The Ultimate Guide to Trading ETFs: How To Profit from the Hottest Sectors in the Hottest Markets All the Time Review

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(More customer reviews)Just finished reading the Ultimate Guide to Trading ETFsThe Ultimate Guide to Trading ETFs: How To Profit from the Hottest Sectors in the Hottest Markets All the Time (I bought it to learn more about gold ETFs and whether or not leveraged ETFs are safe)and there are a few things I wanted to point out to investors who are considering a copy:
1. While this guide would be informative for the new ETF investor, it is certainly not just an "intro" guide. Much of the material in the middle chapters of the book concerns the pricing, trading and construction of ETFs and other exchange-traded products.
2. I found Chapter 4 (Building a Portfolio Using ETFs) to be particularly useful. Rather than just relying on sample portfolios, this book addresses the nuances of ETF investing. By creating categories like "The High-Touch Satellite Investor" and "The Portfolio Builder" (as well as sub-categories) it helps to break-out investor types beyond the usual black and white categories (short vs. long term investor - for example).
3. The ETF ranking appendix at the back was an added bonus. Rather than categorizing ETFs by size or sector, this book takes analysis one step further. ETFs are also ranked, in this index, according to complexity. Not every natural gas ETF is the same, and this index helps to provide a quick reference for important differences between funds.
While I don't usually write product reviews, I know there are a lot of how-to investing guides out there and I wanted to highlight this new addition. While the name might sound a little cheesy, the Ultimate Guide To Trading ETFsThe Ultimate Guide to Trading ETFs: How To Profit from the Hottest Sectors in the Hottest Markets All the Time contains a lot of solid analysis and information for sophisticated investors that you won't find elsewhere.

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An essential guide to trading trends with ETFs
At any given time, a particular country's market or a particular segment of the market-such as energy or technology-might be booming. The Ultimate Guide To Trading ETFs provides a time-tested strategy for using exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to profit from these trending markets and sectors.
By monitoring the performance of ETFs, authors Don Dion and Carolyn Dion show how to capitalize on these fast-moving, ever-changing trends. He then discusses how to stay ahead of the curve by identifying markets and sectors that are gathering momentum and monitoring those markets for signs that the momentum is losing steam. Dion also explains how you can build a balanced portfolio of ETFs and manage your allocations to profit from the shifting trends.
Provides advice for both aggressive investors who are willing to utilize leveraged and short market ETFs, as well as more conservative investors who want to limit risk
Highlights a wide variety of ETFs currently available to investors
Shows how to profit from fast-developing trends across all markets and sectors

The world of ETFs has created many options for individual investors, and The Ultimate Guide To Trading ETFs shows you how to make the most of those opportunities.

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Beating the Market, 3 Months at a Time: A Proven Investing Plan Everyone Can Use Review

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(More customer reviews)This book suffers from two problems. First, it seems like a slimmed-down version of author Gerald Appel's "Opportunity Investing," which also discussed the use of a momentum-rotation strategy to improve absolute returns and reduce portfolio drawdown. The big difference here is that the Appels emphasize the use of ETFs for implementing their strategy.
Second, there is a lot of basic material whose purpose is to persuade the reader that they need to invest in equity markets. You see this too often in books on investing, where the authors assume that the reader need first be persuaded to invest and then to invest according to the author's strategy. I would wager that most people who pick up books on investing need no such convincing: it's preaching to the choir.
That said, the momentum-rotation strategy is an interesting concept, elegant and, in its ETF incarnation, easy to use. It is worth bearing in mind, though, that trading in and out of ETFs as might be necessary under this strategy would incur a significant tax and cost liability that the strategy would have to hurdle if it was to outperform as simple buy-and-hold plan. Alas, transaction costs and taxes do not factor into the Appels' analysis.


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"The authors have created a simple, systematic plan that gives investors a long-term edge with minimal effort and reduced risk. They've done all the work for you, and it's rewarding and easy to follow."–Bob Kargenian, President, TABR Capital Management"There are diamonds in them thar hills' — but to find investment grade diamonds it pays to have experienced guides. Gerald and Marvin Appel provide a simple but powerful plan for the often complex world of investment opportunities."–Dr. Alexander Elder, Author of Come Into My Trading Room and Trading for a LivingA Complete Roadmap for Investing Like a Pro That Requires Only 1 Hour Every 3 MonthsThe easy way to build a winning portfolio–and keep winningReduce risk, increase growth, and protect wealth even in tough, volatile markets Absolutely NO background in math or finance necessary!You can do better! You don't have to settle for "generic" investment performance, and you needn't delegate your decision-making to expensive investment managers. This book shows how you can quickly and easily build your optimal global portfolio–and then keep it optimized, in just one hour every three months. Top investment managers Gerald and Marvin Appel provide specific recommendations and simple selection techniques that any investor can use–even novices. The Appels' approach is remarkably simple and requires only one hour of your time every 3 months, but don't let that fool you: it draws on state-of-the-art strategies currently being used that really work.www.systemsandforecasts.comwww.appelasset.comwww.signalert.comIf you know what to do, active investing can yield far better returns than "buy-and-hold" investing. But conventional approaches to active investing can be highly complex and time-consuming. Finally, there's a proven, easy-to-use approach: one that's simple enough for novices, quick enough for anyone, requires no background in math–and works! Gerald and Marvin Appel show you how to identify, and give you specific recommendations for, the best mutual funds, ETFs, bond funds, and international funds. They do not stop there. They demonstrate how you can quickly and easily evaluate each investment's performance every 3 months, and how to make adjustments to continually optimize the performance of your portfolio. Using their easy to implement strategies, you can achieve better capital growth while reducing risk; profit from new opportunities at home and abroad; make the most of innovative investment vehicles; and protect your assets even in the toughest markets.Improving rates of return while you also reduce riskSetting intelligent investment targets and implementing strategies to meet themIdentifying today's most profitable market sectors……and those that will continue to leadShort-term vs. long-term bonds, mature vs. emerging marketsWhat to choose now, and when to switch

