Empowered Investor: Manage Your Investments the Way the Professionals Do (Financial Times Series) [Paperback]

Harrison starts off with a reminder of the traditional rules which many experienced investors (including me) have lost a lot of money by forgetting over the last two years - and explains some mystical terms like P/E and EPS – their significance to stock pickers – and how to calculate them yourself.

Also some useful tips on the behavior of people in general (including the investor himself) and the rogues and fools that litter the market in particular. “Never buy on a newspaper tip” and take a hard look at the directors and what they are up to are truths often forgotten in the excitement and panic of getting into the market. He then moves on to expose some common scams, which are a timely warning for the unwary.

Harrison points out the importance of what he calls the “Information wheel” - but fails to tell us how we can beat the now endemic inside dealers who mysteriously always get the information before the rest of us. But then I don’t think there is any answer to that one !

Pointing out (rightly) that most fund managers have done no better than many private investors (and we all have the worthless policies and pension schemes to prove it) he explains how we can use the same tools that they do, now we have online services like Ample iii, etc.

Helpful little black box tip panels highlight the important points throughout the book for “quick dippers”.

“Book value is exactly what it says, just the value in the company’s book of its net assets”. How many of us wish we had remembered that and attached to it the significance it deserves ? And in another, he stops short of pointing out that many companies are run by directors who are just plain crooks, but comments coyly “More frivolous but obvious signs of bad management are corporate excesses.” Yeah ! Tell us about it, Mark !

The quite brief flip across the top of Technical Analysis is probably as much as the new investor wants – and gives enough for anybody to at least be able to use the internet tools available.

The instructive part of the book ends with a fairly detailed study of portfolio building and management, which is a bit of specialty of his. And it is, after all, the “business end” of the project of any investor.

Useful to new investors trying to get a feel for the subject is the section nearly at the end, which describes the history of bubbles (a sore subject with most of us at present) and some of the more famous investors in history together with some of their techniques.

All in all, a first class and easy starting point for the new investor, who would be unwise to go parting with any money until they had armed themselves with the knowledge and wise advice it provides – from somebody who has been there and done it.

Bob Sims (aka Greyfox)

Harrison starts off with a reminder of the traditional rules which many experienced investors (including me) have lost a lot of money by forgetting over the last two years - and explains some mystical terms like P/E and EPS - their significance to stock pickers - and how to calculate them yourself.

Also some useful tips on the behavior of people in general (including the investor himself) and the rogues and fools that litter the market in particular. "Never buy on a newspaper tip" and take a hard look at the directors and what they are up to are truths often forgotten in the excitement and panic of getting into the market. He then moves on to expose some common scams, which are a timely warning for the unwary.

Harrison points out the importance of what he calls the "Information wheel" - but fails to tell us how we can beat the now endemic inside dealers who mysteriously always get the information before the rest of us. But then I don't think there is any answer to that one!

Pointing out (rightly) that most fund managers have done no better than many private investors (and we all have the worthless policies and pension schemes to prove it) he explains how we can use the same tools that they do, now we have online services like Ample iii, etc.

Helpful little black box tip panels highlight the important points throughout the book for "quick dippers".

"Book value is exactly what it says, just the value in the company's book of its net assets". How many of us wish we had remembered that and attached to it the significance it deserves ?

And in another, he stops short of pointing out that many companies are run by directors who are just plain crooks, but comments coyly "More frivolous but obvious signs of bad management are corporate excesses." Yeah! Tell us about it, Mark!

The quite brief flip across the top of Technical Analysis is probably as much as the new investor wants - and gives enough for anybody to at least be able to use the internet tools available.

The instructive part of the book ends with a fairly detailed study of portfolio building and management, which is a bit of a specialty of his. And it is, after all, the "business end" of the project of any investor.

Useful to new investors trying to get a feel for the subject is the section nearly at the end, which describes the history of bubbles (a sore subject with most of us at present) and some of the more famous investors in history together with some of their techniques.

All in all, a first class and easy starting point for the new investor, who would be unwise to go parting with any money until they had armed themselves with the knowledge and wise advice it provides - from somebody who has been there and done it.

Bob Sims (aka Greyfox)