Stocks and Bonds Books

A MUST READ for any beginner. If you're looking for your first book on Stocks, look no more, just buy this one.

This book is highly reccomended for all beginners. This book will give you the basis for everyting you want to know about the stock market. Period!

I loved this book. It talked about every facet of the stock market, but didn't go overboard with jargon. I knew absolutely nothing about stocks and after reading this book I am ready to learn more. It was well written, interesting, and, unlike some investing books, the author was not trying to sell anything. This is the perfect book for anyone who wants to invest but has no knowledge of the subject. I really enjoyed this book.

This well written book gives the beginner investor the information needed to understand investing in stocks.

The book goes through setting your goals, assesing your risks and rewards. It teaches you about common and preferred stocks and the basics of buying and selling stocks.

There is a chapter on different investment strategies and then the book takes you into fundamental and technical analysis of a stock.

Finally the book touches on mutual funds, rights, warrants, and options.

All in all this is an excellent book and is one that any beginner investor will learn a lot from.

This book was an easy read to learn the basic terminology. And it's a nice reference book with a good "stock" glossary at the back of the book. After this, you'll be ready to read something a little for philosophical like Peter Lynch's masterpiece "One Up On Wall Street".

This book is clearly written and user friendly. Biafore gives links to information sources, making it easy for the reader to get more information on each of the hacks. These links alone are worth the price of the book.

I've been trading for over twenty years, including a period as a floor trader on the Chicago Board of Trade. Even with that experience there are tips and tricks in this book I found useful to the point where I employ them daily. To be complete as a reviewer I will say there is a lot of pretty basic stuff from my point of view, but still well worth reviewing since some of it I had forgotten.

Well written, easy reading, well organized

Online Investing Hacks is an excellent introduction to the world of investment. Though the title does contain the word 'Online', I would say that the general information the book provides on investing is not limited to the online realm.

Overall, I was very happy with the book, and found it incredibly useful. Though I do have several investments (401K, some stock, mutual funds etc) I would hardly consider myself an authority on the subject. This book provided very detailed explanations and tips on various forms of investment, from CD's to Index funds, and everything in between. While the experienced investor might not glean much from reading this book, anyone just getting started will find it an excellent reference, and resource.

The format of the book is similar to the other books in the 100 * Hacks series published by O'Reilly. There are exactly 100 hacks, or topics, which are spread across 9 chapters. Each one is an individual entity and can be read and understood without reliance on any of the other hacks.

One minor annoyance I had with the book is that it is geared toward those of you who, for some reason or another, run Microsoft's Windows OS, or have access to Microsoft Excel. Luckily, of the Excel examples that I played with, Open Office's Calc program handled them with minimal tweaking.

I can easily recommend this book to anyone who wants to invest, but is unsure of what to invest in, or needs some tips on making the most of preexisting investments. Those of you who enjoy research and building your own stats and graphs will also find parts of this book rather intriguing, as it covers data acquisition and manipulation with Excel in great detail. It will make an excellent addition to my reference shelf, and I have a feeling it will be well thumbed through in a very short time.

It seems like everyone is involved in investing in some form or another. While I always felt like I should be investing too, it was never clear to me how to begin this process. After all, it's my money. How can I be sure I'm investing in something that will provide some sort of reasonable return? This book is an excellent resource in answering some of those questions and putting the new investor on the right track.

This book is written in the same format as the other "hacks" series by O'Reilly. This format is very easy to read, and the format makes it very easy to find answers. Rather then having to read the book from cover to cover, the reader can pick out topics they are dealing with, read the answer, and move on. Since many of the people interesting in a book of this nature will likely have little time, the book's format works to its advantage.

The book begins with some basic introduction to the stock market and tips for selecting appropriate stocks or mutual funds. The whole middle section of the book deals with data analysis. The author discusses how to understand a company's balance sheet (e.g. what that P/E ratio means), how to spot companies in financial trouble, how to pick a good stock, and even how to trade. There is also a good discussion on minimizing the effect of taxes on your little return on investment.

The author even goes further and gets into a discussion on financial planning. In addition to discussing debt reduction, the author also talks about IRA plans and different strategies for saving for your child's education expenses. I think my favorite part of this book was the discussion on different education savings plans. The author discusses the ins and outs (as well as tax consequences) of each of the plans, and provides some examples illustrating the fact that it's better to start saving earlier than later.

This is an excellent book, not just for its investing advice, but also for its sound financial planning. This is a great book for anyone who is interested in increasing their wealth, saving for a rainy day, or simply saving for future financial goals.

