Index Funds: The 12-Step Program for Active Investors (Hardcover)

by Mark T Hebner (Author) "The financial services industry has a dark secret, one that costs global investors about $2.5 trillion per year..." (more)
Key Phrases: index funds advisors, backtested performance, rolling period analysis, Journal of Finance, Year Global Fixed Income Index, Journal of Business (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Using a 12-Step Program for Active Investors, author Mark T. Hebner delivers investing facts straight-up, with supporting quotes from Nobel Prize winners. The dozens of original art paintings throughout the book (by Lala Ragimov) lend humanity and humor to a serious and thought-provoking subject.

Hebner begins with the little-known fact that markets usually outperform managers, and he sets out to prove this conclusion in a modern, understandable, and intelligent book. After his "lack of understanding of how markets worked had cost me a mind-boggling amount of money, " Hebner researched his portfolio's performance and realized his knowledge could help investors "break these destructive patterns of investing."

The author makes a profound argument for going against the common assumption that investors need to actively manipulate their portfolios in order to out-guess the unpredictable and random attributes of the movements of stocks, markets, managers, and styles.

--Joan Phelps - Forward Magazine

Product Description

Index Funds: The 12-Step Program for Active Investors is the treatment of choice for wayward investors. John Bogle called Hebner s book "incredibly handsome and wise," while Burton Malkiel stated that "Hebner gives good advice presented in a very appealing manner." Nobel Laureate Paul Samuelson calls it "a valuable reference," and Anders Oldenger of Seligson & Company nominated it as one of the three "All-time Greatest Investment Books," along with the writings of John Bogle and Warren Buffett.

Hebner s book addresses why an overwhelming majority of investors continue to embrace an active investing strategy, despite the extensive academic research demonstrating its ineffectiveness to beat a market index and the overall futility of such a strategy. Speculating on the next winning stock, fund manager, investment style or market timing are all akin to gambling. Below market returns in investment portfolios and pension accounts are the result of investors gambling with their hard earned money. This 12-Step Program will put active investors on the road to recovery. Each step is designed to bring investors closer to embracing a prudent and sound strategy of buying, holding, and rebalancing a risk-calibrated portfolio of passively managed, globally diverse index funds.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 394 pages
• Publisher: IFA Publishing (January 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0976802309
• ISBN-13: 978-0976802303
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #77,498 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Investing Book, October 11, 2005

By	T. Stone (WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The author takes complex topics and makes them easy to understand ... with an intent of saving others from the mistakes he had made as an active investor -- trading stocks, investing in a variety of mutual funds, etc. Instead the book lays out the many benefits of index investing and provides a framework for someone to begin doing so through the highly regarded passive/index investment firm Dimensional Fund. This is the only investing book I've ever been able to read and enjoy every page of.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Investment Book I Couldn't Put Down!, January 21, 2006

By	D. Rankin - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I spent a weekend reading this book cover to cover and I couldn't be more pleased. This book eloquently summarized my four years of Masters coursework, not to mention decades of academic research, in a style that is compelling and easy to grasp.

Reading this book will help you understand why a globally-diversified, risk-capacity-matched, small-value-tilted, low-cost, tax-efficient index portfolio is the only smart way to invest. You will understand exactly why stock pickers, mutual fund managers, and market timers mathematically cannot beat the market over 10 or 20 year periods... while the very few that do are the result of chance, despite their claims to the contrary.

You may also want to watch the Nova special, "The Trillion Dollar Bet".

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Costly Lesson, November 10, 2005

By	S. Wolgemuth (Orange County, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you are like me, you have spent far too much time and money learning the ugly truth about investing. Nobody can consistently over time beat the market. Nobody. This book is about a revolutionary idea and an obvious one: Invest with the market and win with the market.
This does not mean that "one size fits all," that there is just one strategy everyone should use. In fact, the author puts forward 20 separate portfolio strategies, each with a "play with the market" approach. Each with its own risk/return specifics. Each one a winner over the past 35 years.
This attractive book is literally worth it's weight in gold. Actually, it's worth well more than that.