Stocks for the Long Run: The Definitive Guide to Financial Market Returns & Long Term Investment Strategies, 4th Edition [Hardcover]

Jeremy J. Siegel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 27, 2007

Stocks for the Long Run set a precedent as the most complete and irrefutable case for stock market investment ever written. Now, this bible for long-term investing continues its tradition with a fourth edition featuring updated, revised, and new material that will keep you competitive in the global market and up-to-date on the latest index instruments.

Wharton School professor Jeremy Siegel provides a potent mix of new evidence, research, and analysis supporting his key strategies for amassing a solid portfolio with enhanced returns and reduced risk. In a seamless narrative that incorporates the historical record of the markets with the realities of today's investing environment, the fourth edition features:

• A new chapter on globalization that documents how the emerging world will soon overtake the developed world and how it impacts the global economy
• An extended chapter on indexing that includes fundamentally weighted indexes, which have historically offered better returns and lower volatility than their capitalization-weighted counterparts
• Insightful analysis on what moves the market and how little we know about the sources of big market changes
• A sobering look at behavioral finance and the psychological factors that can lead investors to make irrational investment decisions

A major highlight of this new edition of Stocks for the Long Run is the chapter on global investing. With the U.S. stock market currently holding less than half of the world's equity capitalization, it's important for investors to diversify abroad. This updated edition shows you how to create an “efficient portfolio” that best balances asset allocation in domestic and foreign markets and provides thorough coverage on sector allocation across the globe.

Stocks for the Long Run is essential reading for every investor and advisor who wants to fully understand the market-including its behavior, past trends, and future influences-in order to develop a prosperous long-term portfolio that is both safe and secure.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

For more than a decade, Stocks for the Long Run has been the authoritative guide to understanding market forces and building a successful portfolio. In this new fourth edition, Jeremy Siegel updates his argument for long-term stock market investment with: comparisons of ETFs, mutual funds, and index options and futures; evidence that the rapid growth of emerging markets will not only continue but may accelerate; insight into the benefits of fundamental indexation over market value indexation; an updated look at the surprising validity of Calendar Effects; and fresh analysis of the best-performing stocks since the formulation of the S&P 500 Index.

Praise for previous editions of STOCKS FOR THE LONG RUN

"One of the ten best investment books of all time."
--The Washington Post

“A simply great book.”
--Forbes

“One of the top ten business books of the year.”
--BusinessWeek

“Should command a central place on the desk of any 'amateur' investor or beginning professional.”
--Barron's

“Siegel's case for stocks is unbridled and compelling.”
--USA Today

“A clearly written, neatly organized, highly persuasive exposition that lifts the veil of mystery from investing.”
--John C. Bogle, Founder and former Chairman, The Vanguard Group

About the Author

Jeremy J. Siegel is the Russell E. Palmer Professor of Finance at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, the academic director of the Securities Industry Institute, and a senior investment strategy advisor to WisdomTree Investments, which creates and markets exchange-traded funds.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 380 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 4 edition (November 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071494707
• ISBN-13: 978-0071494700
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 1.4 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #73 in Books > Business & Investing > Investing > Stocks

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 83 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Gloss on Stocks for the Long Run August 27, 2008

By Great Faulkner's Ghost TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

In the previous editions of Stocks for the Long Run, Wharton Finance professor Jeremy Siegel offered a thoroughly bullish take on the merits of equity investing that has proved highly influential and largely correct through the end of the post-Millennial Bull Market in mid-2007. In the latest edition of this classic, released in a much more difficult period of substantial market declines, Siegel has added important and more nuanced insights derived from his previous and somewhat overlooked book "The Future for Investors," which came out in 2006. Siegel's basic advice to stock investors is to focus less on growth stocks and index mutual funds (eg., Vanguard 500) and more on looking for tried and true stocks that pay high dividends. He argues that such reinvested dividends are the true source of stock returns, or the "El Dorado." (His term). Overall, this argument is well-presented and persuasive.