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A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing (Completely Revised and Updated) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a classic book, first published in 1973. The 9th edition just came out this year. Every investor, whether you believe in market efficiency or not, should read this book at least once. This book does a very good job reconciling between market efficiency and perceived inefficiencies such as bubbles at different times. The author believes in a weak form of efficient market theory. Simply put, the market may not be perfectly efficient at all times, but it's efficient enough to make it very difficult and costly trying to beat it. In the end, an investor is better off holding a market index fund that invests in everything under the sun. It's not worth the cost and effort trying to find the undervalued stocks or high-growth mutual funds.
The book begins with two basic stock valuation models -- Firm Foundations and Castles in the Air. It goes on with a review of bubbles and manias throughout history, from more ancient history -- tulip craze in the Netherlands, the South Sea bubble in England, the 1929 Great Crash in the U.S. -- to the stock market anomalies from the 1960s, 1970s, all the way to the late 1990s dot com bubble. The book then introduces two basic camps of stock valuation analysis: Technical Analysis and Fundamental Analysis. It shows how both Technical Analysis and Fundamental Analysis fail to identify outstanding investment opportunities more than what an efficient market already provides. Not that you can't make money with Technical Analysis and/or Fundamental Analysis, but you can't make more money than what you already can with investing in a market index fund.
The chapter on behavioral finance is new for the 9th edition. It reviews how investors often become their own worst enemy when it comes to investing. The book "Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes And How To Correct Them" (ISBN 0684859386) covers this area in more details.
The final section of this book is the practical part. It gives practical advice on insurance, tax deferred accounts, saving for college, different vehicles for cash reserves, bonds, real estate, and stock mutual funds. Finally the book lists specific portfolio and fund recommendations for people in different stages of their lives.
Overall, this is a great book, a must read for every investor. It is however a little long and it requires some patience because it explains everything in details. If you want to cut to the chase and prefer a cookbook approach, I recommend the shorter book "The Random Walk Guide to Investing" (ISBN 039332639X) by the same author. The basic premise is the same in both books. The shorter "The Random Walk Guide to Investing" condenses everything into 3 basic points and 10 rules. It is about 200 pages long. The full book "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" is over 400 pages.

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A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing (Completely Revised and Updated) Review

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(More customer reviews)My review pertains to the newest 2010 edition of "A Random Walk Down Wall Street". I found it to be a well-updated classic. The author is very knowledgeable and makes a strong case for sensible investing choices using index funds and ETF's. Each chapter is peppered with experiences, jokes, and other interesting anecdotal tidbits. The old references that were fit for the 70's or 80's were purged or modified to make this book fit 2011. For the investor or anyone interested in building their own nest egg and then protecting it, this is a highly recommended book. I consider myself to be a rather experienced and seasoned investor but I learned a lot of new things reading this book. I have also read "The Little Book of Common Sense Investing" by John C. Bogle of Vanguard fame. I much prefer "A Random Walk Down Wall Street". Random is a much bigger book and will require more time to read, but it's much more thorough and less biased. If you have the time to read it, I would recommend A Random Walk over the Little Book.

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The best investment guide money can buy,with over 1.5 million copies sold, now fully revised and updated.
Especially in the wake of the financial meltdown, readers will hunger for Burton G. Malkiel's reassuring, authoritative, gimmick-free, and perennially best-selling guide to investing. Long established as the first book to purchase before starting a portfolio, A Random Walk Down Wall Street features new material on the Great Recession and the global credit crisis as well as an increased focus on the long-term potential of emerging markets. Malkiel also evaluates the full range of investment opportunities in today's volatile markets, from stocks, bonds, and money markets to real estate investment trusts and insurance, home ownership, and tangible assets such as gold and collectibles. These comprehensive insights, along with the book's classic life-cycle guide to investing, chart a course for anyone seeking a calm route through the turbulent waters of the financial markets.

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