -1, 0, 1, and 2. The Square or Power of 2 of the Delta is : 4, 1, 0, 1, 4. The Standard Deviation is the SQRT(Sum of Delta squared) divided by the (count minus 1). Variance is equal to the Delta squared divided by the count. The TChebyShev equation 1-1/k*k where k=[0..10] provides a percent probability of a number being in the negative and positive muliple of the standard deviation from the mean. This equation can be used too tell us the risk of loss. For example when k=1 their is no numbers in the range of 1 standard deviation from the mean, when k=2 the probability is 75 percent of the numbers are in the positive and negative range of 2 standard deviations, and when k=5 there is a 96 percent probability the numbers are in the range. The range represents the risk resistence and support parameters. The larger the standard deviation value the greater the risk.
To find the upper and lower range from the mean requires one to multiple the Standard deviation by the k coefficient then adding and subtracting the upper and lower value from the mean.
The most important part of this discussion is finding the odds of returns below zero percent. First, divide the mean by the variance. This produces a k number. Plug the k number into the equation percent=(1-1/k*k)*100 and then subtract from 100. The resulting percent is the risk associated with the returns. The close k approaches 10 the safier the investment.
This example demonstrates a small sampling of returns. However, it seems slow steady growth with low return volatility with steady returns produce the lowest risk. Its interesting to think about what types of stocks match such a profile.
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Summary: Must read for novice or experienced investors
Review: This well written, easy-to-follow book and its companion website are extremely valuable resources to those of us seeking to develop rational personal investment strategies at a time when dotcom companies gain multi-billion dollar valuations, despite sketchy plans for ever achieving profitabiity -- let alone paying dividends.
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