Motley Fool : The Fool's Guide to Online Investing [Paperback]

Like all the best plots, this one is simple; and like all the best, simple plots, it has a happy ending. Online and offline, the Fools are a revelation. Their critical and commercial success and generally "wised-up" approach has turned investment into the new rock 'n' roll. Almost. Here they bring together the two strands of the Foolish empire: investment advice and Internet savvy.

The Fool's Guide to Online Investing is a breezy, whistle-stop tour of the key factors behind Web profits. Perhaps wary of their own observation that "investing online involves the same general principles as investing offline...it's no good adopting a different investment style, or throwing sensible principles to the wind, simply because you're investing online", the book makes no attempt to wow investors with new tools and techniques. Basic investment principles are covered but more often than not, The Fool's Guide to Online Investing points to The Motley Fool UK Investment Guide as the place to go for information and tactics. And, quite rightly, repetition is out.

With the Investment Guide on one hand and the peerless Motley Fool Website on the other, The Fool's Guide to Online Investing falls a little between two stools--or perhaps more accurately, it stalls between two Fools. Author Nigel Roberts' central task is to walk the reader through an Internet research exercise using the Motley Fool Website to demonstrate the power of the Web in accessing company information. All of the deeper Foolish facilities--message boards, charts, quotes and archived news stories--are highlighted and given their place in the research and decision-making process. There is also advice on online brokers, the process of buying and selling shares on and offline, and a cut to the Motley Fool's US sister for those looking to invest further afield. If it all sounds like an extended advertisement, that's because it is, but given their "hope that we may...be creating one of the world's future leading brands", who would dispute their right to some self-promotion?

The Fool's Guide to Online Investing adds up to a useful resource for investors wanting to check out the Internet. The ending? That would be giving too much away. Let's just say it involves the words "financial" and "prosperity". For more Foolish investment advice, visit the Motley Fool Bookshop. --Iain Campbell

The Motley Fool Web site at www.fool.co.uk is the most popular Internet site devoted to investing. It aims to cut through the jargon so beloved of financial professionals, and enable you to beat the experts and invest effectively.

Who could be better qualified than the Motley Fools to write a guide to investing on their home territory, the Internet? This guide will help novice and experienced Fools alike get the best out of the online medium which is sweeping the world. Online is where the opportunity resides these days and the Fools have produced a comprehensive, but light-hearted guide to the services available for investors on the Internet. How to get online, open a brokerage account, research companies, avoid the pitfalls of daytrading, invest in the USA and Europe. It's all here in a guide vital for any serious, or even Foolish, investor.

Guide to the "Fools Guide to Online Investing"
OK, let's admit it, up front and in a very Foolish manner, this is not really a book review. It's an advert. It is an advert that is blatantly aimed at trying to persuade you to go out and buy a copy of the book. You can hardly expect it to be anything else, as I am the author of the book! So be Foolish and read it only on the understanding that you know I am trying to sell you something.

First, let's say what the book is NOT. It is NOT a list of great or good websites, and it is NOT filled with full-page screenshots of websites -- indeed there are really very few screenshots -- and it is NOT going to answer all of your questions. Indeed I hope that it creates more questions than answers.

So what is the book actually about? Well it is in three unequal parts:

Part 1 - A very brief run down on what the Internet is all about, where it came from and where it is going.

Part 2 - Explains what being a Foolish Investor is all about. Indeed, it starts off with "Nigel's own Foolish story" of how I became a Fool, how I was badly advised by the so-called financial "professionals" (the Wise) and how I discovered the Internet and learnt to take control of my own finances. This section goes on to explain what being a true Fool is all about, and why you should be looking after your own finances and investing in the stock market.

Part 3 - The main part of the book is about using the Internet for investing. It looks at the reasons why you should be getting online: because it is an invaluable source of information, because it enables you to communicate with thousands of other investors, and finally because it enables you to take control of your financial destiny. This section looks at how using the Internet can help improve your investment decisions.

Rather than simply listing a whole load of interesting websites, as most online investment books seem to do, my aim in writing the book was to show you how you can use the Internet to gather information. How do you research individual companies, and where can you can find news and information? How do you select an online broker? What is the actual procedure for buying and selling shares online? It is all explained in the Fool's English, hopefully "busting all that jargon" that is so beloved of the Wise. Have you got an online bank? No? Well sure as eggs is eggs, you will have within a couple of years.

The book helps to explain how you can get the best out of the Fool website, and what the Foolish message boards are all about. There is also a whistlestop tour of Fool USA... How do you to invest in US shares, and how you can buy shares all over the world cheaply and efficiently?

Finally the book looks at the "five pitfalls of online investing" and tells you what to watch out for.

There is a "Loadsalinks" appendix, which lists on just 7 pages the best websites we have found that can help with making investment decisions. Whatever you do, don't buy the book just for this appendix! The Internet changes at breakneck speed, and these links will soon become out of date. But don't despair, as this is kept up-to-date and available for free on our website...

So that's it, the advert for The Fools Guide to Online Investing by Nigel Roberts with David Berger is over. All you have to do now is buy a copy -- please! Then, please do visit the book's own Motley Fool message board, where you can tell me where I got it wrong, and how we can improve the book for the next edition. You can also ask any question you like about the book in the knowledge that I will soon be along to answer you.

Nigel Roberts -- A Fool.