Customer Reviews

Create Your Own ETF Hedge Fund: A Do-It-Yourself ETF Strategy for Private Wealth Management (Wiley Finance)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Disclaimer: I'm a subscriber to Mr. Fry's investment website.

Outside of my 401k I stick to dollar cost averaging into low cost index funds. It's proven and good for the 'lazy' investor. But in the tax sheltered setting of my 401k I use some knowledge and a bit of common sense to invest wisely and avoid needless fund fees that sap returns. Dave's methodology has opened a new and exciting door to investing.

Dave has good practical advice on how to 'hedge' in the traditional sense using currency, commodities, and other unique ETF solutions. This has proven particularly useful in the current economic environment. His broad experience in the world of personal investing comes through clearly in a well written and witty text.

That said, I think the book is geared as an explanation of the new world of ETFs and a companion to the subscriber website and not an investment 'cookbook' solution in and of itself. (I take my direction through 'consensus' of several sources and Dave is more often on the mark than not.) Yet, if you've marveled at the choices in ETFs recently, and are looking for some guidance on how to utilize them, then this is a worthy read. You will come away with new and viable ideas on how to invest.

Even if you're not a fan of technical analysis, Dave's daily blog (links above) offers some insight into current market conditions with easy to understand charts and comments. Also you'll find Dave's comments on ETFs and financial markets in articles on many of the top financial websites.

Regards,

It has useful nuggets of information for the novice investor as well as some concepts that I believe every professional investor/financial advisor should be aware of in this volatile one world market. The author offers short-term or long-term approaches and methodologies to using ETFs in the construction of your own portfolio. Very helpful and he presented it in a straightforward manner that was easy to read and understand. Not one of those authors that "talks down" to the reader and tries to impress you with their self-inflated and more often these days, highly-conflicted opinions.

Definitely worth a spot on the shelf if you are inclined to read investment books!

As a private investor and manager for several family offices in the US and overseas, I became a subscriber to Mr. Fry's ETF Digest newsletter back in 1993 by default because initially, even though exchange traded funds were starting to gain popularity as trading vehicles, certainly the brokerage community wasn't ready for ETFs --even till this day. Our financial advisors were earning high commission rates then, and preferred to sell single stocks to their clients instead of something that offered broad diversification in one trade.

That was the start of my ETF education.

Mr. Fry's newsletter and blog have since provided me with the tools and knowledge to be well-positioned to take advantage of trading opportunities presented by today's volatile fast-moving market conditions. Quite simply, a big time bear market is something to be dealt with and not run away from.

His book is a recommended read. I have purchased several, kept one for myself and gave the the rest as gifts to my "Johnnie-come-lately" colleagues who are just now discovering the world of etfs.

The book goes into the history and the mechanics of buying and selling these funds and the different types of ETF portfolio construction strategies and allocations given your experience level and trading style. Even with a good grasp on fundamental trends, there is a lot of technically-based trading in ETF's which he explains in several chapters that's easy to understand and follow. The author shares a lot of his personal market experience with Wall Street especially having created and managed several of his own hedge funds back in the 1980's. Of practical interest to me is the topic of leveraged and unleveraged issues and its issuing providers since these are a regular allocation segment in our current portfolio holdings. The decision is whether to go long, short or levered in one direction or another.

Mr. Fry continues to educate his subscribers and book readers successfully without the BIAS and double-speak that you find with so many other investment book authors and financial bloggers out there.

Finally, there is no substitute for becoming a knowledgeable investor and ultimately a profitable one given the government manipulation of the markets because in the end, no one is going to save you.

Dave Fry writes about the essential approaches of global macro long/short and aggressive growth strategies in constructing and building your personal hedge fund using ETFs -- one that can take advantage of both bullish and bearish conditions in today's market environment.

Good section on the resources and tools for the novice trader who wants to become more active and market-street savvy.

Chapter 10's discussion on the use of both technical and fundamental approaches, as well as trend following, to achieve the alpha that most investors seek is particularly relevant. Anything exposed to a market has a behavior because of the human element driving the market entity, and TA facilitates in understanding that behavior. Ignoring it is careless.

I highly recommend this book.

Further, his annotated charts and commentary on his Dave's Daily ETF Blog is extremely valuable. I've been following it now for the last two years and he has been right on the money.

His blog is a must read.

