Fund-assets Books

Ron "Ragen" Ross is THE MAN!
This book is packed full of useful and easy to understand information for absolutely EVERYONE! I have read many similar books by other authors and they fail in comparison. If you use MONEY, and we all do, you would be doing yourself a huge disservice by not buying this book ASAP!
Go Ron and Reno! You did it again!

This is the most eloquent, most entertaining, and most convincing attack on "beating the market" that I have ever read. The author has a PhD in economics but writes with a journalist's skill. His prose is fluent, readable. I thought the most interesting part of the book was the chart comparing the performance records of golf pros to the performance records of mutual funds -- an extremely effective presentation. Do I think any of his arguments can be refuted? Yes...a few. But on the whole this book is a balloon-bursting attack on active investing.

Very solid book, a great beginner to intermediate education on the market. Not for the novice, but for the fairly familiar person who knows how to do there own investing you would very much enjoy this. If you are a complete novice this would not be the place to start. Check out Suze Ormans book "The road to wealth" and learn the basics on stocks, mutual funds and bonds. Then read this...

This is the best book I have seen regarding investing for retirement. Don't waste your time or money trying to beat the market, just understand Dr. Ross' basic principles for dealing with a volatile market. Forget the "get rich quick" models and come down to earth and use common sense and indexing. The first 2 chapters alone are worth the price of the book.

My career as a retail stockbroker for six years, then for twenty-seven years as an institutional stockbroker selling portfolio analytics and investment research to professional asset managers (pension plan managers, mutual fund managers, and hedge fund managers) has provided me with the opportunity to explore modern portfolio theory, market efficiency, and the investment returns of active managers. I have read many of the books and academic papers Professor Ross uses as resources in this very coherent and thorough explanation of why the attempt to "beat the market" is futile, and fraught with risk.

Professor Ross uses his deep understanding of statistics, economics, and behavioral finance to explain market efficiency. He weaves a tight, coherent, and entertaining explanation of why the statistical evidence (manager performance databases) demonstrate most active managers cannot sustain above market performance for any significant time period. And he explains the risks of believing that the few active managers who have "outperformed" will continue to do so.

Professor Ross' book is the drawstring that pulls the elements of the Efficient Market Theory into a focused, concise, entertaining, and very readable format. I give Professor Ross' book my highest recommendation.

Finally, a book absolutely anyone can understand when deciding how and where to invest. Mr. Dunetz is obviously an intelligent man but is able to speak to the layman as well as the established investor.

I'm glad I read this book before I planned my estate. Finally, a comprehensive and easy to read volume on the subject.

My sister Allison turned me on to this book when I told her of my concern towards protecting my future assets, and am I glad she did. Easy to read information that has already helped me in my quest to protect my sizable fortune obtained after years and years of domestic cat breeding.

This is a splendid book. Not only does it give an easy-to-read history of Mercury Asset Management of the UK up to its acquisition by Merrill Lynch, it also gives additional insights into the life of Siegmund Warburg (detailed in Ron Chernow's "The Warburgs") and represents a vivid insider's account of any business, told by Peter Stormonth Darling, chairman of Mercury from 1979 to 1992.

If you have read other investment management company histories such as Diana Henriques's "Fidelity's World" or Robert Slater's "The Vanguard Experiment", this book should be on your reading list as yet another view. Mercury, though not well known in the US, had something like US$180 billion under management at the time of its acquisition by Merrill Lynch, certainly not a small amount in the asset management league tables worldwide. Though Mr. Stormonth Darling is admittedly not an investment practitioner himself, he does appear to have a keen insight into people and the view from the top of the organization.

The book lays bare the importance of personnel (and their happiness) to the success of companies such as Mercury and Warburgs, and discusses at some length possible reasons why Warburgs was sold at very little premium to Swiss Bank in 1995, while Mercury was sold to Merrill Lynch at twice its prevailing market value in 1997.

