Stock Picks Books

I have been wanting to get back into stock market investing since my 401k has languished along with the rest of the market for years. I wanted a complete investment "system" that was logical and reflected my views on well-reasoned investment fundamentals.

I found everything I was searching for in this book. There is a fine balance between being technical enough to accurately represent a stock's value and market conditions and readily understandable text. Mr. Van Knapp certainly achieved that for me.

I consider myself a "value" investor at heart and I needed a book that spoke to me on that level. I didn't want rosy predictions of how much money I would make. I'm realistic enough to know I'll make mistakes, but having the information in this book gives me the confidence to know when it's time to buy as well as sell. Mr. Van Knapp also includes two real-world portfolios in the text. These aren't hypothetical portfolios manipulated to illustrate his points. They are real-money ($50k and $40k) investments in actual stocks, with performance information as well as reasoned discussion on his criteria for making his purchases.

I will return to update this review when my portfolio has had time to accurately reflect my own approach, using Mr. Van Knapp's criteria. If you are looking for stock market investment advice, I would highly recommend this book in your library.

Out of all the investment books I own, "Sensible Stock Investing" is the only book that has finally brought together an understanding of how, what, why, and when a stock should be considered for purchase. Not just a "stock screen evaluation", like so many books are, but an explanation of how various criteria is brought together and used to give an unbiased and "sensible" direction before making a commitment. This book has allowed me to feel confident, organized, and safer while having an intelligent control of what I analyze and compare. After scrambling in various directions through reading numerous books and newsletters, "Sensible Stock Investing" has provided me with all the tools necessary to establish an orderly and educated direction of investment choices based on knowledgeable, well-built groundwork. It is both exciting and liberating to finally learn how to approach investing based on my own calculated and informative decisions.

Mr. Van Knapp has written a book that allows a person to navigate technical information in a step by step process using an "Easy Rate System". It will allow you to compare a stock against its own strengths and weaknesses, and score it accordingly. The straight forward explanations of the figures used will give the reader an effortless understanding of these fundamentals. Knowing what information to look for and how to utilize it becomes a simple but thorough process.

"Sensible Stock Investing" also includes added information on different stock groupings and their level of volatility, how to evaluate the current condition or trend of the Market, managing your stocks and much more. Through this book, Mr. Van Knapp has succeeded in making the market place an enjoyable and less exasperating environment for everyone. A well earned five stars!

This book provides a cook book approach to evaluating stocks. The concept is good and the approach to applying the concept also good. The main problem with the book is that I do not believe it was edited. There are several glaring errors in the text and it is not very well written either. That being said, it still is worth buying for the concepts that the books presents. What the book really needed was a really good editor to tune it up.

First, what this book is NOT:

A primer on asset allocation or asset classes other the individual stocks. If you only invest in bonds, cash, and mutual funds, this book is not for you.

What this book is:

A primer on evaluating stocks to consider buying. The author explains what types of companies to look for. The author discusses developing the comapny's story, how a company fits into megatrends, how to determine a dominant company, and how to evaluate the company's financials. He has developed a scoring system that is easy to understand and flexible, so an investor can tweak the system to their own values.

A primer on stock valuation, primarily using valuation ratios. Again, there is an easy to use scoring system.

A primer on managing your portfolio. Several stock types are discussed, including aggresive Type A stocks, momentum stocks, dividend stocks, blue chips, and EFTs. Concentration vs. diversification are discussed including a recommendation for a reasonable number of stocks to own. When to buy and sell, market timing (based on eight easy to find market indicators) and investing strategy are also discussed.

The author has invested in two real money portfolios, one aggresive, the other more conversative and dividend oriented. He discusses his actual results for the two portfolios and lessons learned. The portfolios were started in 2001 and 2002, hardly during a bull market, so the better than the market results are not simply a result of favorable market conditions.

The appendices include several forms recommended by the author: a stock rating form, company story questionnaire, a stock shopping list, a market timing outlook, and portfolio review.

For those who hate books that are basically sales pitches, this book thankfully has little. The author has a web site, but it is only mentioned a few times, and never pushed.

