The Motley Fools Investment Guide
By David Gardner, Tom Gardner
July 17, 2007
3 out 5
This is a good and basic investment guide. The book talks about various basic accounting terms and typical stock ratios. The authors further suggest values for some of these terms to be used as guides. Some of the terms mentioned are PE, ES, PEG, Net Profit Margins, Relative Strength, Insider’s Holds, Operation Cash Flow, etc. This books also summaries one of their earlier books “The Motley Fool’s Rule Breakers, Rules Makers.?Recap each of the two investment strategies in “Rule breaker?and “Rule Maker?companies. For example, the author lists these points for investing a “Rule Maker?companies: Best in moving industry, containment, relative strength, leader & backing, consumer appeal, and overvalues.
If you are looking for a good book to get started with investment, then this book is an okay reading. It covers just about all the basic accounting ratio and stock terminologies. However, the investment methods mentioned in this book are somewhat “mechanical.?The terminologies and ratio are good to know, but should be a less of deciding factors as compare to understanding the operation, intrinsic value, growth, etc. of the company. The fundamentals to invest intelligently should not be found in the numbers. I would suggest Benjamin Graham’s Intelligent Investor as your basic guide to investment strategies. This will at least get you the right foot in the door.