It's also interesting to reflect that Mercury was at the top of its game in 1997, as a leading fund manager in Britain, yet it still sold out to a large foreign firm, as many leading British financial firms have done in recent years. I hope that the individual British personnel of these foreign masters, whether Continental European, American, or Asian, strive to maintain their intellectual independence as time goes on. The investing public continues to need alternative viewpoints on investments, such as that expressed by Andrew Smithers (also once part of Mercury) and Stephen Wright in their 2000 book "Valuing Wall Street".

Please do give "City Cinderella" a read, and enjoy Mr. Stormonth Darling's delicious follow-up details such as (p. 89) "...at last report [said person] was living in Panama with his fourth wife and their poodle, Chanel."

Managing a Portfolio of Mutual Funds is a well written, entertaining, book that will help anyone better understand money management using Mutual Funds. The book starts with an excellent section on goals and planning, in which Rutherford makes a compelling argument about why this is a critical step towards effective financial management and explains how to best complete and document the plan. He follows this with a discussion of Asset Class Portfolio Design, which is the foundation for the rest of the book. Once this introductory material is finished, Rutherford discusses various investment strategies and how to implement and monitor each of them, starting from the more basic ideas of Passive Investing and Index Funds and moving to the more complex areas of Active Investing and Manager Style Analysis. Although the amount of detail gets a bit thin once he begins the chapter on Passive Investing and the book never regains the tight, lucid arguments and explanations of the first sections, it's a first-rate book on investing with Mutual Funds and should be read by every serious investor AND portfolio manager.

The list of books written on hedge funds is a short one, and this book is certainly the finest on the subject. The professionals who contributed their specialized knowledge are of the highest caliber, and better yet, many of them can be reached for counsel. Any investor with the capacity to invest at this level ought to know the mechanics of the various methodologies as clearly presented by the authors. I found all of the information to be useable and valuable information with absolutely no filler. Particularly of interest to me was all of the legal, tax and regulatory information which quite literally provided me with a blueprint from which I will begin building my (as GP) Private Investment Partnership. This book will eliminate countless hours with a securities attorney because now I know exactly how to direct the counsel.

This book provides comprehensive information for nonprofit organizations, its directors, trustees, and development officers to make sound investment decisions. Content covered include topics such as the importance of establishing investment policies, creating an investment committee, and developing financial goals. The book is written in a language suitable for both the financial and non-financial individuals. There is also a glossary section of financial terms used throughout the book. Besides providing a solid background and overview of issues nonprofit organizations need to think about, the author gives many examples, including typical conversation that may occur in a board meeting and the methods to prevent such conflicts from happening. Finally, the appendixes sections contain many helpful templates, including investment policies form, monthly/quarterly reports, and some sample legal document agreements. One of the very few books of its kind, (investment for nonprofit organizations) this book is definitely worth the time for nonprofit organizational officers or the general interested reader.

If you've ever wondered why, despite your consuming interest in investing and the markets, you're still poor - this book will tell you.

Not only will it tell you, but it will prove to you that the financial deck is stacked against you in so many ways it will make your head spin. Despair not! It also walks you through the steps you can take to avoid the pitfalls that beset even the best and brightest among us.

I've shared this book with dozens of my closest friends and family (for whom I manage their money) to help them understand the "right" way to think about investing. If nothing else, it helps to answer the inevitable "why did my investment account go down?" questions.

I highly recommend spending the few hours it will take to read and digest the plentiful information contained in this incredible book. It will be one of the best investments you'll EVER make!

IF you "think" you understand the market, and you think you are smarter than the average bear (no pun intended) then you really ought to be smart enough to admit you did not understand your problem until you read Mark's book on Index Funds.

This is a very nice book detailing the advantages of index funds and the folly of paying large annual expense ratios for a manager to pick investments for you.

It is also a very pretty book. I'm not so much for pretty, but I'm pretty much for good. The facts speak the truth and do it in such a way the emotions are satiated as well as the rational mind.

There really isn't anything new here I've not read before in John Bogle's books, but Mr. Bogle is a scholar and very dry. (my hero)This book takes that and makes it almost fun to read.

You can get this book in PDF format at his website at no charge, but, again, it's so attractive you'll want a hard copy just to look at for the art!