I have been a subscriber to Mr. Fry's ETF Digest newsletter for the past 4 years. His insight and commentary have been extremely helpful in guiding me, along with his subscribers, on how to maneuver thru this volatile market minefield. One needs to be nimble and open and those who wish to protect their long-term purchasing power cannot afford to park funds exclusively in CDs and money markets anymore.

Mr. Fry's book provides its readers an education and understanding of the world of ETFs. Highly recommended. Those who understand volatility, market breadth data, and other related subjects and who can combine that information with a fundamental + technical approach have a much greater chance of success than those who ignore market sentiment.

[Regrettably, the lowest mark given by one reviewer is entirely undeserved and marred by an elitist viewpoint. A disservice at best.]

The author's book and blog must be read in tandem. Principal protection must become the primary focus in order to preserve capital to fight another day.

Dave Fry has provided DIY investors with four well thought out ETF recipes at the end of his book. But before you get there, he takes you on an enlightening journey of his experiences of investment business, the evolution and workings of hedge funds, and practical advice and strategies on applying the concepts with ETFs. By the time you reach the recipes, the mix of ingredients and how to use them to suit your own taste feels almost intuitive. If you are a DIY investor interested in ETFs this is one of the best. Highly recommend.

Invest in yourself through education by getting this book.

At least if you fail, you did it and not an incompetent money manager driving a Ferrari you helped pay for.

I used a lot of inverse ETFs in my portfolio and protected myself from the 40% maul from Bear last year.

I would NOT have achieved this by following 'Buy and Hold'. Dave's book has given me an education on ETFs and his sage counsel from his newsletter and blog are a must for keeping my investing sanity and portfolio holdings intact. That's worth 5 stars in my book!

Investors really need to make changes to their investing strategy if they have not already. I started reading Mr. Fry's ETF blog for a period of six months prior to becoming a subscriber to his newsletter last year.

Even after attending several IBD investment seminars and listening to a variety of "financial gurus" [some good, some not so good] and almost all with enviable performance records! [at that time, of course]; ultimately, it was David Fry's technical charts with short commentaries laced with a good sense of humor that gave me a better understanding of the global market sectors that were trending at that time and why others were not.

I bought the book in February and soon thereafter started incorporating ETFs into my portfolio allocation without further consultation from my resistant broker, thank you very much. One of the important lessons I quickly learned which Mr. Fry points out in his book is the need to be cautious in selecting ETFs since not of all of them succeed in delivering what they are set out to do and are never back-tested. How very true.

The author's book and guidance from his newsletter has set me on a new path to investing profitably for a change. Most especially during this bear market! Contrary to the negative comments posted by several reviewers, I think his book is very well titled. It's all about DIY strategy for private wealth management!

The title of the book has nothing to do with its content. It is just a book on introduction to ETF along with frequent and often incoherent anecdotes and annoying digressions. There are obvious repetition (e.g he just repeats the same discussion of Google, ebay, amazon, yahoo vs. HHH on page 148 and then again on page 248). Certainly not a book of Wiley standards. What is more troublesome is that author has got some basic concepts totally wrong. Here is a sample (p 258-259) of his understanding of correlation coefficient:

"...This is THE (emphasis mine; not even "a", like this is the only measure that exists) measure that MULTIPLE (emphasis mine) assets move together. Correlation coefficients range GENERALLY (He does not say "always", meaning occasionally they may go beyond these limits) from -1 to 1. A negative number means two different assets are uncorrelated (Really, David Fry? Are you sure?? X (long ETF) and -X (corresponding short or inverse ETF) will have correlation approx. -1. Are you saying they are not correlated???). And a correlation coefficient of 0 means there is no relationship (WOW! Did he say absolutely no relationship whatsoever? Author needs to know that a Zero correlation only says that there is no LINEAR relationship). By the way of example, gold moves historically inversely to movements in the dollar making them uncorrelated (No, David Fry, it makes them negatively correlated yet highly correlated)...."

With this understanding of basic concept of correlation, author should have no business to talk about complex topics like market neutral strategies.

On page 237, author says "You don't need a PhD to make money in the market...." and he is right on target. Someone with no proper understanding of correlation has still made money in the market and edits an investment newsletter. But please spare us by not acting as a guru and by not promoting wrong concepts through published books. Book is not recommended and John Wiley: Please do a better job in getting the books properly refereed before

The book contains a lot of useless filler, there's very little on constructing an actual portfolio and heavy emphases on technical indicators (which always work better "after the fact" ) I would recommend books published by the CFA Institute if you're seriously interested in furthering your knowledge in this field . This book was a complete waste of time and money.

Good Luck !