Online Investing Hacks by Bonnie Biafore (O'Reilly) is one of those books that can pay for itself in short order, as well as over and over.

Chapter list: Screening Investments; Hacking Excel for Financial Analysis; Collecting Financial Data; Analyzing Company Fundamentals; Technical Analysis; Executing Trades; Investing in Mutual Funds; Managing Your Portfolio; Financial Planning; Index

I worked at Enron from 1998 through 2001, and spent plenty of time during that dot.com era following my stock portfolio. I watched my Enron stock value go from incredible value to a point where it cost more to sell the stock than it was worth. I won a few bets (face it, that's what they were) on a few dot.coms and lost many more. What could have been an incredible nest egg, isn't. This book would have been a lifesaver if I had read and paid attention to it a few years ago. Biafore shows you how you can analyze and invest wisely using a variety of tools available to everyone.

If you're an Excel user, you'll find it an invaluable tool for analysis. She'll show you how you can use it to create financial charts (#13), calculate compound annual rates of growth (#26), and use rational values to buy and sell wisely (#36). #39 - Spot Hanky Panky with Cash Flow Analysis (using Enron as an example) would have literally saved me hundreds of thousands of dollars had I known about it. Even if you don't care about the investing tips, the hack on downloading data via Excel web queries (#7) was something I didn't know how to do (or that you could even do it!). The book has a little something for everyone.

As with all Hacks titles, you probably won't be interested in every single item. Some may not be applicable to your situation or may be too complex for what you care to handle. But all it would take is one hack to work out and change your investing for this book to pay huge dividends. If you do your own investing, you owe it to yourself to get this book.

I love this book. It is excellent for beginners and easy to read. I suggest this book to anyone who wants to learn about investing - its title tells it all. Also, it talks about some basic investment strategies & how to read/interpret a stock analysis , prospectus, etc.

As the title would suggest, this is very basic investing information. If you are a new investor, and seek a very broad overview of investing, and your options, then this is the book for you. I bought this book for my mother, who has never invested outside of a savings account. I read the book to be sure it would give her the information I was hoping for. It was exactly what I wanted, written in easy to follow terminology. If you're an experienced investor, this book is not for you, however if you're seeking basic investing information, give it a read.

Investment greenhorns: Read this book - Now! Can we be any clearer? Kathy Kristof has written the ideal manual for anyone mystified by the world of finance. Her clear, fact-filled book completely dispenses with the condescending tone and soothing jabber of most books in the how-to-invest genre. In their place, Kristof has compiled an enlightening compendium of elementary investment wisdom, lucid explanations of financial terms and instruments, and educational walk-thrus of stock-valuation techniques. Simply put: If you are not investing, you must read this book. Whether it's fear, ignorance or inertia that's keeping you out of the markets, Investing 101 will inspire you to put your money to work by revealing, in easy-to-understand language, exactly how it all really works. We at getAbstract recommend this book as required reading for any beginner investors, or to anyone who feels intimidated by a lack of financial knowledge.

This book does such a wonderful job introducing the beginners to the investing world. Different types of securities, different ways of investing ... this book has them all. If you just start investing or are interested in investing, this book is for you, don't miss out such a good book !

Covers everything a beginner needs to know and filled in a couple gaps in my personal knowledge as well. Sorts investment options into categories (short-term, long-term, growth, income, speculative, etc.) and helps you figure out which is appropriate for you. Has a section that breaks down common goals and the appropriate investment for each. Writing style is very easy to read. Highly recommended.

This was my first book on investing, three years ago. It starts with the assumption that you know nothing, but it treats you like an educated, intelligent person. The pace goes quickly, and by the end of the book you know everything you need to know to be an intelligent investor.
I have recommended this book to several friends who wanted a good investing primer.

Thanks--this is an incredibly well written and clear guide. Based on some of Groz' theories, I sold two stocks last week and moved the money into two others I already owned. The market has been good since then, but the two I sold have gone down and the two I kept have gone up. Great book.

Groz's book is just the kind of investment book that has been needed to fill the gap between market kitch and high-brow professional narrative. It leaves the reader feeling well informed but piques her curiousity -- and prepares her for an even deeper understanding of the markets and investing. It is clear that this was Groz's intention. A great book for journeyman investors seeking to negotiate markets and market-speak on a daily basis.

After reading many books on investing, this is the first I've found that offers keen insights to beginners and advanced investors. I would have no problem recommending this book to any of my Wall Street friends--or to my parents.

This is a pretty good book...it seems to me it covers ground a little too fast, and dosen't give enough examples. If you are a quick learner, this is a good book for you. To me, after I got to the part on Mutual Funds I started getting bored....I just wish it was a little more fun to read...but again, A good book to read and learn about the stock market.