A quick summary of the book goes like this. 95% of all people will not out perform the markets. The best you can do is to acheive the average returns of the markets and keep as much of this return as possible by paying the lowest expenses you can find.

This holds true for US & foreign stocks, bonds, cash, real estate, and commodotites.

ETF's are a new version of index funds that offers significant advantages and should be investigated because they have even lower expenses, capital gain tax advantages, and can be traded in real time.

It's an attractive book with excellent information and the idea that active mutual fund investors need a 12-step program is humorous!

Hebner, covers all the bases to intelligent investing in a delightful manner. Once you understand that outperforming markets is a battle that can't be won over time you will be well on your way to successful investing. This book doesn't want you to roll dice, throw darts, or flip coins but to invest in Markets(essentially capitalism). Markets are known to grow over time and THAT is what you're investing in, the overall growth of economies.

The book is very easy to read but advanced enough for seasoned finacial experts. Hebner leaves no stone unturned. The book contains lots of great data, facts, graphs and charts. Look at the returns of some of the portfolios in this book. They are more risk diverse than the S&P 500, achieve greater returns, and their is a portfolio for every need. The average investor can achieve returns of the top financial experts with the asset allocation knowledge in this book. You'll truely understand how markets and stock prices work after this read.

This book is one of the true gems ever written on the subject of mutual fund investing. Mr. Hebner's book on index fund investing offers a 12 step cure for active investors who year after attempt to beat Wall Street with dismal results. He likens this strategy to gambling in a casino. The author builds a convincing case for investing in a globally diversified portfolio of no-load, low-expense mutual funds, and backs it up with tons of academic research, graphs, charts, and tables that are not only colorful, but very easy to read and understand even for the novice investor. If you are truly serious about achieving financial security without the stress of navigating through the volatile stock market, this book should be on the top your must-read list. Simply follow the advice the author lays out, and you will be well on your way to outperforming over 90% of the so-called professional money managers on Wall Street.

I love reading investment books, but often get bogged down with basic 101 investing advice...pay yourself first, dollar cost average, live below your means etc.

Thhis book was like taking a professional course on how and why to diversify you portfolio. Simply put it was on of the best books I ever read. Thank you Rickard Fenni!!!!
John K

All these long term returns people give in regards to stocks, bonds, gold and such do not involve active management but instead take a buy and hold strategy. So why follow a theory of regression to the mean the author suggest on page 36 in asset allocation. Why increase your expenses every year by selling some of your top performing sectors and use that money to buy into the poor performing sectors. This strategy seems like market timing set on automatic and we all know that it's very hard to time the market consistently. Index funds that beat most funds don't market time. They work by being fully invested in the asset class, they have a long term buy and hold view, and they keep expenses and taxes low. You can get basic asset allocation info for free from Vanguard's website which also offers target date retirement funds for those who want to use asset allocation the simple way.

Picked up another great book by Richard Ferri and this one's well worth the investment.

This book does a fine job of explaining asset allocation and the fundamental concepts that build a diversified porfolio. Asset allocation is explained very well in relation to portfolio diversification and how rebalancing is essentially the way to increase gains. It explains very well that asset allocation is all about risk management and there is no one size fits all though we can still markup broad categories of similar investor behavior. Market timing is about making a killing by buying in low and selling high however it involves uncertainty given everyone shares similar market information. Rebalancing is market timing without having to chase the market, its buying low and selling high passively though.

All in all, great read and beneficial for all. Lot of practical advice. Its good it came out after the early 2000 tech-stock bubble bursts so it presents the grim reality of investing when your financial plan does not manage its risk and assets.

Just before reading Richard Ferri's "All About Asset Allocation" I had read William Bernstein's two books on the same topic, "The Intelligent Asset Allocator", and "The Four Pillars of Investing" (both really excellent). Compared to the broad reaching Bernstein books, which bring in a lot of examples from stock market history in explaining Asset Allocation, the Ferri book is a straight up text book, clear, spare but complete, and really well done. It really helped to hone my understanding of the topic. After reading it I also purchased his book on Index Funds.

