Product Description

Updated with a new chapter that draws on behavioural finance, the field that studies the psychology of investment decisions, here is the best-selling, authoritative and gimmick-free guide to investing. Burton Malkiel evaluates the full range of investment opportunities, from stocks, bonds and money markets to insurance, home ownership and tangible assets such as gold or collectibles. This edition includes new strategies for rearranging your portfolio for retirement, along with the book's classic life-cycle guide to investing, which matches the needs of investors in any age bracket. "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" long ago established itself as the first book to purchase before starting a portfolio and this "entertaining and informative" ("Financial Times") book remains the best investing guide money can buy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19282 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 464 pages

Review
"A classic, I know, but this preview is all about selling books and this one's already done more than a million copies... this has got to be the leading book in its field." The Bookseller "This revised new edition of the million-copy bestseller is updated with a new chapter on behavioural finance, and remains one of the best investment guides on the market... a must for students of economics." Publishing News"

Customer Reviews

A must read for all investors
This is an investment classic. The first edition was published in 1973 and has been revised every few years. This 2007 edition is the 8th revision and includes a new chapter on Behavioural Finance.

The author says: "The message of the original edition was a very simple one: Investors would be far better off buying and holding an index fund than attempting to buy and sell individual securities or actively managed mutual funds. Now, over thirty-five years later, I believe even more strongly in the original thesis." And he gives data to evidence this.

The book describes the thinking behind technical and fundamental analysis, including simple expositions of complex subjects like Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT) and The Capital-Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). Whether you agree with the author or not, it would be well worth knowing why the author considers that it is very difficult to profit from either technical or fundamental analysis. For those who nevertheless cannot resist the temptation to pick their own stocks, he gives four rules though these are easier said than followed.

It is also a very entertaining read, e.g. he describes the various periods of speculative madness that have occurred - starting with the tulip craze and the south sea bubble to the more recent growth-stock/new-issue craze, the conglomerate boom, the concept stocks bubble, the nifty fifty "one decision" boom, the Japanese land and stock bubble through to the internet bubble.

The author also highlights other useful considerations, e.g. in the penultimate chapter "A life-cycle guide to investing", he highlights the importance of "distinguishing between your attitude toward and your capacity for risk".

Great read
I'm currently working towards a BA in finance, my background is not in investing but i thought this book was a great read. Fairly easy to follow with not too much jargon.