In all, a good stock picking book with an easy to understand system for evaluating potential companies, valuing their stocks, and managing a portfolio.

As an investor who believes in many of the valuation techniques of Buffett and Peter Lynch, I was constantly trying to find a way to properly grade a stock. Finally, someone tied all the important components together in an easy-to-use scoring system that takes all the emotion out of investing. David Van Knapp has written an understandable and extremely well detailed book that walks you through all the important points necessary to determine 1) If the stock is under or over valued, 2) Is the timing right to purchase it, and 3) When it's time to get out.

Since I began using Mr. Van Knapp's system, my returns have dramatically improved. Using his dividend strategy earlier this year during the exceptional market volatility we experienced, I outperformed the exchanges by 5%.

I would highly recommend this book to seasoned veterans and new investors alike as a staple for your library. Sensible Stock Investing is destined to be included with some of the great works of Graham, Lynch and Siegel.

If you want to learn how the major players on Wall Street choose their investments, you'll really enjoy this book. Kazanjian is a wonderful writer. He makes these investment concepts very easy to understand. I have been a stock broker for over 25 years, yet I learned a great deal from this book. It's interesting how you read about a lot of the investment pros Kazanjian profiles in the media all the time. But it wasn't until I read this book that I got to know them and felt like I truly understood their investment philosophies.

This was an excellent book. Gives specific stock and fund picks and shows how the pros select their investments. I highly recommend it.

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.

I am starting today. I am getting wall street journals and recording the stocks that hit 3 times in the next 24 days.
I read some of the reviews and either people thought the book was written by the Lord above, and made bank, or that it didnt work. This is my guess as to why this is: The book DOES NOT SAY to buy any stock that trips across the radar screen, (like some of these boneheads obviously have done)instead read the book throughly instead of lightly going through it. The book states you have to look at the market conditions, and also the fundimentals of the stocks. Look at the earnings over the last few quarters. Look at the expected earnings for the future. Learn how to read a balance sheet. Two good books by "O'Neal who published Investors Business Daily Newpapers......one is how to invest in stocks. Look him up as a good suppliment to this book. Once you use that to help you filter out the bad stocks and learn how to read a balance sheet and to apply it to the trinity trading system, you should go on to accumilate some pretty nice wealth in your future. Anyway, I will repost in several months to tell you how it went.

I learned a lot from this book - and it was easy and enjoyable to read.
I was impressed by the author's correct prediction of the crash of Nasdaq and the sizable correction of the Dow.
While not a perfect trading system (but then what is), I've done well with it. I suspect I would have done even better if the market wasn't experiencing its present turmoil.
I also noticed this; you have to read and understand the entire book to fully benefit from the trading system; i.e., the trading system is not a stand-alone, but rather a gestalt.

I wish this book had been written 15 years ago when I first started trading. No, not every trade has been a winner, but the majority have been. And, by following the author's advice, the few losers I've had have cost me virtually nothing, while my many winners have won BIG.
Bottomline: I've made more money trading this system then any other I've ever used.

I put the book's principles to work, and got mixed results. I would say roughly 75% of my picks based on this system produced gains in the first few days/weeks. I've probably traded 40 different stocks. I took the authors advice and moved my stops up as the price increased. However, after posting nice gains in the short term, and subsequently upped the stops as they moved, most of the stocks pulled back and hit the stop for a small gain or small loss. I had one stock post a 70% increase in a few of weeks. Check out CHH bought in early July. However, the stock had strong earnings, strength and it was also being heavily accumulated at the time I bought it. Most days 4 times the average daily volume, and up to as much as 20 times normal volume. Also, CHH is in the leisure industry which happened to be in the top 3 industries at the time. And it just so happens that it was pulling out of price consolidation or base - a perfect 'cup with handle' formation. See investors.com for further detail. It looks like all of these things made a difference in my best performing stock. I would suggest using TTS to alert you to stocks, but also check their fundamentals, volume and industry strength. Don't just buy any stock that hits your radar screen. In a bear market, I would suggest targeting a small profit, then sell it once it hits. I know that the author states that you should go long in a bear market, and short in a bull market, based on his belief that a stock that is bucking the trend shows real strength in whichever direction it is moving. But, I've found that most stocks will eventually follow the market in either direction. If I would have sold at a small profit, say 10-15% which most of the stocks that I picked made, I would have done better. Also, I would pick one stock at a time and let it prove itself instead of picking many stocks just to be fully invested. And I wouldn't limit myself to the prices that he recommends based on your portfolio, nor the number of stocks. I believe it's better to have a few good stocks and feed them, then to have many mediocre ones. Like he says, don't alter the princples of TTS, but feel free to tailor it to your needs. An interesting and good read even if you don't try it.

