4 out of 4 stars
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Stock Investing For Everyone is a book written by Kevin J. Davey, a seasoned market professional who has been investing and trading for almost thirty years. Davey condenses all of his expertise in this short guide to getting started with stocks. The twenty-one chapters cover a broad range of topics such as opening a brokerage account, figuring out your objectives, and analyzing stocks.
As the title implies, the author wrote the book with a wide audience in mind. He divides different investment approaches into tiers. The first tier offers safety and minimal time commitment for people who don’t want to spend a lot of effort in the market. Each following tier increases the risks and potential returns. Whether you’re saving to buy a house, preparing for retirement, or building funds for your kids’ college, you’ll find an appropriate category that best suits your needs.
Davey uses convincing arguments to persuade the reader that the stock market is the best way to build wealth, even including case studies of different investment strategies. He does so without promising any get-rich-quick schemes or shortcuts. It’s not an easy road, with plenty of challenges around the corner, but it’s worthwhile.
The book is an excellent introductory resource for beginners. Besides talking about basic things such as how to enter a buying or selling offer, it briefly touches on technical and fundamental analysis, algorithmic trading, position-sizing, options, and many other topics. Since it’s impossible to fully cover all of them, the author recommends good complementary books whenever necessary. You can even get additional resources for algorithmic trading through the book’s website.
Interspersed between bits of financial advice are personal stories that add a touch of relatability to the book and help to illustrate various points. For example, the author talks about how his experiences with different companies influenced his decision to invest in them. These stories are a nice change of pace and make the reading experience even more fluid. It’s very easy to finish the entire book in one sitting, though I recommend taking your time and making notes.
I rate Stock Investing For Everyone 4 out of 4 stars. That’s not to say there aren’t any problems, but they’re fairly minor and won’t bother most readers. Since it’s a very accessible book, veteran traders and investors likely won’t find a lot of new information. Also, while I only found one objective error in the book (a misspelling of “sad” as “said”), the non-standard use of commas bothered me a bit. For example, the author sometimes places a comma after an introductory “but”: “But, that is not always the case.” There are also other instances of unnecessary commas and odd phrasing: "Companies in this sector may be great, but small, companies."
I can safely recommend the book to everyone, even teenagers. Indeed, this would be a great read for young people entering the workforce and starting to deal with money. The language is simple and straightforward, and there are no profanities whatsoever.
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Stock Investing For Everyone
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