The Motley Fool Investment Guide ~ How the Fool Beats Wall Street's Wise Men and How You Can Too [Hardcover]

David Gardner (Author), Tom Gardner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1996

The financial whizzes who created one of the hottest stops on the information highway--America Online's Motley Fool--now bring their smart, sassy, investment advice to readers who want to learn how to duplicate the Fool's spectacular rate of success.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Thanks to online communication," say David and Thomas Gardner, founders of the Motley Fool investment Web site, "it is now little-guy investors, not huge-guy brokerage firms, who hold the most valuable cards." The Gardners, narrating their own Guide, lay out their Foolish market-beating techniques like the college economics instructors you wish you'd had. They explain, in everyday language (and with just the right touch of sarcasm), exactly why some people do better than others when they invest their money. Most important, they tell how you can be one of the few who do better. (Running time: 1.5 hours, one cassette) --Lou Schuler --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

From Publishers Weekly

This update of the Motley Fool's first book offers the same smart-aleck advice found on the Gardners' popular Web site and in their other books: "Dear Fool, you must ask yourself: Are this company's products likely to fulfill needs in the future even better than they did in the past?... Does management have the vision?... These are extremely difficult questions to answer. But to the best of your ability, you'll want to answer 'em." Their useful tips on researching stocks, avoiding scams and tuning out the Internet din will best be appreciated by those new to the series. (Jan.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 297 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (January 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 068481594X
• ISBN-13: 978-0684815947
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (117 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,068,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but out of date, September 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Motley Fool Investment Guide ~ How the Fool Beats Wall Street's Wise Men and How You Can Too (Hardcover)

MFIG was a great book at the time, but Father Time has not smiled on the book or the strategies contained within. In short: if you a market novice looking for a good intro book, look elsewhere.

These are the sections of the book:

1. Mutual funds. They point out that most funds actually do worse than the market averages, and you would do better to invest in the average itself - an index fund. This is good, solid advice, but nothing too revolutionary nowadays.

2. The Dow Dividend Strategy, aka the Foolish Four. Unfortunately, this strategy has been all but shot down - it has done very poorly recently. Even the creator of the original Dogs of the Dow strategy has disowned it, and the Fool doesn't pay much attention to it anymore. Time to move on.

3. Small cap growth stocks. The Fool has abandoned this in favor of newer strategies.

4. Shorting stocks. The Fool doesn't do this anymore, and it is much too risky to be talking about in a beginners book anyway, because you can lose more money - potentially much more - than you invested.

If you want to learn the basics of finances, try Jane Bryant Quinn. If you want to learn to invest in stocks, try O'Neil's "How to Make Money in Stocks", or some of the Fool's newer books.

This is not to book to get anymore.

57 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars informative, if somewhat opinionated, February 23, 2000

By 

Ruth Henriquez Lyon (Duluth, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Motley Fool Investment Guide: How the Fools Beat Wall Street's Wise Men and How You Can Too (Paperback)

This was the first book I read on picking stocks, and I still refer to it occasionally. It contains some very good information on how to evaluate companies. Some of this information has since been updated on the Motley Fool website, and continues to be. That's one thing I like about their outlook: they are willing to change their approach as they continue to learn. On the downside, I find that they completely rule out some very worthwhile aspects of investing as being worthless. For instance, they have a section in the back of the book which practically compares technical analysis (chart reading) to snake oil. Although I personally would not pick a stock only on the basis of its chart, I must allow that charts help us pick good entry and exit points, and provide other pertinent information as well. One of my favorite investment authors, John Murphy, has an entire book on technical analysis. I regard him as a scholar and a very astute thinker who would never dabble in snake oil.....with resources like Murphy's books out there I can't understand TMF's cavalier dismissal of the entire field. They similarly denigrate the entire field of options and futures, which I think perhaps shows a lack of understanding on their part. Aside from these criticisms, however, I recommend this book as a very good primer on how to evaluate a company you are thinking about investing in.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Way To Getting Started, December 6, 1999

By 

"lovelycj" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Motley Fool Investment Guide: How the Fools Beat Wall Street's Wise Men and How You Can Too (Paperback)

I highly recommend this book for people interested in investing but are not sure where to begin. It gives you the basics of getting started and the motivation to handle your own money. The Gardner's gives a little more attention to the "younger generation" and therefore makes reading comprehensive and entertaining. A Must Buy, for new investors.