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John Train's slim book The Craft of Investing has a title that might mislead some readers into thinking that it is another one of his well-crafted overviews on investing. A good portion of the text, however, deals with topics that are probably most relevant to high networth individuals, family wealth management professionals and private bankers. Other investors will find chapters such as "Family Capital," "The [Trust] Executor's Job," and "How to Use a Safe-Deposit Box" less than relevant.

There are passages that are of interest to a wider audience. The first portion of the book is a brief, but useful survey of different investment styles. Other passages provide an interesting distillation of Train's tips on what makes a good investor, for instance, his advice about reverse engineering the trades of well-regarded institutional investors ("start by piggybacking on the thinking of the best professionals"); keeping a conservative approach to investing (which he says favors " sober, seasoned, careful older people"), and honing of investment skills to a professional level. "Most points are lost on errors, rather than by forcing shots. Since the investor never has to act, he should focus on not making avoidable mistakes." There is not enough meat on the bone here, though, to rank this book as one of Train's better ones. Instead, readers new to his work are better off starting with The Money Masters and The New Money Masters, two books that rank among the best in the investment field.

Overall this is a great investment book. It covers an extremely broad range of topics and for the most part the reader cannot go too far wrong following the author's advice. The sections on the nature of markets and his advice on commodities alone makes the book worthwhile. Bear in mind that the book was published in 1994 but most of the content is timeless. Another book with much of the same advice is The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias. One additional thing- some of the charts and tables and examples date from the 1970's and are evidently from magazine articles that the author wrote. Just so you know what you are buying. The example are good ones and mostly remain relevant today. The only real limitation of the book is Train's simplistic approach to growth stock picking.

It is impossible to praise this book enough. I have been actively investing for greater than 10 years, and I have read more books than I care to count. You will feel much more confident in your investing and making choices. I finally have a good grip on why do stocks go up and down. But you get insight into other matters as well ,and get to feel the wisdom of a true master,in a well written easy style. Just what we need during this deflating bubble we are in now.

I generally will not trash a book that is targeted at the novice but this will be an exception. First, I am a novice at options investing so should have been right in the middle of the target market for this book. Fact is, I learned more just searching the Internet while I was waiting for the book to arrive than I learned from the book. It is just too simplistic. All the knowledge contained in this book could have been conveyed in a 20 page pamphlet rather than this 300+ page puff piece with its wide margins and large fonts. A true disappointment.

This book offers a good introduction to covered call writing , is easy to understand and follow. If you are already practicing covered call writing as I have been for several years you are probably aware of the importance of timing when to sell your covered calls. By selling calls at the wrong time you could end up losing your stock and giving up further stock profits which are usually much higher than the covered call premiums you obtained. Unfortunately this book does not go into strategies for timing your sale so as to enhance your premium value but avoid the stock being called. I would recommend that this book be supplemented by other books that go into more detailes on timing option sales or purchases. I have been able to at least double my returns by using good timing strategies in addition to ideas in this book.

Like other reviews of this book, it has made me money...in my case, quickly and regularly. What a terrific strategy. I don't agree with some of the nuisance-type criticisms though in some of these reviews. I thought that the conversational, novel type of format not only made the book very readable, but it greatly helped my understanding of the subject material and kept my interest up throughout (I also like the author's sense of humor). I'm pretty new at covered call writing and I'm the kind of investor the book was written for. So, I appreciated the writing style.

Those who said that timing strategies aren't discussed perhaps didn't get to chapter 13, which is titled "Time In The Market vs. Timing The Market." I also found ample discussion of timing and related issues in chapters 6 and 7.

Finally, one reader suggested that the book was primarily written for investors with large portfolios. The author makes it clear that there are cost efficiencies to be obtained by using this strategy with larger portfolios, but that it is equally applicable for smaller portfolios. That's why stress is placed on keeping commissions low in the chapter "All About Brokerage Accounts And Writing Call Options." I also bought the author's book titled "Covered Call Writing With Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)," which is a great book for those with lesser investable assets that want to use the covered call writing strategy and who desire simple diversification using ETFs.

All in all, a great couple of books that I would recommend to any investor.

A comprehensive, mind filling piece of work for anyone who could not get answers to the typical questions that usually arise when entering the equity market.

Over the past decade, Howard Schilit has built a reputation as a financial statement bloodhound through his organization, Center for Financial Research and Analysis (CFRA). His focus is on rooting out elements of public company financial reports that lessen the quality of reported earnings. However, Blue Chips & Hot Tips, his first of two books, has a different focus, though it relies on many of the same principles. In it, Schilit and his brother methodically walk you through the evaluation of young companies (upcoming or recent IPOs), with the objective of identifying big winners early and avoiding companies that will not pan out. What was great for me when I read this book back in 1994 is that I learned how to break down a prospectus, which can appear overwhelming at first glance. Everything is covered, including analyzing product superiority and competition, analyzing management, directors and the auditors, and digging into the financial statements in order to assess the true health of the company. Schilit is a CPA and a detail freak so the most helpful chapters focused on the financials and the deal terms. I should acknowledge that some of his suggestions have grown to be too idealistic in an age where many companies are simply brought public too early. However, as we've seen over the past two years, applying the principles of this book would have kept you away from practically all of the blowups and bankruptcies that occurred in the aftermath of the dotcom frenzy. I should also note that the later chapters analyze several stocks, weeding out the promising ones from the less promising. Cisco Systems (CSCO) was one of four stocks that made the cut (quite prescient back in 1992). Clearly, these will be outdated recommendations, though they are still instructive examples of his approach. Bottom line - I highly recommend this book for any investor who wants to move beyond the Peter Lynch "buy what you know and hang on to it" approach. Eight years later, I am still utilizing tools introduced to me by this book.

This is a very easy to read book but full of useful information obviously gained from the school of hard knocks. But also a sound theory behind it. Excellent if you can get your hands on it.