This work demonstrates how to maximize gains and minimize losses in an era of high-risk investing. The author analyzes and rates the potential not only for stocks but also for bonds, money-market funds, property and tangible assets such as gold and collectibles.

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This item:A Random Walk Down Wall Street: Including a Life-Cycle Guide to Personal Investing by Burton G. Malkiel Hardcover S$58.29
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The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham Paperback S$25.95
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Product details

Language : English
Hardcover : 448 pages
ISBN-10 : 0393038882
ISBN-13 : 978-0393038880

Best Sellers Rank: 97,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1,034 in Professional Investments & Securities

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Amazon.com: 376 reviews

shawn

Good introduction to financial markets

30 December 2019 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

This book has some pretty solid chapters that cover investment bubbles, fundamental vs. technical analysis, modern portfolio theory, index funds, etc, all topics I was being exposed to by taking Robert Shiller's free Financial Markets course on Coursera (Yale University). However, I was finding Shiller's course to be lacking in its abbreviated form and needed some additional reading to aid in my understanding. That's where 'A Random Walk' came in and saved the day.

I work in education, not finance, and I believe it was David Ausubel who wrote that the single most important thing you can do when teaching someone is to anchor new content on the learner's existing knowledge/framework. This book is pretty helpful in that regard. It's more of an introduction to financial markets, but not so basic as to be something you could easily learn from online articles like those on Investopedia (which a great site, but this book is better organized and more cohesive).

So, in short: maybe start with this book, then take Shiller's course, and move on to actual finance textbooks if you're inclined to go deeper. Or, if you just want a casual, future retiree's introduction to financial markets and investing, this book will help plenty.

53 people found this helpful

BLS

A broad overview of investing with dives that are too deep for a message that is very simple

10 October 2020 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

I started with the hardbound version of this book from my local library and finished with the softcover cover version from Amazon.

Burton Malkiel gives a very broad overview of how our securities markets are structured, how they operates, and how we interact with them. This includes a history lesson in bubbles, booms, busts, depressions, recessions, and rallies from the Tulip craze to today's time. Malkiel covers everything from stocks to bonds to mutual funds and more. There's chapters on charting, modern portfolio theory, and CAPM. Although this book is meant to be an overview, there is a lot ... and, I mean ~a lot~ ... of information here. The text reads like a professor at a university trying to give an interesting lecture or presentation. Some of the chapters, like the history of market swings, I found interesting to read because I like history in general - the whole how and why of events and their influence on how we got to day.I also enjoyed the chapters on investing behavior and psychology. Other chapters, like on charting, beta, and government backed bonds did not captivate me much. The information was sometimes too technical in nature and sounded like a bunch of hooey to me or just didn't apply to my personal investing strategy.

The whole text can be boiled down to a few key concepts.

First, the market is irrational and unpredictable. Don't try too hard to outsmart it or time it just right. The blips and dips in security prices, random world events like terrorist attacks or government scandals, and unjustified exuberance or pessimism are too much for anyone or anything to take on. You won't win. You may get lucky and think you won but you could have just as easily lost. Hence, the random walk.

Two, despite all that dreck in #1 above, investing in the stock market still beats out any other investment in the long run. Buy, *hold*, **add**, and repeat. Don't fall prey to jittery emotions or the whims and wiles of "professional" investors with messages of doom and gloom. Like Warren Buffett said, the best holding time is forever.

Three, picking a winning stock is not easy. Suppose you are a young investor with a small sum of money like $5k. How will you invest it? Do you feel confident in picking a stock or two? Will your picks beat the market average? Maybe, if you pick right under the right conditions. However, the best way to invest in the market would be through an index fund that reflects the very market you want to invest in. The index fund, either as an ETF or Mutual Fund, will contain a little of everything that reflects the index it is benchmarked against. The SPY will follow the S&P, DIA will follow the Dow Jones, QQQ will track the Nasdaq 100. So, why risk picking one or two stocks when you can kind of have them all?

Four, diversify your diversification. The index funds diversify your money among many securities. You can go further and diversify by investing in international funds. The idea is some international funds can outperform US funds. They can also "zig" when the US funds "zag".

Five, and lastly, skip the services of a professional advisor. He's no genie or wizard. You can do just as well as he can if not better.

I agree with 1, 2, and 5 above but I disagree somewhat with 3 and 4.

Regarding 3, you ought to be able to open up any index fund and see exactly what it is holding and how much. For example, if you want to know what SOXX is holding then go to the iShares website and look at it. It's all there. Rather than buying SOXX I can skip the middleman and his approximately 0.5% fee and just buy those securities ... or, at least the top 10. Many brokerage firms, like Fidelity, offer fractional trading down to 0.001 shares as long as the resulting purchase price is at least $0.01. Now, that means you ought to put in some work and learn how to follow a stock. At least you have a starting point.

Going further, assume you rolled over a pension or 401(k) into a traditional and/or a Roth IRA. You may find yourself with a large sum of money, like $100k or more. With money like that you can build up a serious version of your own equivalent of an index fund with anywhere from 20 to 80 securities.

Now, I will counter myself and repeat what I said above. This will involve quite a bit of work over a long period of time. You have companies to keep track of and all that. It can become like a second job, In that case, maybe a simple all-in-one index fund is all you need.

Regarding 4, I think you ought to use some of the advanced charting tools or total returns calculators available from your broker or somewhere else online to compare how US securities performed compared to international securities. Compare some of the US best like QQQ, SPY, SOXX, and IGV to country specific funds that focus on New Zealand, China, and Russia. If you see these international funds outperformed their US counterparts then you have a starting point for a case for international diversification. Personally, I didn't see it. I saw the US centric ETFs and securities far outperform a majority of international funds. Diversification here wouldn't make sense. Why would I split money between two markets, one that can grow >8% per year over 10 years and one that can grow ~4% per year over 10 years? I'd rather pour everything that I can into the highest performing instrument available. If something better comes around after a couple of years then I divest one and buy the other. Or, even better, buy more of the depressed security knowing that it will rebound.

So, while I don't agree with everything Malkiel says it did provoke a lot of thought in my mind and for that I give it 5 stars.

29 people found this helpful

Windjammer

The latest edition of this classic remains relevant with indispensable investing advice

29 December 2019 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

I read the first edition when I was a young Finance Professor years ago. At the time, it did a superb job of summarizing the research and explaining its implications for the average investor in a manner that was accessible and understandable for the non-academic. The latest edition has been updated based on the more recent research, and with minor tweaks, the underlying and time-tested strategy remains relevant today: for the small investor the most reliable investment strategy is to buy and hold a well-diversified portfolio of low-cost passively managed index funds.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in saving and investing for a comfortable retirement.

20 people found this helpful

justin r masuda

A good foundational book for investing. AND easy to understand.

25 November 2019 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

I am a beginning investor, and with so much information out there Im sure you could do well learning on your own. But I feel that this books points you in good directions and gives historical evidence on why you might choose the authors direction when investing in your hard earned money. I wish I had read this earlier although im still quite young. The updated version is suggested although im sure the books foundational ideas were just as relevant then as they are now.

18 people found this helpful

Jennis0212

Great for beginners

24 May 2016 - Published on Amazon.com

Verified Purchase

Someone told me to read this if you are unfamiliar with the stock industry and want to learn more. It is an easy read and I find it very interesting. There are tips in here that I would not even think of on my own. I hope to continue to learn more and become successful at trading stocks.

Please let me know if my review helped in your decision making process one way or the other. =)

37 people found this helpful

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