Stock-market

This book is a magnificent introduction to warrant investments. Giving specific explanations of what a warrant is, how it works, and what makes it attractive, the author also clearly states the risks associated with the investment tool. This gives a fair picture of the tool, so that everybody can find out whether or not they want to use warrants for their own investment. The writing of the book is clearly understandable, even to non-investment freaks. Difficult terms are explained clearly, and the book leads the reader further into the subject with each chapter. After having read the book, you might not be the world's greatest expert on warrants, but you will definitely be in the position to make some money out of them. A book for anybody who wants to make some money!

This book is actually half decent it isn't near as good as How to make money in stocks but it covers a lot of relevant information for newer investors.

The chapters cover these wonderful topics:

* Capitalism: What it is and why it works
* The stock market: Primer on what stocks are and how the market works
* Mutual funds
* Options
* Bonds
* Futures market
* Economics and economic indicators

The book reminds me of Investing Smart however Guide to the Markets is at least 10 times better and covers more topics, not to mention the writers are much better than Dhun H. Sethna.

I recommend this for beginning CAN SLIM investors.

Reed Floren

This book is a *primer*, and as such will likely be neither the best nor the worst book you'll ever read on the subject of investing (fwiw, I actually found the content average, and the writing style a bit like summertime in the Sahara). For me though, the book earned its fourth "star" for a single--yet *really* important--reason: its connection to the IBD newspaper. For about $25, _Guide to the Markets_ explains much of its information using the same graphs and other formats as you'll find in the company's daily. *That* is a great deal considering that IBD is one of the best, if more expensive, investment tools available. For its ability to cheaply provide access to that very powerful tool, while also providing other occasional insights, _Guide to the Markets_ is a very good value. (It's nicely indexed enough to serve as a solid reference as well).

This book is pure gold for investors who are just getting started in playing the market. Coupling this book with a subscription to Investor's Business Daily will help you make good decisions quickly and minimize the punishing losses that naive investors sometimes take. IBD does a good job of explaining technical issues in easy to understand language along with showing pertinent charts and graphs.

The book is good. But if you can solve all the problems (buy the solutions manual) then you will be able to extract all the value from it.

The book by Bodie et al is unquestionably, the best introduction to Investment Theory available today. Please note that there is an emphasis on the word introduction, because there is much that can be covered after the book ends. This book provides a springboard from which the student can take off in different directions viz. Derivatives, Risk Management, Portfolio Management etc.

The language is simple, and there are no mathematical demons in the book. The Concept Check questions are extremely valuable and should be attempted before the reader delves into the equally challenging exercises at the end of the chapters. The book starts with an introduction to the different types of markets and financial instruments present today, and then moves into investments, risk etc. The book touches upon a number of topics including bonds, financial statement analysis, security valuation, derivatives and hedging. Like other multipurpose book, it does not go in-depth into any of these, but provides the reader a brief introduction to each of them for help in further studies. It does dwell a lot on portfolio theories which are described in detail, with numerous examples. The chapter-ending exercises are graded with easier questions in the beginning, and extremely challenging ones in the end.

All in all, a great book!

I am a lecturer in Finance for a university in the UK. I evaluated this book for use in an Executive MBA course in portfolio management after previously using "Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management" by Reilly and Brown. The Reilly book takes a more quantitative approach to the valuation of various assets and is more comprehensive than "Investments" in terms of its coverage of securities and markets but I ultimately opted for "Investments" due to its clarity, organization, and quality writing style. The authors do an excellent job of communicating fairly complex concepts to a student with little or no background in finance.

If you are studying for the CFA or need a more advanced text, I can recommmend the Reilly book. If you are a practitioner or looking for a very mathematically rigorous text in portfolio management, I can recommend "Active Portfolio Management" by Grinold. But for an undergraduate or graduate student looking for an excellent primer on stocks, bonds, options, futures and the workings of the markets they are traded on, look no further than "Investments".

One note: we were able to obtain a paperback copy of the text at much reduced cost.

This book was required reading for a course I am taking, so maybe I remembered how I felt when I had to read "Silas Marner" in high school english. I found the book contained valid points about the psychology of trading which would be helpful to someone who was just entering the world of trading, but it seemed very dry reading to me, and repetitive. Much of it was rules for trading taken from other peoples books, and after awhile you got the feeling that you had just finished reading these rules, several times. I am currently reading "The Mind of a Trader" by Alpesh Patel, which is a similar type book (and also required reading), but somehow more readable.

Many people, including me, discovered the psychology is the most important part for good trading. This book pointed out many commone mistakes traders often made and many pitfalls to avoid. I found some materials in this book were quite similar to the Elder's Trading for a living. Because I read Elder's book before this one so I found it was less informative than I expected. But if you didn't read any other books about investment psychology, you could still learn a lot from this one. The price is cheap and Pring's style is lucid. A good choice!

This book provides an excellent starting point for anyone interested in investing from a market psychology point of view. The author describes the impact of company announcements, mergers and world events on the market and how an investor can take advantage of these situations. The author also informs the reader how to evaluate his own psychology and design a winning investment strategy based on his own needs.