Customer Reviews

Investing Online for Dummies, Fourth Edition

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I figured the "dummy" in the title meant that someone totally clueless like me could buy this book and get all the information they needed about online investing (which is really just investing).

Instead, Sindell's book is a bloated list of links to other people's information - the book itself has little useful instruction or guidance, and the information it does have seems to be written for a more investment-savvy audience. Anyone who knows what a P/E ratio is wouldn't need to buy the book in the first place - so why doesn't she slow down and explain what all that stuff means?

Indeed, I could have gotten the links in her book for free from a search engine - what I really wanted was a central location for all the information I could have gotten in 100 sites if I had the time to browse through them all. Instead of doing that, Sindell gives me the 100 sites and says, go look it up. She still doesn't tell me HOW I'm supposed to use these sites to determine whether a company's stock is solid or not. Some of them were dead links - another point to be made for minimizing web links in print manuals. Altogether a disappointing read.

Investing Online for Dummies is the bible for anyone investing on the Internet, and a book that my broker buddies openly trash, yet privately stock as a handy reference. Intelligent, comprehensive, fat on facts, and loaded with useful hints and advice that doesn't exist elsewhere, Dr. Sindell took me right to the core of finding the answers I hopelessly spent hours trying to locate among dozens of other sources. To top it off, Investing Online for Dummies costed me less than the price of a single trade using a broker. When I asked my nephew what he wanted for his graduation, the smart aleck brazenly snipped: "A cool million". So I slipped him a check for $200 and a gift-wrapped copy of Investing Online for Dummies along with a bookmark that read: "KEEP THE CHANGE". Whether you're a pro at investing on the Internet or just considering it, you have to be a DUMMY not to buy this book.

This book does not only explain how to invest online but it also explains investing in simple terms for beginners. Being in my 20s, I know very little about investing but this book helped me get through all the "street lingo". Just a little caveat--some of the information about online companies may be outdated--which is to be expected since it was published last year. This should not pose a problem as long as you do some minimal research on your own.
What I really like most about this book is that it is well-organized. The book is organized to be read either from cover to cover, or randomly. Both ways work as I found out. Although almost all of the information you find here can be found on the internet for free, its nice to have the information in an easy-to-read, well-organized book. Because of the openness of the web the information you get might be either suspect or overwhelming (believe me there's a lot of information out there!) or worse it could be both. This book solves that dilemma, and the headache I get after staring at the computer monitor for hours sifting through so much information. If you're planning to invest your hard-earned money, start by investing your $20 on this book.

I tried to invest online using information from two other books on the subject, but the experience left me cold. I had given up the idea of online investing when I heard about "Investing Online for Dummies" by Dr. Kathleen Sindell, on the Nightly Business Report. The review was so positive and excited me so, that I rushed out the next day and bought the book. Finally! Information about online investing written in an authoritative, thoughtful manner that I could understand! The book is beautifully organized in a manner that covers everything - selecting, analyzing, buying, monitoring and selling! The book even comes with its own CD! Thank you Dr. Sindell for writing such a comprehensive book - it is a truly a masterpiece that will help me achieve my financial goals!

As an online investor beginner I found this book packed full of information and resources. This book is exactly what I needed. From the basic fundamentals to trading and tracking, it's all there. Worth the price paid just for the dozens of links and references to online info. (and I haven't even opened the CD which comes with the book)....Great buy!

Kathleen Sindell's "Investing Online for Dummies" is a clear, concise, well-written book that provides excellent insight to investing online. I found that it provides great advice, and a large number of references that are just mandatory for anyone that plans to use the Internet as an investment tool.

Kathleen presents not only the fundamentals for investing, but provides techniques that will help ensure the probability of success. Kathleen details methods and techniques to use when evaluating an investment. She offers a large number of web sites that provide detailed online investment educational information and web site addresses for opening and maintaining an online investment account.

The manuscript is easy to read and understand. It is filled with tips, techniques, and pitfalls to avoid. I highly recommend this book for anyone preparing to invest online.

I came here to write a review for this book, and found that a reviewer below, "A reader", had already written what I was going to write. This book provides a reader with no information, but with long lists of websites to look at. You can access those websites most often just wasting time (like "A reader" already said). Using search engines like Google/Yahoo is much better than thumbing through this book.

As I surf the Web, I often feel that it's like visiting a library where all the books have been spilled on the floor. The information is there but I don't know where to begin my search. "Investing Online For Dummies" explained how to get started, steered me to free or low cost online services, pointed out the important parts of Web sites, and showed me the process of online investing.

I selected "Investing Online for Dummies" because it was billed as an introductory book. This was my first exposure to systematic financial research and investing. What an awakening! I can't believe after years of looking at biz.yahoo, CNNfn, IIOnline, etc. how many pieces of info I was just disregarding. Truly you don't know, what you don't know. I'm interested in reading more like this and looking forward to the second edition.

This book was like a video that you rent, but turn off after 15 minutes because the movie isn't worth finishing. It looks like the author used an Internet search engine to collect a large number of web sites, and then used the long list of links (1000's of them, or so it seems) to fill as many pages in the book as possible. However, they're empty pages, devoid of useful information. The author didn't even bother to highlight the 10-20 best sites, so that I wouldn't have to overload myself by trying to check out each one of the many sites listed.

I already know how to use the Internet, but I'm a beginning investor. I was looking for something that would teach me useful techniques for finding the best stocks. If you are new to the Internet and don't know what to type in your web browser, then this book might be ok for you. If you are already comfortable with using a search engine, save yourself a few bucks and go to Google instead of buying this book.