This was a very interesting book. I enjoyed it immensely. Unfortunately, the Trinity Trading System doesn't work. Since I'm a software developer, I created a database and program to automatically alert me to ALL stocks that fit Mrkvicka's strategy, and I've been monitoring it. It just doesn't work. The losers far outnumber the winners, and the winners have not been stellar. Anyone can sell a book that has a "sure-fire system," but in the end Mrkvicka provides only anecdotal evidence to back up the system. If you want an example of a statistically sound book, check out O'Shaughnessy's What Works On Wall Street or Siegel's Stocks for the Long Run. If Mrkvicka really believes in his system, he will publish valid data to prove it, not just list a few winners.

This book is worth reading. He definitely doesn't go over your head. He has a quite a few recommendations for stock.

An excellent book for any independent investor (not just beginners) who like to manage their money on their own. I love Jim's writing because the common man can understand it. To the reviewer who said Jim's fundamental and technical analysis are both wrong........have you done better in the market over the past decade? He's in the upper echelon of folks who make stock picks, so I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss his analysis.

No two people will ever agree on everything. I may not agree with all of Jim's picks, but I do agree with the ten trends. To beat the market, I'm a firm believer you'll need to go with these trends. That's the point of the book - beating the market. Any ol' buffoon can match the market.

Only complaint is that the book was written right before the Oct/Nov 2008 crash even though editing and whatnot led to the book not being released until Dec 2008. Things change so quickly and some references are already outdated.

While the publisher promotes the book for its stock picks, the greater merit lies in Yubak's thoughtful analysis of world-wide economic trends looking ten years out. The "picks" serve as concrete illustrations of where the trends point. The stock recommedations by themselves are available in Yubak's MSN Money articles.

Bill 22066

In the midst of rampant fear and speculation in the stock market, this book takes a rational, long term view striped of the emotional day trading mentality. Mr Jubak builds an investment strategy based on 10 long term economic trends that are well defined and discussed in the book. I particularly like the way he builds a portfolio with predefined proportions for each stock and establishes triggers for rebalancing. If you want to cut to the chase and see his stock recommendations, you can find those on MSN Money. But, I recommend reading the book because it provides the context and backdrop for building a successful stock portfolio in clear non-technical terms. Then, when the market zigs and you expected it to zag, you might have the conviction to stick with compelling long term stocks.

This is an author's note. At the end of The Jubak Picks I promised an online portfolio tracking the performance of the 50 stocks profiled in the book and online updates for these stocks. Well, the portfolio is now up on MSN Money and I've also posted the first group of updates with another batch to come at the end of February. You can find the portfolio and updates by following the link to The Jubak Picks 50 Best portfolio in the left margin of any of my Jubak's Journal columns or by pasting this URL into your browser: http://moneycentral.msn.com/articles/invest/jubak/fifty.asp I hope you find this online addition useful in keeping the book up to date.

This is one of the better short guides to fund investing. Although the title emphasizes exchange-traded funds (ETFs), in fact the book covers much more. Gary L. Gastineau reviews the basics of mutual-fund investing with a particular emphasis on risks and expenses of which many retail investors are unaware. He is frank about the scarcity of reliable comparative information about funds, but offers some useful pointers for investors aiming to assemble a portfolio. He covers index funds, actively managed mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, pointing out the relative advantages and disadvantages of each. He provides useful insight into the tax and expense advantages of exchange-traded funds, but he never gives the impression of becoming a salesperson or promoter. His style is low key, sometimes to the point of dullness. However, exciting investment writers are usually not the most credible. This author gives an impression of sound good sense and steady balance. getAbstract recommends this book to new investors in particular, but old hands may also encounter a few new ideas.