+ A good introduction to understanding the bond market and how to invest in it. Clear, succinct and more readable than some more technical books on the subject. However, The Bond Book is a bit dated, the second and latest edition is from 2000, it's in need of an update. Overall this is a good first choice as a primer if you're not too concerned about the latest developments in bond derivatives.

A great introduction to bonds and there place in a portfolio. The perfect place for the individual to start if they are considering purchasing individual bonds for their portfolio.

However, anyone looking for more in-depth information and strategies will likely be disappointed. Relatively little information about Zeros, TIPS and other products that are likely to be of interest. Start here, and then increase your knowledge with a title specific to your interests (i.e. municipal bonds, etc.).

I ordered this book for my business library. I enjoyed the book, but if you want more specifics on the methods of detailed bond calculations, I would recommend a good financial investments text book.

Thau over complicates her points. The book is too difficult to understand. I am an attorney who has been investing in stocks and bonds for over 10 years. This book is not appropriate for any level investor.

Am nearly finished reading the 2nd printing of this excellent tutorial. Although I have been an avid buyer & seller of fixed income products for many years, the author did a superb job of furthering my mid-level expertise especially in the area of municipal bonds. Her plain language explanations were most welcome as opposed to the plethora of financial techno-babble tomes that share the bookshelf. 5 Stars without reservation.

The Future Dictionary is worth every penny and it is not that expensive. Also, it comes with a bonus CD that has some good bands and good tracks on it.
The definitions range from silly, serious, sad, thoughtful, and even just mean at times, but always funny and insightful.

Hundreds of writers and artists submitted work to put this book together and if you are a fan of McSweeneys, Dave Eggars, David Sedaris, Jonathan Safran Foer, Kurt Vonnegut, or any other great writer from this era, this is a book that you must have.

The thing I enjoyed the most about this book were the new writers I had never heard let alone read before. I may not agreed with all of there opinions I did joy the writing. At times I felt that it was over-politicized and close minded but over all had a very important message.

Not only did I enjoy this book both for straight-out reading as well as random dipping, but I've bought it for three different friends AND I've purchased more copies as insurance for the looming gift-giving season. It really is the perfect book for every shelf.

This book is a positive contribution to our current state of disunion in the United States. Yes, there are entries that look back at the Shrub administration with contempt, but others look at a positive future where we overcame the myopia, nepotism, and greed of the bushies. It is positive in itself that the future is there to write the entries. I would have given it 4 stars, but a reviewer that obviously did not read it compared it to Ann Coulter and only gave it one star. I am canceling out that vote. Thanks are owed to Foer, Eggers, et al. for their quality writing, work, and discerning eyes.

It's hard for me to write a fair review of this book for a number of reasons. When I ordered it from the McSweeney's website, it was as a part of their Cheapo Bundle, and the brief description mentioned absolutely nothing about politics (there was also no easily accessible link to the book's own web page). The book was said to contain "over 1,000 definitions by almost 200 authors, including Stephen King, Jonathan Safran Foer, Kurt Vonnegut... Jonathan Franzen, Joyce Carol Oates... Art Spiegelman," etc., so I figured this was a "dictionary" of words created in the novels and stories of these authors, collected for the first time in one volume. I'm not mad that the volume turned out to be a political screed, since I only paid $4.50 for it (they don't call it the Cheapo Bundle for nothing), but I am disappointed.

The main problem with this book is that it isn't particularly funny. It seems to have been cobbled together in the last days before the 2004 election in an effort to gain more liberal votes, and I can't help but wonder if there wasn't too much of a rush. For a "future" dictionary of our country, many of the references are already well-outdated (though some have admittedly gained even more ground over the last four years). Most of the humor comes off as cynical or mean, sometimes both. Humorists like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert can pull this off, but that's because they're actually funny. Most of the people involved in this project are the writers of serious fiction, and aren't too good with pithy humor.

I did, however, laugh at the definition of "misteak."

The music CD that came with the book is decent, if depressing. Most of the tracks are anti-war songs.

If you're looking for something to inflame your anger towards the Bush Administration, this is the book for you. If you're looking for an intellectual approach to current political issues, give it a pass.