Over the years, I've had the opportunity to read a number of books about basic investing that were extremely helpful. In this book, the author's goal was to explain the terms that most everyone's heard but does not necessarily understand. This, so that the new investor could be equipped with the knowledge necessary to approach the process in an intelligent and thoughtful manner.

In my opinion, this is an outstanding book regarding the basics of investing. After reading it (and, it's a very quick, one-sitting read), anyone from high school student on up will have an uderstanding of the basic terms, and that will make it easier to learn what needs to be learned as they advance in the investment process.

This book is not just for the young, however. Anyone, of any age, who invests in the market will most likely find this book very useful, either as a refresher of that which they already know, or as an explanation of that which they should know.

By the way, as indicated by the title, Mr. Bollinger used nursery ryhmes and very simple examples to make it even easier to understand. Very clever. I'm not sure how he came up with the idea but, in my opinion, he pretty much did it perfectly.

Well done!!

A Great primer for new investors, both young and old. Bob Bolinger puts a simple rhyme and reason to the complicated stock market with his excellent book Stocks and Bonds for Jack & Jill. Start your children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces off with the perfect holiday or birthday gift with this book. Maybe they will thank you years later for the lessons found in this book by naming you in their will.

This book is really easy to read, it summarizes different types of investments for the novice or someone who needs a refresher course. Tying the nursery rhymes in keeps book entertaining and informative, a must have for new investors!

I know too many people who throw up their hands and proclaim that they will never understand investing. They will all be getting copies of this book, if for no other reason than that our cocktail party chatter will be more interesting.

It's a quick read that anyone over 12 will understand and enjoy, but it won't insult the intelligence of adults.

OK ... I said it! As one who has been in and around the stock market for years,
this little book made clear concepts I should have known but didn't. Fun Read!

Becoming An Investor: Building Wealth By Investing In Stocks, Bonds, And Mutual Funds is a straightforward primer to the basics of conservative financial investment specifically written for the novice investor seeking to establish a profitable portfolio. From evaluating risks and ratios to diversifying to improve one's margin of safety, just about everything a beginning investor must know is included. For anyone considering putting their money to work for them, Becoming An Investor is urgently recommended, essential reading for participants in today's volatile stock and bond markets in order to help them to make the most of their risk-calculated investment activities.

This excellent book is highly commended to anyone who is truly serious about investing. Peter Hupalo is a consultant and frequent columnist on money and entrepreneurship matters. With clear and convincing data to support him, Mr. Hupalo debunks many of the myths Wall Street pushes on the investing public. Author demonstrates the futility of trying to "beat the market", whether through stock picking and market timing or by following mutual funds that have shown high levels of performance in the past. After he makes a convincing case for trying to meet, rather than beat the market. Thus, Mr. Hupalo advocates investing in a diversified basket of mutual funds. The chapter on investing during retirement is particularly insightful.

Whether or not one ultimately agrees with Mr. Hupalo's point of view, "Becoming An Investor: Building Wealth By Investing In Stocks, Bonds, And Mutual Funds" is a book, which deserves attention. Anyone wishing to base his/her investment decisions on solid methodology needs to read this book. You will have a much clearer understanding of markets, and your investment decisions will be firmly rooted in proven soil.

I highly recommend this book for everyone.

Alexander Petrochenkov

Only available in paperback, no fancy artwork on the cover, no glowing reviews by a big time newspaper publisher, no forward by a prestigious luminary, even the editing is second rate. In a word, this is a rough book.

However, when it comes to content, this book is loaded as the author does not include a lot of fluff or selfish stories about himself. However, the author is obviously very well read, because he includes numerous references to plently of other investing books. Some may conclude it's a value investing book, but growth investing is covered as well.

So, what this book presents is a careful and comprehensive distillation of just about everything commonly available on the subject of investing. Also included are numerous clever stories which illustrate important investment truths and strategies and a recognition that a lot of what the mass media presents is almost worthless for somebody wishing to become an investor.

Hupalo gives you simple (good) advice to manage your money.

The book is very balanced and it is aimed mainly to the educated general public. You will need only some simple algebra to understand his few valuation formulas.

He writes basically about common stocks and has a chapter discussing bonds. But do not expect market timing methods. It is more directed to Investing than to Trading.

Conclusion: A good place to begin learning how to manage your money. To good sense people.

A must-have desktop reference! Well written, incredibly informative and easy to follow. If you work in the industry, you MUST purchase this book! If you don't work in the industry, but want to learn about it, you MUST purchase this book!

