Customer Reviews

How to Get Started in Stocks

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

 

 

Whether you know a little about stocks and need to know more, or you're totally clueless and want to learn it all, the beginning of this 3-part series is absolutely indispensible for you.

It starts out very basic (mentioning what stocks are, for instance) and demonstrates the miracle of compound growth and interest over time, and why it is important to invest in stocks in the first place, rather than just savings bonds, CDs or a so-called "safe" investment, which isn't really safe since you won't make near enough money to beat inflation (you'll be losing money unless you invest in stocks).

But then it goes on to demonstrate some very useful things to someone who wants to investigate a stock in order to decide to buy it or not, like, how to read the company's "big three" (balance sheet, cash flow statement, earnings statement) in its annual report and what it all means and, how to calculate some very basic ratios and "dig into the company."

Believe it or not, simple stuff, and presented in a simple, and practical manner that anyone can understand. You don't need to be a math wiz in order to read this book, or have any financial education or experience at all. But it's a great place to get started, and this book is totally necessary if you want to understand stocks and the companies behind them. I highly recommend How to Get Started in Stocks, and the 3-part series in general.

Anything written by Morningstar provides high quality investment advice. This book provides a basic introduction to stocks. It provides an overview on how stocks compare to other investment products, how compounding works, and why it is important to invest long term. Since stocks are ways to become owners in the underlying businesses, the author explains how to analyze individual companies first by gathering relevant information, reading financial statements, and performing basic ratio analysis.

At the end of each chapter, there is a quiz and worksheet. Since the book is written by Morningstar, it provides information on how to use the company's website. Morningstar offers subscription services to individual investors who can get access to analyst reports and opinions of value on individual companies. Besides reading this book, I recommend their subscription.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

A great worbook series for starters on the stock market; the author explains really well all there is to know about the market in order to prepare for investing in the long run. It is pretty easy to read and understand, I'm a Computer's engineer with no previous knowledge on finnance and Investments, also you don't need a degree to understand this book or to be a succesful Stock market trader.

Also every chapter has a bottom line section which provides a synthesis of the most important topics of the chapter, a multiple selection quiz and worsheet section, which it's great to review what you just learned.

This book it's great for people like me who had no idea about the Stock market, apart for what I have seen in movies. Can't wait to finish it to get the next one, because it is a 3 workbook series.

Also Morningstar provides great references to investment analysis pages, and include a free certificate worth of 100 $ in Stocks analysis on the back of the book.

Like others have said, Morning Star probably wrote this book to get business to their site. So what, I say. They have a great site. I have the other two books in this series, but have not read them, but they look equally well.

I loved this book. It's very cleary explained and the chapters are just the right length, so there's not too much information yet there's still enough meat to chew on. Each chapter has a straightforward summary, a quiz and another page with more in depth questions, which all help you to fully understand the last chapter before moving on to the next. Also there's a glossary with simple explanations of the terms used. The writer made a serious attempt to teach us dummies, rather than blabbing on without proper guidelines. I couldn't wish for a better introduction to stocks. In fact I'm going to order the next volume if it's available on Amazon.