However, I am perplexed on a key element. His case is largely based on historical evidence that purports to show that high dividend yield stocks, with dividends reinvested, have accumulated more total return than growth stocks or index mutual funds. However, his calculations do not account for the deleterious effect of taxes on reinvested dividend. (He says in an endnote that taxes are not significant for the portfolios he chose, but does not explain why; for most common stock portfolios, taxes are significant.) Dividends are taxed yearly and until recently at a higher rate than that of capital gains and that of retained earnings, which are not taxed at all. If taxes have been paid on dividends, only the untaxed part can truly be considered "reinvested"; the part that is taxed has to be made up by a new infusions of cash from the investor. The effect of ignoring this is that his historical comparisons are not terribly meaningful because he is not calculating the returns on true (after tax) contributions to dividend stocks vs. growth stocks. Naturally, if more is contributed to the dividend stocks, there is likely to be more at the end. (BTW, this is basically the same fallacy that sunk the allegedly huge returns of the otherwise delightful "Beardstown Ladies" of yore.) Given that the magnitude of the "advantage" he posits of dividend stocks vs. growth stocks is not all that great, one cannot have confidence that he has truly made his case.

That said, his advice is very useful for investors in tax sheltered 401Ks. Also, the new lower tax rate on dividends also helps lessen, though not eliminate, the effects of yearly taxation of dividends.

In addition to emphasizing the importance of the contribution of stock dividends to equity portfolio performance, this book also grapples with a perplexing challenge to Siegel's original stocks for the long run mantra, the much vexed question of what will happen if and when the populous Baby Boom generation attempts to cash in its stock and bond retirement portfolios by selling them to the smaller demographic of Gen X and Gen Y. An entire school of catastrophe futurologists, most notably Harry Dent, but also more mainstream voices like Peter G. Peterson (The Grey Wave) have warned that this so-called Age Wave is about to wreak havoc with stock market investments. In this book, Siegel does not dismiss this issue, but deals with it in a logical and generally less alarmist point of view. At the risk of oversimplifying a complex analysis, Siegel's bottom line is that while it is true that there are not enough younger generation Americans to absorb the Boomers stock and bond assets at current prices, investors in emerging countries, like China and India, will more than make up for that and will end up buying the Baby Boomer's paper assets as the Boomers sell them off to fund their retirements. The upshot is that foreigners will end up owning a lot of our companies by the year 2050. A potential snag, says Siegel, is whether America will be willing to let this happen, or will pass laws or adopt polices to discourage the transfer of US assets to foreign countries. This remains to be seen, but he is optimistic. On the other hand, the implications for the typical Baby Boomer's most important asset, his or her house, is rather dire, because homes can't be sold as readily to foreigners, for obvious reasons. Siegel doesn't provide an answer for the housing market, which is outside the scope of a book on stock investing in any event. Overall, this remains one of the best written and most sensible investment books available today, now offering a more nuanced and even more helpful sets of advice than the previous editions. With new information and analysis, this is well worth owning, even if you have a previous edition.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Intermediate book January 16, 2010

By WalpoleBassMan

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is the book to read after studying the general investing books that cover all asset classes.
it's comprehensive in that it includes discussion of indexes, markets, risk, historical returns, equity investment vehicles, etc.
Also includes newer topics such as Behavioral Psychology.
At 400 pages it's at the right level of detail for do-it-yourself investor who doesn't want to get bogged in analysis of efficient frontiers or CAPM.
Unfortunately it was published just before our current crisis so we will have to wait until the next edition to get the author's thoughts on conditions we are experiencing now.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Critical data for the LONG run January 7, 2010

By Professor

Format:Hardcover

This book has been derided by some using short-term market data, but the first chapter contains LONG-TERM data covering 200 years that are easily worth more than the purchase price of the book. One table includes inflation-adjusted returns of most major asset classes spanning the entire time period to give a comprehensive overview of performance without the clouding of recent data that is so common. Never forget to make long-term investing decisions with long-term data! If we get that one thing correct, we will avoid most of the worst investing mistakes.