This comprehensive guide offers unparalleled insight into some of the hottest topics in modern finance: from asset allocation to online trading, from broker-dealer operations to advanced portfolio management. It is a "must-read" for anyone who wants to get answers to the many questions concerning investments and modern securities markets. The book makes an excellent reference guide for everyone from a novice investor to a seasoned investment banker.

This book provided a clear overview on the world's leading financial instruments. It is a must read for anyone working in the financial services industry.

An excellent, well written, easy to read tool that is useful for the first time investor as well as the Financial Services Professional. I've been in the business 13 years, and still found this book to be captivating! Very useful in illustrating the basics to newcomers of the investment process.

Lady Gregory has written a very precise and easily read translation of some of the best of Irish mythology. Originally written at the turn of the ninetteenth century it still holds today.I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Celtic mythology and lore.

The works of Lady Gregory are the best way to get a pure taste of the original Irish Myths - unless you are fluent in Gaelic and can get a hold of older copies. Lady Gregory's elequent speech and style breathes life into Ireland's forgotten Heroes and Gods!

Gods and Fighting Men is an excellent resource because it preserves the lore from the Book of Invasions as well as other sources -- the legends of the earliest inhabitants of Ireland, the coming of the Tuatha De Danaan (The People of Dana) and the stories of Finn MacCumhail.

What is portrayed as "Early Irish Mythology" 99% of the time actually isn't -- the dozens of translations of The Tain, albeit worthy reading, are actually the lore of Ulster, a single Irish province. This makes it Ulster Mythology (regional) more than Irish Mythology (national).

The legends of the Tuatha De Danaan are essential for a comprehensive understanding of Irish mythology, actually comprising the majority of the Mythological Cycle, and deal with the initial settling of all of Ireland.

Unfortunately, it seems to be modern New Age reconstructions of the Mythological Cycle rather than the native stories that seem to be infusing themselves into the mainstream, and that is sad.

In my mind, the Mythological Cycle is the most important cycle in Irish mythology, because it sets up the scenario for all that is to follow. The Fenian Cycle (legends of Finn MacCumhail and his warband) are fascinating not only for their strong associations with Nature, but also for the fact that the stories are well-known both in Ireland and in the Scottish Highlands. The Gods still walked and resided on (or in) the Earth and interacted often with mortals. Magic was all around.

The Tain, on the other hand, is more a time of towns and forts and war-chariots; a time when magic was less present and people were less intertwined with Nature than in the Golden Age. The Gods had already departed our realm and only made brief cameos in the stories.

In summary, Gods and Fighting Men is the actual collection of Irish Mythology from the earliest legends. It affects all of Ireland and the stories are fairly widespread throughout the Gaelic world. Lady Gregory wrote these translations with a view to retain the native Irish sense of story-telling; this she achieved remarkably well.

My one concern is that it would have been nice for Lady Gregory to have cited her sources for each story. I know that in many cases she blended versions from several sources to produce what she saw as the purest form of the story, but a simple listing of these would have been fantastic from an academic standpoint.

Overall this is probably the greatest collection of Irish Mythology I have found so far, albeit Lady Gregory's focus was primarily as storyteller rather than academic (this is not a bad thing -- dry, stale translations of Irish lore would have been extremely anti-Irish in themselves).

This should probably be the FIRST book one reads of Irish Mythology. I highly recommend this book and the fact that it is value-priced definitely doesn't hurt, either. This book is definitely worth several times its cost.

Happy Reading!

Lady Gregory faithfully renders old Irish stories into a form that we clods that only speak English can understand. She does not, however, make them more prosaic, or fix them into what we normally find as our story format! They are true to the original structures of the genre, and are much more lively and fun for that. My wife places them firmly in the nature of Irish legend, which she calls "We went over there and stole their cow!" (Tain Bo Cuailnge is basically a story of a cow theft, and is one of the most famous stories of Irish legend). I love the split style, and it does give the reader a good understanding of the way stories were related in the old days. A must for those who want to know where some of the ancient Irish names derive!

This is fast becoming one of my favorite books, simply because it packs so much into one volume (where I previously had to turn to three). "Quantitative Financial Economics" rivals Bodie, Kane and Marcus, and Elton and Gruber in scope and quality.

It almost goes without saying, but this book is much better than anything by Frank Fabozzi.

