21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well written, easy reading book on the Stock Market., November 4, 2004
This review is from: Understanding Stocks (Paperback)
This book is a great book for beginning investors. Nearly every book I've read on the subject has been dry and boring, and I'd tend to retain little knowledge as I trudged my way through. Michael Sincere does an amazing job of covering a large amount of information in a format that's easy to read and understand.
Most books on stocks I've read are heavily biased towards fundamental or technical analysis, and do very little to explain both. This book covers both fundamental and technical analysis, and gives the pros and cons of each, suggesting that using both is best, and leaves it to the reader to decide what's best for them.
This book also does a very good job of pointing out the benefits of contrarian strategies, and defining the major pitfalls most beginning investors face, and how to overcome them to become a successful investor. Even though the book goes into advanced strategies, the author quite responsibly points out that they should be left to successful investors, but gives enough insight to allow for understanding, and even commonly suggests other readings for further study.
This is THE book to read for a beginning investor interested in the stock market, especially if other books have been too tedious or boring.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A quick read, but not very informative, February 12, 2006
This review is from: Understanding Stocks (Paperback)
While this book MENTIONS many basics of investing, it fails to aptly discuss many, most, or all of them. The author, quite frankly, really fails to discuss, to any understandable length, many fundamental analysis items to include such notables as earnings per share, quarterly earnings growth, and book value. He doesn't discuss in any appreciable detail what each of these mean. He fails to inform the reader what degrees in any of these metrics an investor should look to gain or avoid. He does mention them, but fails to give them any study in detail and worthiness.
As far as technical analysis goes, he sticks with his technique of mentioning items of interest without explaining them to any appreciable depth. He really fails to describe, in any usable detail, how bands or moving averages can be used, or how they are used by some. He has illustrative charts to demonstrate typical named historical patterns, but his narrative is poor. Additionally, he fails to highlight the areas on the charts he writes of and therefore fails to make anything clear. This analysis of historical patterns was very cryptic.
In the end he proposes, in about a page, and not in very good narrative, one system for investing that really is not only not generally achievable, it's not really generally feasible.
If your goal is to read a book to explain the basics of the stock markets, stock measuring, and knowledge needed for investing, please look elsewhere.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book -- I rate it 5 stars., March 9, 2006
This review is from: Understanding Stocks (Paperback)
I am a finance major and wanted a quick overview of the stock market. This book was fantastic. It covered more material than any other book on the shelf. Very detailed and very entertaining. (I noticed that it's listed on our supplemental reading list so the teacher knows it's a good book). 5 stars.
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