Customer Reviews

The Investor's Guide to Active Asset Allocation: Using Technical Analysis and ETFs to Trade the Markets

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Asset allocation is one of the most critical aspects of investing. Unfortunately, too many investors do not pay as much attention to asset allocation as they should, typically resulting in inferior investment performance. After reading Pring's book, investors will have a clear-cut methodology on which factors are important to a well-adjusted portfolio, as well as how to use ETFs to build the portfolio.

Based upon the author's extensive knowledge of technical analysis, his numerous educational seminars, his newsletter, and previous books, Pring provides investors with a detailed step-by-step guide to asset allocation. In addition, the book comes with a very useful CD-ROM and workbook reference to provide additional insights and further clarification of his key points.

After reviewing the basics of diversification and wonders of compounding, Pring focuses on the typical business cycle covering the rate of change, chronological sequence of events, and using indicators to determine the sequence. In a later chapter he depicts the six business cycle stages and how to recognize each one using specific indicators. He also covers trend lines, moving averages, overbought/oversold, relative strength (not RSI), divergences, and his unique KST indicators.

Pring explains long-term cycles and ways to determine the direction of the secular trend, and then how the business cycle drives prices of stocks, bonds and commodities. He illustrates how the ten market sectors move in a rotational process through the six stages.

Pring believes that ETFs are a good way to diversify a portfolio and provides and introductory chapter on ETF families and their make-up. He shows how to use ETFs in a sector rotation approach.

In summary, Pring provides investors and traders with a well thought out methodology combining the business cycle changes, sector rotation, and ETF portfolio. This 370-page book and accompanying CD-ROM require many hours of study to get the most from it, but the impact on an investor's portfolio performance can be substantial.

This is the best book I have seen on business cycles for investors. It describes business cycles, what causes them, and how they develop through the different stages. It does an excellent job at that.

The book also shows how to recognise the 6 different stages of the business cycle using 3 main approaches: (1) market action, (2) economic indicators, and (3) economic models. I have not seen a better presentation anywhere else.

Finally, the book describes how the 10 main industry sectors of the economy behave in the different stages of the business cycle. Then, it shows how the investor can use ETFs (one chapter is devoted to introducing ETFs) for the sector rotation process. The book also suggests portfolios for each stage of the business cycle.

This is one of the best finance/economics books I have read. I strongly recommend it to every investor.

This book covers the subject of how to invest regarding business cycles. This is an interesting subject and this is a well organized book, yet not well written/composed, that is, it is hard to comprehend the matter because of the way it is written with too many unnecessary details. There is another book of this kind, John Murphy's "Intermarket Analysis". But this time, although the Murphy's book is well written/composed, it is not well organized that much of the Pring's book. In fact, Pring's book is a derivation from his book "Technical Analysis Explained". Perhaps reading Pring's book on technical analysis together with Murphy's book could be better to comprehend the subject.

If you are looking for a book that will provide you with a detailed economic overview based on market prices instead of political viewpoints look no further.

This book does a great job of examining the economic interactions that affect the overall economy and investment markets. In addition, the book illustrates how these interactions affect investment categories such as stocks, bonds etc.


Key features of the book:


1. Factors that affect different investment categories such as bonds, currencies, stocks.

2. How these factors impact stocks, bonds, currencies etc.

3. How interactions between stocks, bonds, currencies then affect the financial markets.

4. Provides a list of key factors to watch in order to detect shifts in the markets.


Finally, The Investor's Guide To Active Asset Allocation is not your typical dry finance book with page after page of equations and text. Instead, the author Martin Pring, has filled this book with visually attractive charts and graphs which do a great job of conveying his message.

Great work on asset allocation, intermarket analysis and Long Term picture. Pring did a very good job at the hight of his fame