No one book can contain everything, but lord knows Cuthbertson and Nitzche try. Here is a quick list of chapters: Basic Concepts in Finance; Basit Statistics; Efficient Market Hypothesis; Are Stock Returns Predictable?; Mean-Variance Portfolio Theory and the CAPM; International Portfoli Diversification; Performance Measures, CAPM and APT; Emperical Evidence: CAPM and APT; Applications of Linear Factor Models; Valuation Models and Asset Returns; Stock Pricve Volatility; Stock Prices: the VAR Approach; SDF Model and the C-CAPM; C-CAPM: Evidence and Extensions; Intertemporal Asset Allocation: Theory; Intertemporal Asset Allocation: Emperics; Rational Bubbles and Learning; Behavioral Finance and Anomalies; Behaviorla Models; Theories of the Term Structure; The EH-From Theory to Testing; Empirical Evidenceon the Term Stucture; SDF and Affine Term Structure Models; The Foreign Exchange market; Testing CIP, UIP, and FRU; Modeling the FX Risk Premium; Exchange Rate Fundamentals; Market Risk; Volatitlity and market Microstructure.

Whew!

If I had to recommend a single book to someone who had the energy and discipline to teach themselves the basics of modern finance, this would be the book I'd recommend. I'd also recommend this as an excellent "one stop shopping" refresher for PhD in Finance candidates who are about to take comprehensive exams, for this work serves as a very strong and efficient outline of the most important topics in empirical and academic finance.

Weaknesses are few, but I will say that the chapters of foreign exchange have a "tacked on" quality to them that does not compare to the strengths of the other chapters on CAPM and EMH.

An additional strength is that Cuthbertson and Nieztche are United Kingdom-based authors, and so the tone throughout is one of conscious international focus and attention. Bodie Kane and Marcus and Elton and Gruber often allude to an implicitly US biased market tone, which, as global capital efficiency increases, is becoming a liability.

This is an excellent, highly recommended work for an introductory text, a support text for intermediate studies with a particular focus, or for support and review for advanced students. Cuthbertson and Nietzche have every reason to be proud, and "Quantitative Financial Economics" should be used by undergraduate and graduate programs, and widely available in reference libraries.

This book contains one of the clearest discussions of the CAPM model that I have found anywhere. It is also quite rigorous. It also contains one of the most vague treatments of utility functions in existence. Overall this is an outstanding book on financial economics. Potential sophisticated readers should be aware that the book does rely almost exclusively on time series analysis and therefore is subject to the limitations associated with the same. But for a good clear introduction of the subject from a time series point of view the book is really hard to beat.

An excellent book to start understanding quantitaive methods in financial economics. This could serve as one of the best introductions to the first-timers. The author has taken care to explain the concepts in a lucid manner to prepare the student to take on the concepts at a greater detail. He even touches upon complex issues like stock market 'anomalies' and models of noise trader behaviour. The discussion on 'rational bubble'is also quite helpful. On the whole, a very good text to understand competing theoritical models in financial economics and their applicability in various markets like stock, bond and currency market.

A superb book particularly attractive for those who intend to learn about the application of econometric techniques to finance but likely to find its peer book by Campbell,Lo,McKinlay a bit too advanced...

This is a must read for all who feel the need to learn about these important investment vehicles. The writing is stellar and easily understood, even on such ideas as futures, hedging, and more difficult concepts like the yield rate curve.

Mr. Veale is an excellent writer and deals with the common and uncommon uses of these vehicles. You will understand how to read any kind of quote, from stock to bond to esoteric qoutes like T-Bill spreads and ED futures.

I usually sell books like this once I have absorbed the knowledge, however this is a keeper since it will be an important reference for well into the future.

I am making the transition from hard sciences to financial markets. I have started reading many math oriented books on quantitative finance, like the great two volumes by Shreve, but guess what, I still could not understand a Bloomberg article or a report on the radio, all these market terms were a mystery to me. Not anymore. This book did it for me. It requires ZERO financial knowledge and yet it is not for dummies. It is perfect for the level of someone who never had a formal training on what is the definition of a stock, what kind of departments exist inside an investment bank, etc. etc.

It is a clear book, I would not call it technical, it reads like a novell, and I can not overstate any more how cleat it is. I definitely recommend it to people who want an introduction on the subject.

Great book. Complex concepts are explained clearly and concisely. Examples are abundant and helpful.

I have to point out that I have the first edition of this book (which did not have Veale's name on it). It is absolutely excellent at introducing the basic concepts behind all types of securities and futures investing one may be considering. They cover what stocks, bonds, etc. are, how they are traded, the terminology used by brokers, and even some historical background. I was really impressed at how clear and understandable all the explanations were. This book was written by someone who really understands the concepts and knows how to explain them well.

The book does not have a glossary in it, but does have an excellent index, which is really better in many ways.