Customer Reviews

The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing (Revised Edition)

5 star:		(104)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I presume the majority of the glowing reviews on this site are from novice investors. Afterall, that's what this book is aimed towards. While it contains many useful bits of information, some of the things mentioned by Mr. Kelly would most certainly be detrimental to a new investor. Allow me to explain.

First, the good. Kelly does an excellent job of defining various stock terms -- everything from P/E ratio to beta -- and doing it in simple language. As a side note, his writing style and prose is significantly better than that featured in most investing books, since he was an English major. Additionally, Kelly provides excellent research resources, including ones that I had not found in my extensive internet searches. More information and more sources is never a bad thing, and Kelly provides the latter in spades. Finally, his introduction to such investment greats as Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch -- while rudimentary -- are very helpful for the new investor. I find it particularly good that he utilizes Lynch extensively in his own strategy, because Lynch is (arguably) the best fund manager that has ever lived.

Unfortunately, Mr. Kelly adds a bit of his own intuition and thoughts into the strategies he presents in this book. First and foremost, his notion that investing in the UltraDow mutual fund is sound is beyond ludicrous. Not only is this an ineffective use of money, but its volatility and risk far outweighs its gains. Secondly, Kelly seems to be a bit full of himself, calling Wall Street professionals "gurus" who know as much about the stock market as YOU do. In the preface, he states that using this book "always works" -- a pretty bold statement from someone who is A) not a business major and B) not really even a market professional. Only later, towards the very end of the book, does Kelly admit that he has "limited experience" in the area of stocks. Er...what was this about "this book always works"? Kelly's strategy is, in essence, based upon filling out a worksheet and setting arbitrary numbers as "good" or "bad" -- i.e. when X ratio outweighs Y number, this stock is a good buy. Get enough of these "good buy" signs together, and you have a stock to buy. Not only does this show his lack of knowledge on the subject, but worse, he makes these statements as if they are guaranteed to make you money. Interestingly enough, Kelly almost always talks about buying shares in the HUNDREDS. That's right, as in 200 shares of Microsoft. Almost anyone who knows something about the market will tell you that investing $5,000 or even $10,000 will yield underwhelming results. The # of shares Kelly is dealing with proves to show that he is not only small time (re: has not made a lot of money off trading) but probably hasn't been at investing for very long. Remember, the market has returned an average of about 9%. Even if you're the worst stock picker ever, by probability, you will earn 9% on your picks over your lifetime. The question really isn't whether you'll make money, but how much will you make? If you follow Kelly's advice, prepare to be underwhelmed.

By far the worst part of the book is Kelly's complete and utter dismissal that short term trading works. Essentially, the strategies outlined in his book -- which you shouldn't use, if you value your cash very much -- are all for very long term investing. While that's a valid strategy, somepeople are exceptionally successful owning a stock for three months, six months or a year. You don't have to be in a stock for three years to see wild gains, and you can perform sound technical analysis on a stock you plan to hold for three months. Kelly makes it seem as if short term investing is not only impossible, but not profitable. For some, though -- even those who do it part time -- it may prove more effective.

As a glossary of investing terms, list of investing resources and a quick overview of how the market works, "The Neatest Little Guide..." is a winner. Unfortunately, Kelly's strategies are inherently flawed, and while they may appear to be solid to a new investor, they should not be trusted. Kelly's view is a narrow-minded one and a rudimentary one at best. In some instances, this reads like a "Fisher Price" version of meatier, more substantial investment books. While it is worth the $10 -- for the definitions and list of investment companies, research sites, newspapers, magazines et al -- you should take Mr. Kelly's strategies with a grain of salt.

A better book for the novice investor -- which isn't bogged down too much with technical terms/complex numbers -- is Jack D. Schwager's "Stock Market Wizards" book of interviews with market professionals (fund managers, independent traders etc.). This should prove to give you an overview of many different strategies and things to look for. It was the first thing I read before I started buying stocks, and it was a tremendous resource.

First of all, Kelly's writing is very witty and entertaining. He has a gift for explaining complex issues in simple and easy to understand langauge. The title describes this book perfectly. Kelly is very concise: long on practical advice, without a lot of dry theory and argument. He covers the basics and terminology of Stock investing well; this book is an excellent introduction to stock market investing for beginners. There is a valuable chapter in which he summarizes the investment methods of some of the most successful and famous market wizards such as Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, William O'Neil and others. Kelly reviews the main factors that are essential for evaluating a potential stock purchase. I liked the chapter that reviews the available investing magazines, websites, databases and software. Finally he gives a practical method for finding the best stocks out there: A list of important criteria, where to find those criteria, and how to interpret the data you find.