Gary is an expert in the field of index funds and ETF's. The book is a critical review of the products on the market to use passive investing techniques.The book however lacks clear direction for the average investor as compared to a book I recently added to my investing library.

I also recommend a little book titled How to Make Money in the Stock Market-Buy 2,500 different stocks for $1000 - Pay no Commission This book is a must for those wanting to find out about indexing (passive investing) and why it is the superior method for the small investor (and big one too). This book is an outstanding guide to personal investing. It will be useful to all investors from novices to highly the highly experienced. This book prepares the reader to approach investing from the standpoint of the underlying science. It is the antithesis of a 'get rich quick scheme'.How to Make Money in the Stock Market-Buy 2,500 Different Stocks-Pay no Commission

All aspects of Modern Portfolio Theory and passive (index) investing are explained in a through and easily understood manner. The aspect I like most is that as well as a solid theoretical foundation the book is very practical and shows the reader how to create (and more importantly) and manage over time a successful portfolio. This is a great book- for the beginning investor, it's a great place to start and for the experienced investor there are many valuable suggestions.

While Gastineau is helpful on managed and index mutuals, his authoritative treatment of EFTs is the most detailed and useful I know of. Of particular, immediate use was specific recommentations of stable inexpensive EFTs in Chapter 8 for both taxable and tax-deferred portfolios. I also appreciated his deep consideration of many other investment problems and solutions. This book will always be at hand.

I would have given it five stars if the book had been better paced; after a gentle warm-up it's continuously intense. He tells the reader to skip over dense sections but who wants to do that? By page 169 I was too mentally tired to continue. All that said, I STRONGLY recommend this book to anyone who ever wanted to listen to an financial services insider explain the real problems with today's financial "sausage". The book gives the best overview of the complex issues facing the financial services industry today. This book doesn't baby its readers, that's its strength and weakness.

1) The first quote on the back cover is from Mary Buffett. Mary's claim to fame is that she divorced Warren's son and then got into the investment book business. If you can't do that 'math' or you buy into the '*****' reviews for this book I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you. 2) Throw out the chapter on 'Warren on Arbitrage'. I've worked in equity arb. Most of this chapter is either outright false or highly misleading. 3) Entire sections of this book read as if they were excerpted from Hagstrom's or John Train's books. 4) The only reason I didn't give this book zero stars was it had some nice quips about value investing in general.

A $10,000 investment in Warren Buffett's original 1956 portfolio would today be worth a staggering $250 million ... after taxes! What are his investing secrets?

How To Pick Stocks Like Warren Buffett contains the answers, and shows, step by profitable step, how any investor can follow Buffett's path to consistently find bargains in all market conditions: up down, or sideways. Relatively short and easy to read, How to Pick Stocks Like Warren Buffett is an excellent introduction to the world of value investing.The book is relatively short and should provide a satisfying read.

This is book says it about Buffet's way of picking stocks, but it is not. I'm sure Buffet would scream if he ever read this book. It not only isn't Buffet's strategy, it is bad advise too. Don't buy this book. If you've read it, disregard everything you learned before you lose money. Read Buffet or Graham and get it straight from the horse's mouth, and learn the intelligent way to pick stocks. This book stinks!

I've read about 5 "Buffett" books and they ranged from utter garbage (the daughter-in-law books) to the mildly interesting. None really helped me invest better.

This book is different. I've read it probably 10 times now. Every chapter can change they way you think about investing.

The writing is clear and simple.

What follows is a totally groundless statement - i have zero evidence of this - but... the only other writer I know who writes so clearly on investment is Buffett himself, which leads me to suspect he may have been involved in the writing of this book ...or maybe Buffet is the real writer. (apologies to mr vick - take my comment as a compliment if you really did write this)

Even if Buffett isnt the real writer, my guess is that this is the book he would write.

It's my favourite book on investment. I have five or so copies at any one time and hand them out to friends who ask me for investment advise.

