The Dick Davis Dividend: Straight Talk on Making Money from 40 Years on Wall Street [Hardcover]

Dick Davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 10, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0470099038 | ISBN-13: 978-0470099032 | Edition: 1

A pioneer in the financial media, Dick Davis has interacted with the investing public for over forty years. With his new book, he continues this trend. The first part of The Dick Davis Dividend contains an easy-to-read, yet profound discussion of the essentials of investing—focusing on the savvy veteran’s often unconventional, core beliefs. While the second part of this engaging guide makes a compelling case for combining both passive investing via index funds and active investing via stocks and mutual funds.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 471 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (December 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470099038
• ISBN-13: 978-0470099032
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.7 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #523,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

What can you say about how to make money in the stock market that hasn't been said before? How many different ways can you say buy good stocks cheap, diversify, hold on, and control your emotions?

The Dick Davis Dividend doesn't avoid these basic concepts but it spotlights others, which are seldom discussed, that the author believes will strongly tilt the odds toward investors and give them a valuable edge. These are passionately held convictions expressed with unusual candor and clarity.

A pioneer in the financial media, Dick Davis has interacted with the investment public as a radio and TV broadcaster, newsletter editor, columnist, lecturer, and teacher for over forty years. With The Dick Davis Dividend, he continues this trend. The first part of the book contains an easy-to-read, yet profound discussion of the essentials of investing—focusing on the savvy veteran's often unconventional, core beliefs. For example, Davis pounds the table about the over-exaggerated value of homework, the irrelevance of news, the underappreciated durability of major trends, the predisposition of investors to fail, the curse of being totally and instantly informed, and the rarely acknowledged role of pure luck.

Davis' bluntly honest approach is reflected in some of the chapter headings: "Absolutely Nobody Knows the Answers," "There's Always an Exact Opposite Opinion," "The Market Is Always King," and "After You Buy It'll Always Go Lower."

The second part of this engaging guide makes a compelling case for combining both passive investing via index funds and active investing via stocks and mutual funds. Davis focuses on twenty-eight buy and hold, diversified, index fund model portfolios. Each one is recommended by a leading authority in the world of indexing. Included are the favorite index portfolios of Burton Malkiel, John Bogle, Ben Stein, Jonathan Clements, and twenty-four others. The wide selection of models makes a passive/active strategy easy to implement.

The Dick Davis Dividend is filled with in-depth insight and straightforward, practical advice labeled "timeless wisdom" by bestselling author Andrew Tobias. It is an uncomplicated explanation of how today's investor can meet the challenge of an unpredictable market and come out a winner.

From the Back Cover

Praise for The Dick Davis Dividend

"The Dick Davis Dividend is a delightful read and is packed with useful advice for investors. The recommended strategy—index most of the portfolio and actively manage the rest—is likely to improve performance, lower risk, and still allow investment junkies to have fun picking individual stocks and funds. It's what I do myself."
—Burton G. Malkiel, author, A Random Walk Down Wall Street

"Dick Davis' new book is a gem...packed with wise, down-to-earth advice for the long-term investor. The investing public needs more Dutch Uncle advice like this. It is worthy of broad readership. I have a general policy of not giving book blurbs, which gives me the freedom to make an exception when a truly exceptional manuscript crosses my desk."
—Knight Kiplinger, Editor in Chief, The Kiplinger Letter and Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine

"For forty years, Dick Davis has been dispensing the best investment advice from the best analysts in the world. He is a true national investment wisdom treasure. The Dick Davis Dividend is the highlight of a long and successful career guiding investors in their search for profits and security. Each page is jam-packed with the best that forty years of unmatched research and incredible contacts can offer. This is a book that you will read and re-read over and over again."
—John Mauldin, author, Bull's Eye Investing and Editor of Thoughts from the Frontline

"The great thing about Dick Davis' advice—with 90% of which I agree and about the other 10% of which I am likely just wrong—is that it's basically timeless."
—Andrew Tobias, author, The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need

"I have known Dick Davis for about thirty-five years. His new book, The Dick Davis Dividend, is straightforward, sound advice. I highly recommend reading it!"
—Marty Zweig, Partner, Zweig-DiMenna, LLC

"The Dick Davis Dividend is an amazingly complete book covering not only the major aspects of investing but also capturing the nuances and exceptions that are so important. As we would expect from Dick, the writing is bright, engaging, and exceptionally clear. I recommend the book to all individual investors and think it will also help broaden the view of investment professionals."
—James B. Cloonan, Chairman and founder, American Association of Individual Investors

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 471 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (December 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470099038
• ISBN-13: 978-0470099032
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.7 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #523,048 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A Long Read April 27, 2008

By David Lewis

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you think this review is long, wait until you see the book - 454 pages.

I don't feel satisfied with the book. The reviews for it were great, it was recommended on a popular investment blog, I expected a lot. As someone who has been investing for several years, I don't think I got what I expected.

Without the preface, acknowledgments, etc, the book is 454 pages long; it's well written and well organized. But the first 50 pages are about Dick Davis, his early childhood, how much he enjoyed his summer camp, etc. I think I learned more about Mr Davis than I need to know.