There are some parts of his book which are not too great, such as his heavy emphasis on the "Dogs of the Dow," a rather well-known and out-moded strategy, and his idea that the UltraDow fund UDPIX is your best core fund holding is just plain CRAZY. This fund is very volatile, with a Beta of 2.07, more than twice as volatile as the market, and an Alpha of -5.78, which means that the risk you take on is very poorly rewarded. For a core fund, try something like Oakmark's Equity and Income OAKBX, or Vanguard's Windsor II VWNFX. Kelly must have some sweetheart deal with Profunds, since they are the only mutual funds he recommends. The so-called "Ultra" funds he recommends are extremely volatile.

He has a website too, which gives a weekly overview of market conditions and advertises his newsletter. In his book, he claims that the website will give you all kinds of important information and tips for free; but not anymore: his newsletter costs $5.50 a month (admittedly, this is cheap for an investment newsletter, most of which cost $10-30 a month). In his book, he makes fun of all those advisors who think they can forecast the direction of the market. But then, on his website, he makes statements like: "I expect a rally in early summer, a sell-off in Aug/Sept, and an end-of-year rally into 2007." Listen, folks, you might as well get a Ouija board if you want to forecast the general direction of the market. The direction of the market depends upon events that haven't happened yet. Kelly knows this, and points it out in his book, but then he still goes on to make absurd statements like that. Worse, his predictions commonly prove wrong.

OK. I subscribed to his newsletter and can now report on that. I was very disappointed. He recommended some real losers, and I discontinued my subscription. CTHR, AMD, BSX, the list goes on and on. He likes stocks which are "on sale," but he ignores that these stocks are on sale for very good reasons. Just because a stock has plunged 50% in 6 months is not a good reason to buy! Another problem I had with the newsletter is that he's too focused on just a few sectors, especially tech stocks. AND the newsletter tends to focus on big blue chip stocks like Disney, Microsoft, or Intel. I don't need to pay someone to point out stocks like that to me! Sometimes months go by without any new recommendations. The newsletter commonly consists of a rehash of market conditions that one can find at almost any financial website. There are some good newsletters out there, but this isn't one of them. Maybe things have changed since I discontinued my subscription, but that was my experience.

I bought this book due to its 5 star rating after 125 reviews, and it did not disappoint. It really is the neatest little guide because the author covered all aspects of beginning to invest in the stock market. Here is what you get:

1).Learn how the equity market works.
2).Learn how to evaluate stocks, How you judge a stock depends on whether you are a value or growth investor.
3).Learn how the master investors invest. Warren Buffet, Peter Lynch, Gary Pilgrim, William O'Neil, and Phillip Fisher.(I have read all the books he recommends and he is exactly right on these being the masters)
4).He discusses the studies of James O'Shaughnessy from the book "What works on Wall Street" This guy studied what stocks really did the best between 1951 and 1996, this book is a must have. Low P/E ratios and low price to sales ratios have performed the best.
5).He discusses how to double the return of the Dow by investing in the Ultra Dow UDPIX from ProFunds. They use margin to double the return of the Dow in whatever direction it goes. He also discusses many other Dow strategies.
6).Write down why you are investing in a stock so you know when to get out.
7).Choose a discount broker and stop wasting money on full service.
8).Research only 20 stocks at a time, use his stocks to watch work sheet to analyze the stocks value.
9).He explains the limit and market order, and the stop loss and stop order and when and why to use both.
10).He shows when to sell your stocks to lock in gains.

This is a great place to start an education in the stock market, he touches on almost everything a beginner needs to know about. I wish I would have read this book before I read the more technical classics. The author also has a great sense of humor and the book is a pleasure to read while you learn. Stop looking for a book on investing and buy this one.

I'm a 19 year old college student, and I really had a desire to know more about the stock market. So, I bought this book and The Stock Market for Dummies thinking they would both open the door for me, and then I'd buy other books to get more detailed information. The Dummies book was good, but too slow paced for me. This book, The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing, explained what Dummies did in about the first 50 pages. Jason Kelly, the author, uses great examples to help drive his points home and connect with the reader. He is an English major, and it seems like he specializes in talking in everyday English but still having incredible amount of detail. He also has a section where he discusses where all of the world's best investors agree on strategies, which I think is one of the best chapters in the book.

