The Unemotional Investor : Simple Systems for Beating the Market [Hardcover]

Robert Sheard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 1998

One of the top stock experts on The Motley Fool's wildly popular AOL and World Wide Web investing sites explains his astonishingly simple and effective systems for raking in big profits in the stock market -- and they can do tha same for everyone from beginners to Wall Street hotshots.

Robert Sheard has invented an intriguingly simple formula for emotion-free stock investing -- an absolutely extraordinary strategy that tells you not only which stocks to buy and when to buy them, but -- uniquely -- when to sell.

The first book in the Motley Fool imprint, "The Unemotional Investor" grew out of an acclaimed investing primer sold by Motley Fool's on-line store, and shows readers in step-by-step detail two proven Sheard models, The first requires no prior experience, no math, little money, and only 15 minutes of work per year. The second model requires slightly more knowledge, work, and money, and calls for monthly adjustments -- but has produced truly staggering gains over the last decade. And both models are blissfully simple to research, requiring no more than opening a newspaper or making a few mouse clicks on-line. To fully comprehend the effectiveness of Sheard's amazing methods, consider this spectacular statistic: using his plan, a $10,000 investment in 1971 would have yielded a sum of $2.35 million by 1997 -- and it would still be growing.

At last, a painless way for everyone from an absolute beginner to the most experienced investor to reap remarkable stock profits -- without the time-consuming headaches or emotional trappings.

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

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. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 12, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684845903
• ISBN-13: 978-0684845906
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,385,952 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.