How to Buy Stocks

by Louis Engel, Peter Wyckoff, Brendan C. Boyd, et al.

Book Overview

The eighth edition of America's classic stock market primer, fully revised and updated for today's marketplaceFor over forty years, generations of investors have turned to How to Buy Stocks for advice and information they know they can trust. This extensively revised edition preserves Louis Engel's savvy investment principles and easy-to-understand explanations, but now includes all the up-to-the-minute information you need for successful investing...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316353809
• ISBN13: 9780316353809
• Release Date: September 1994
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 398 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

The only truly sane book on investing

The problem with so, so many investment texts on the market is that the authors of the texts have a clear conflict of interest: read my book, buy my tapes and come to my seminar, and they'll teach you how to make a million dollars. A sucker is born every minute, and the dark scary world of investment books is proof of it. This is the best book on investing, and how to measure value generally, that I've ever read. It's very, very old school. If you feel yourself attracted to the NYSE like a big exciting roulette table, but you don't know what a P/E ratio is or what a stock split really means, buy this book before you do anything stupid.

Highly Recommended!

The eighth edition of this extremely thorough, classic stock market primer has been completely revised. Louis Engel wrote it more than forty years ago, and in this eighth edition, Henry R. Hecht up-dates it for contemporary readers. This critically acclaimed book provides a ground-level explanation of every aspect of the stock market and investing, while also offering savvy investment principles. It provides an introductory base covering terms and a broad picture of stock investing, and then builds a solid package of information. The book is clearly organized, as befits a traditional reference in the field. As the author says, "This is a book about how to make your money earn more money for you by investing it. It is not a book about how to make a fortune..." We at getAbstract recommend this book as a standard for anyone interested in making investments, and anyone intrigued by the investment industry.

The ABCs of Stock Market Investing Tools

The world is full of books that claim to teach you how to make millions starting with nothing, in only a few minutes a day. Unfortunately, these books skip over the basics that everyone needs to know about buying stocks. Where can you get those basics? How to Buy Stocks is the source you need.I would suggest that you first read John Bogle's book, Common Sense on Mutual Funds, to determine whether or not you will even want to buy individual stocks. For most people, indexed mutual funds are a much better alternative. If you've read that book, and want to have a small portion of your money in directly purchased stocks, then you are ready for this book.I have read dozens of books on how the basics of how to invest in stocks, and think that this is the most valuable and objective one around. I had an amusing experience a few years ago. I attended a "sophisticated" seminar on stock market investing that was very expensive, and found that main speaker drew all of his material from this book. So you can save a lot of money, and simply buy, read, and use this book in the first place. Another benefit of this book is that is dispels a lot of myths about stock market investing that most people have when they first start to invest. I routinely give this book to family and friends who want to know more about investing. By the way, I consult with large companies who want to improve their stock price, so I have a useful perspective on this issue from my work.After you finish enjoying this book, I suggest that you pay particular attention to the section on writing covered calls. That is a very good way to increase your returns if you plan to hold your stocks for a long period of time. You will find this approach works best after you have passed the capital gains holding period, or for IRA money (or any other tax-deferred accounts). Compound your wealth appropriately!

An all time Classic - A must read for newbies.

This is a book for all times, very well rounded lots of good information. In todays Bull market there are so many disillusioned newbies that think todays market will last forever. The information in this can help you to be a sober investor.

All what you need to learn the fundamentals of stock market

As a beginner in investing, I had a hard time understanding the market terminologies. I did not know how the market works until I found this book. In this book, you will learn the basics of investing; how the stock market works, mutual funds, common stocks, preferred stocks, bonds, options, trading on margin, selling short, how to deal with brokers, and a lot of other topics. One thing that I found confusing is that the author talks a lot about the rules of investing in the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's, to an extent that you got confused and don't know what is the current investing rules. You have to dig between the lines until you get the information you are looking for. I think it is not important for us to know the investing rules back in the 60's. Other than that, the book is excellent and definetly should be in your library, at least as a reference.