Kelly then goes on throughout the book discussing EVERYTHING from first hearing a stock ticker to purchasing it through a broker. Even though I have accumulated quite a collection of stock market books, none of them are as thorough on each step then Kelly. I like his technique too, which encourages long term investing with some medium term speculations. While reading the book it quickly becomes obvious that he is incredibly confident in his strategies, which makes the book more enjoyable to read and some of that confidence has come on to me. From finding places where to discover stocks, to Value Line pages, to various types of brokers, Kelly has everything covered.

At the end of the book, Kelly gives his email address and web site (go to his web site to find his new email address). So I figured I'd send him and email to ask a question. I've done this before with other authors, nothing new, so I've learned to not actually expect a response, and if it does happen it's much later and probably won't happen again. But in less than 12 hours, Kelly emailed me back with helpful advice in a cheerful mood. Talk about a complete book.

I still find myself coming back to this book, time and time again, to refresh my memory or to reread sections. If you are anything like me, you will be extremely excited about the stock market after reading this book.

I own a lot of stock books, ranging from Warren Buffets biographical stuff to Peter Lynchs' "One up on Wall Street". It's safe to say that I've read them all. But this is by far the most simplified and most effective book in my library, and I can honestly say that I refer back to it at least once every day. I think its effectiveness lies in the fact that it offers a little bit of everything: Buffets strategies, Lynchs' strategies, William O'Neil's, etc. It's an introductory book on many levels for sure, but also very advanced, and for ten bucks you can't lose. THE BEST STOCK BOOK YOU WILL EVERY BUY, PERIOD. FIVE STARS.

I knew nothing about the stock market ,but wanted to learn. I went to Amazon and searched titles and read reviews. Luckily, I stumbled onto "The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing" by Jason Kelly. It was a very easy read but at the same time very informative for me.I grew up thinking that only the wealthy people possessed some kind of "magic" ability to invest in the stock market.I can see now this this idea (shared by many others ) was very wrong and untrue especially in light of the internet and e-brokers. While I am not a Pro because of reading this book , I can now look at the newspaper or go online and have some level of intelligence while reading the financial pages. I even came away from reading the book with 3 questions ,of which I emailed Mr. Kelly about. Lo and behold ,this man was kind enough to take time out to answer me in the same manner as his teachings, simply and honestly. Did he help me ? Yes indeed! Would I reccomend this book to others in my circumstance? Without hesitation. Will I subscribe to his very inexpensive newsletter? Absolutely.

If you are thinking about buying this book, then you're probably just like me - ready to jump in the stock market but want to learn as much as possible before doing it. This is a GREAT BOOK because it is clear and concise. After reading this book, I honestly don't know why anyone would pay a "financial advisor" to manage their money. Just like everybody else, I look at the charts, and my eyes light up when they shoot upward, but hold on a minute. What's their P/S ratio? P/E? Current ratio? Just because the stock pays a high dividend, does that mean it's a great buy? This book explains all of this, as well as give you the insight of how some of the top investors think. So... before you plop a lot of money on MSFT or EBAY, read this book. Use the information on what kind of ratios to look for when you screen stocks. THEN, look at the charts. You will be surprised. Will I make a ton of money in 5 years? Who knows. But at least I know what I'm doing now!

If you are thinking about investing in the stock market, this would be a good book to begin your education. It covers a broad swath of information about the markets including the lingo, analysis methods, investment strategies and the like.

I only wish that the book gave more emphasis on the risks of investing in the stock market. The fact is, the large majority of people who 'trade' in the markets lose money. This book, as with most investment books, makes it seem like investing in the stock market is as easy as baking a cake. This just isn't true. The markets, in general, go up or sideways two-thirds of the time, and go down one-third of the time. Unfortunately, they go down in value much faster and more dramatically than they go up, so watching out for the downturns is just as important as trying to 'pick' the winners in a bull market.

Overall, this book is still worth the price. But, educate yourself about the downsides of investing before you make the leap with your hard-earned money.

Ok, so I am a novice when it comes to the market. I read the reviews of this book and ordered it. All I can say is wow, what a great book. Straight forward, down to earth explanations of everything you will encouter. Great breakdowns of the top investors strategies. A straight forward approach to investing and so much more. The book is well written and enjoyable to read. A must for the individual just starting out.

An easy to read introduction to stock investing! I have not yet finish it (since I just got it recently) but what I have seen so far could get someone from having no real knowledge to having a kick start about stock market investing. The great thing about the book is that the end of the book is not really the end, as there is the website, which provides even more useful articles on investing and personal finance. For those who are really interested in investing could also subscribe to the news letter that the author has put out, which has a small subscription fee but it is really nothing compared to other sites that offer similar services.