Stock Market Investing for Beginners: Essentials to Start Investing Successfully Paperback – November 22, 2013

Well written. Easy to understand for novices.

EDIT 8/7/14: After I wrote this review, I discovered that the end of this book has very good advice on when to sell your stock. This info alone was worth the price of the book, and is finally enabling me to actually make a bit of money from my stocks. So I change my rating from 3 to 4 stars for this.As a true beginner, I found this book rather frustrating. I liked that a minimal amount of time was spent on general investing advice, so that we could get right into stocks. At first I liked that this is a small book, 128 pages of content with a small page size and medium font, but soon realized that the information was packed too densely for me to be able to learn it. The bulk of the book is one equation on company statistics after another woven into a loose narrative. They said to follow along with the equations at home, but I would have needed more guidance than that, like a work book or at least some exercises. So the more I read, the more lost I got. I will, however, keep this as a reference book, as it has a good index, and I will be able to use it to look up terms and equations.

As a financial advisor, I recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn the Wall Street stock market game and build wealth. The book explains in plain English how to calculate rates of returns,determine your risk level and the rule of 72, which will help you reach your financial goals. One of the best chapter is on the fundamentals of the stock market. It explains the various exchanges, how to value a stock and a list of the typical questions and answers a novice investor would ask.Stock market Investing for Beginners also gives good advice on when to sell a stock, Most investment books skip this advice, and as a result, most new investors don't know when to sell the stock.Other chapters include how to analyze stocks, read the stock quotes, explanation of the various valuation ratios and how to structure your investment portfolio with various alternative investments. There is also a glossary, so you can understand the Wall Street lingo.This is not a book you read in one seating. I recommend you study chapter by chapter and get familiar with the numbers and calculations to make wise investment decisions. Read and study this book before you seek out a stockbroker or financial advisor, that way you'll never be led astray by Wall Street professionals.

I have limited knowledge of the stock market and investing. Like many people, I learned the basics in high school and college, but since I wasn’t an active investor, I quickly forgot most of what I learned. This book was a fantastic refresher for me and will be a great reference tool to look at from time to time. Like most people, I don’t have my own personal money manager or a fortune to invest – yet I still need to plan for college savings, retirement, etc.This book gives a good step by step explanation of different investments that would be suitable for someone in my situation. It explains how to not only choose, but also how to buy and sell stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, and makes it seems simple enough to do. Since no one is earning money in savings accounts or CDs anymore, it’s important to have an alternate method to save and grow your money. Furthermore, it gives a great explanation of diversifying your investments and building a long term investment portfolio. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning the mysteries of investments.

I'm surprised that this book has such a high rating. It is okay as an introduction. However there are a few poor explanations of basic concepts. These waste a lot of the reader's time trying to figure out the precise technical meaning of what is being described. Being a teacher, I would have worked on these parts much more carefully. For example this passage which defined return on equity (ROE):"Theoretically, if you sold a company’s assets and repaid its liabilities, you would walk away with cash equal to book value. For that reason, analysts consider book value an estimate of a company’s true liquidation value. However, in the context of ROE, it also means something else. Suppose Acme Widget owns $ 1 billion in assets. It has financed those assets with $ 600 million in liabilities, which leaves $400 million in equity . That $400 million represents the book value of common shares outstanding— usually far below their market value— and earnings retained by the company over time. ROE calculates the return the company earns just on money stockholders have invested. Because equity doesn’t reflect debt or physical assets, ROE represents the most direct assessment of profitability from a shareholder’s perspective. A company’s equity balance reflects its value above and beyond net worth. If a company makes a profit that exceeds the dividends it pays out, that profit adds to retained earnings. As such, consistently profitable companies tend to grow their equity balance over time. To calculate ROE, divide net income by stockholder equity."The above description is not optimal for a beginner. Passages like that, written without educational clarity, waste a lot of the reader's time in determining the ends and outs of what is being described.