I am an avid reader of Warren Buffett's writings, and I believe that Warren Buffett would disagree with many items in this book. For example, Warren Buffett previously described his method of discounting companies in other articles, and it does not match the author's description.

I can see how this book would be highly rated to someone not familiar with the details of Buffett's own articles and letters. But in my opinion, the book appears to only about 80% in agreement Buffett's previous writings. This book can give the reader a good overview of Warren Buffett's methods if they do not pay strict attention to the author's details.

To be honest I have not read this copy fully yet. I read previous library versions and bought this for reference.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Not a bad book. You can get the condensed wisdom off of internet articles. At some point the book makes the point the the reader is not Buffett and cannot do what Buffett does. If you want to be invested like Buffett then by Buffett's stock. I guess I needed to buy the book for it to tell me that.

Great insight into how Warren Buffett and other successful investors invest in stocks.

I just started investing seriously a couple of years ago, and am still learning. Mr. Boroson's book was invaluable to me. It contained a lot of concise, well-thought-out advice that was immediately relevent to today's uncertain investment climate. Most books about investing I've read are either too simple, or so complicated that you need to be Warren Buffet himself to understand them. I liked Mr. Boroson's book because it helped me think through decisions more clearly without trying to impress me with a lot of complicated terms and ideas that won't help me build a winning portfolio. I'm already putting some of Mr. Boroson's strategies to work!

This is the best book yet for small investors. Warren Boroson's previous advice made it possible for me to take early retirement. Now, he takes us hand-in-hand with the "big guys" and shows us the paths to take and to avoid through today's volatile market. Good sense with good humor. A "must read."

Magnet Investing is a refreshing approach to investing which provides a methodology for investing rather than the typical hype found in many investment books. The approach is easy to follow and there are many examples for the reader to learn stock selection, as well as buy and sell signals. The approach strikes the right balance between technical analysis and common sense. I found the book to be useful, well written and would highly recommend it.

I recommend not buying this book. I did on the stength of some good reviews on this web site and some good words by Trader Vic. The essence of the book is to use stock screens to look for good stocks, and then use technical analysis to decide when to buy. It's a reasonable premise. In the first edition the two model portfolios returned about +25% and +90% in about a year. That's pretty impressive but occurred at the top of the stock market. In the second edition, two new model portfolios were created. I checked the prices and about a year later, you would have lost almost 100% in each portfolio. I'm sure the author is honest and sincere. However, his methods do not work. In the first edition, he was simply lucky.

I decided to buy Magnet Investing after seeing Mr. Kimmel on several CNBC and CNN segments. This guy knows his stuff and his book reflects it. He has a trademarked stock selection process, and the stocks it picked in the first edition of his book returned 90% in 12 months. This book is filled with information for all levels of investors and provides lots of tables that give a historical perspective of the stock market. Although I felt I didn't need it, the book has several chapters for beginners on how to plan and manage a portfolio and then covers information for more advanced investors including asset allocation and when to buy and sell. Then he turns to the Magnet Stock Selection Process and shows the reader how to use your computer to set up searches using specific criteria for selecting stocks. Finally there is a chapter on tax efficiency and recommended reading and internet sites. The book is loaded with great charts and tables. It's one of the best investment books I've read...and I've seen most of them!

Wow-this book really simplifies the stock selection process. I'm an experienced investor who has lost money in pure momentum stocks. I see this guy on CNBC and Bloomberg quite a bit and he seems to know his stuff. I agree with Standard & Poor's great endorsement "Magnet Investing provides an insightful look into the stock selection process. It will be a great boost to professional investors, as well as ones that only dabble in stocks." The first several chapters teach investors how to develop a disciplined approach to the market and then describes a new trademarked system that selects stocks based on a well defined set of criteria, combining value and momentum. If you have a PC, you can access this program through Telescan or set it up with another screening service. Then, with the click of your mouse, you can pick a pool of stocks that have the potential to be great performers. The system has averaged a 30% return per year over the past ten years. The trial CD from Telescan is an added bonus. I think the author's system is one of the best I've seen.