The Unemotional Investor: Simple System for Beating the Market (Motley Fool Books) [Paperback]

Robert Sheard (Author)

Book Description

Series: Motley Fool Books | Publication Date: April 13, 1999

Investing in Stocks -- Without Investing in Time, Tears, or Terror

When Robert Sheard decided to bite the bullet and get into the market, he wasn't the typical Wall Street player, didn't have years of trading experience, and didn't have an M.B.A. What he did have was the know-how. As one of the top stock researchers for The Motley Fool -- the widely popular and fiercely irreverent financial site that launched the bestselling The Motley Fool Investment Guide and The Motley Fool's You Have More Than You Think -- Sheard developed mechanical, emotion-free formulas for analyzing stocks. Now he shares his insights to help you earn gains that will crush market averages. The Unemotional Investor teaches you:

* How to evaluate stocks

* What numbers to look for and how to compare them

* When to buy and when to sell

* How to manage the portfolio you create

* Two investing models you can use -- one of which requires no math, no experience, and about fifteen minutes of work per year!

Like other books created by The Motley Fool, The Unemotional Investor presents an easygoing approach to a subject often shrouded in mystery, making it easy for even rank beginners to take the first steps toward reaping the rewards of a low-maintenance, high-profit portfolio.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Falling in love with your investments is easy to do. You spend lots of time looking for that perfect company worthy of your money, then you buy it. The more the stock goes up, the more you like it. If the stock goes down a bit, you're usually pretty forgiving. But if it goes down a lot, you find yourself in a big dilemma. Should you hang on, hoping for better days, trusting that your reason for buying the stock in the first place was sound? Or should you admit your mistake, dump it, and move on?

In The Unemotional Investor, Robert Sheard, author of the Dow Dividend Approach and Foolish Workshop for The Motley Fool, offers a way around this dilemma. He notes that the obvious requirement for making money in the stock market is to buy low and sell high, but that most people simply can't do this. "What does it take to buy low and sell high? Surprisingly enough, it takes the polar opposite of normal human emotions."

So rather than try to reverse this investor psychology, Sheard sidesteps it altogether and advances two successful systems for buying and selling stocks. The first follows the Dogs of the Dow, which looks at the highest yielding stocks in the Dow 30. The second invests in growth stocks that also have a high degree of price momentum. Both systems require no knowledge of the companies in which you're investing. Instead, decisions to buy and sell are based on easily-acquired information. Sheard demonstrates how over the years these systems have consistently beaten--by a wide margin--all of the major stock indices.

If you've never consistently made money in the stock market, or if you're tired of the measly returns offered by your mutual fund, consider this book. It's good for all level of investors (except the most jaded) and typifies the best of The Motley Fool. Sheard's writing is clear and easy to follow. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Robert Sheard has been a writer and editor for The Motley Fool, Inc., www.fool.com. He now manages money as a director for Sheard and Davey Advisors, Inc., www.sdadvisors.com. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; 1st Fireside Ed edition (April 13, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684853752
• ISBN-13: 978-0684853758
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #463,369 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very good guide for beginners, August 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Unemotional Investor : Simple Systems for Beating the Market (Hardcover)

Nice books for a beginner investor like me. Used very simple formulas, which an ordinary people could understand. The interesting thing in the book was the transition from one approach to another, which led the reader to capture all approaches in his mind by the end of the book.

Even though Sheard did not use many technical terms, I would prefer that if the book had a glossary at the end for some financial and technical terms listed in the book.

I felt that Sheard was very optimistic about the stock market, he displayed the market as a road of roses and did not give much concern for risk analysis.

Still early to judge all his approaches, as he relied on hypothetical models and history data. The coming years will prove his methods. The FAQ at the end of the book had added value to the book.

Finally, it seems that the book was written mainly to US residents, as a reader from outside US some hidden cost had been excluded from the evaluation of the approaches, like the currency exchange rate, the cost of the investment information resources.

I recommend this book for any beginner investor.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Discredited Investment Strategy, January 7, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Unemotional Investor: Simple System for Beating the Market (Motley Fool Books) (Paperback)

Potential readers should be aware that the Motley Fool has discontinued its recommendation of this investment strategy because their subsequent research found that the original strategy and conclusions were faulty and flawed.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Motley Fool rip-off, March 21, 2002

By 

DanPoz (Vacaville, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Unemotional Investor: Simple System for Beating the Market (Motley Fool Books) (Paperback)

If you have any of the Motley Fools investment books, then this book is a waste of time and money. Robert Sheard, a former Motley fool employee, basically just takes the Motley Fools investment systems and puts a new cover on it, and sells it as a new book. He even re-uses the same jokes. Don't waste your money.