One useful thing identified in the first part of the book is how Mr Davis operated as a media commentator and later as author of his newsletter, The Dick Davis Digest. Mr Davis writes that he was not comfortable recommending stock, bonds, and investments, so he focused on reporting what OTHERS were recommending, always trying to present a balanced view. I concluded that's the format for the rest of the book - what other people think with some input from Mr Davis, and of course Davis selected the people and work he's cited. I do think he tried to present a balanced view, or at least a view that is not so presumptive as to imply "this is the only way to do it, anything else is wrong!".

My basic frustration with the book is that I concluded that Davis was summarizing (often with other peoples words or work) what he has been led to believe are truths about the stock market, how to invest in it, etc, as opposed to presenting specific information that has worked well for him and why - there's a big difference. If you've been paying attention to mainstream commentary over the years, you've probably heard most of what's in the book.... For example, at one point Davis argues that index investing is the way to go because so many experts use index investing; that argument left me cold, I'd like to see some numbers that lay out an irrefutable case. I'm not sure there is an irrefutable case.

Other examples: Mr Davis is comfortable with a portfolio of 80% passive investments (index funds) and 20% active investments (almost anything else). Why 80/20? My sense is that it's a consensuses number based on what investment luminaries he's dealt with have hit upon. No original analyses, it's probably ball-park right, just go with the flow.

Mr Davis presents 28, as I recall, lazy portfolios that were developed by investment luminaries. Enroute we learn that Andrew Tobias is concerned with gay issues and that Jim Lowell lectures on philosophy and religion and is an avid sports fisherman - why do I care? What we don't get is any sense as to how well the portfolios have performed in comparison to each other over a common time frame. Seems to me that without considerable analyses regarding the performance and relative performances of the portfolios we are left simply with a collection of hypothetical portfolios - which to me amounts to trivia.

He discusses mutual funds vice ETFs, and you've probably heard the tradeoffs before.

In fairness, Mr Davis does include several good resource lists for things like classic investment books, newsletters, financial blogs, etc. I've seen similar lists in other publications, but having them all drawn together in one book has value.

If you are a beginning investor perhaps this book has value, you may not have heard or read about some of the topics covered and it may offer some issues for you to think about. If you've been investing for even a few years, you've likely seen or heard nearly all the investment material covered in the book. Either way, it's a long read. Read more ›

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One Great Book On Investing- Required Reading December 21, 2007

By Peter L. Coplin

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This letter which I sent to Mr. Davis says it all:

Dear Mr. Davis:

I hope that you get this message.

I am in the middle of your book, The Dick Davis Dividend, and wanted to let you know how great I think this is. It is a must for every amateur investor. I have been playing the market, and have been glued to CNBC for years. Your candor, your honesty, and your insight has made me feel so much better about investing and about myself.

The point you make about the dishonestly of TV personalities, the nearsightedness of CNBC, and the overall hype, is worth a million dollars. The fact that "no one knows", has been forgotten by me and many others, who are buffeted from day to day, by news, and talking heads. Your book has enabled me to let go, and relax. I'm sure the 2nd half will give me good ideas about what to do, with my fairly large portfolio. And yes you're quite right, about the value of inaction. After all, my worst moves have been 2nd guessing myself, and selling (Apple for one).

Thanks again. Peter L. Coplin, M.D.

He got the letter and thanked me. Now I'm thanking him. Great book.

27 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Experienced or inexperienced investors: Read this book and Learn December 9, 2007

By Cern Basher

Format:Hardcover

Whether you are an experienced or inexperienced investor this book will help you understand the limitations of the so-called market experts, the news media and most importantly, your limitations. The sooner you learn these lessons; the better off you'll be for it.

Don't rush through this 450 page book - Dick's lessons are best if left to sink in. Read the chapter on his personal background - it will give you a good understanding of who Dick is and how he came to obtain such useful information about investing.

This book is not for those who want to actively trade stocks or who are looking for the next great method for picking stocks. This book is for the person looking to become a better long-term investor and for the person who wants to learn how to use her mind and the media to her advantage.

Dick's discussions about the irrelevance of news, the role of the financial media, the under acknowledged role of luck and the utter unpredictability of the markets are spot on. His advice is so common sense, yet only obvious in hindsight. The wisdom in his book will likely prove to be timeless.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars You can skip this one... February 19, 2008

By Bstone

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

After seeing all of the 5-star reviews, I expected a lot more from this book than it delivered. My principle criticisms are basically two-fold: first, it badly needs an editor to eliminate repetition; second, there are few, if any, new ideas or viewpoints presented.

On the first point, the author repeats himself many times on many points. To be sure, he warns the reader of this and does it deliberately, but this reader did not appreciate the redundancies. I'm also not sure what value 28 model portfolios have other than boredom. Heck, I can supply a dozen or so myself if he really wants completeness.

The second criticism, others might call a strength. Dick Davis used to publish a newsletter that was a digest of other analysts, newsletters, and advisor publications. Similarly, this book is a compendium of the thoughts of others, filtered by Dick Davis with an MPT/Index fund bias. So far I have no problem with this. However, his sources are the usual ones -- Malkiel, Markowitz, Swedroe, Bogle, Buffett, Lynch, etc. Get the picture? If you've done any amount of reading in standard investment literature, you will find nothing, NOTHING new. If you haven't, you'd be better served reading Tobias's "The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need" or the recent "Little Book" by John Bogle.

Not a bad book, but far from a classic.