Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining and Stimulating
Review: It seems as though the success of the Motley Fool is very much a product of the information age and the internet's foray into the stock market. It's index of funds "^MFF" has taken a nosedive over the last year or so, only coming up slightly within the last couple of months. But let us take a look at what can be learned from the printings of the two Fools: David and Tom Gardner. For one some of the advice that they dish out can be a product of the time at which the book was written. A small portion of the book extols buying stocks when they are at their IPOs, a practice that brought investors considerable success before the advent of the dot-com debacle. Today such a practice would come under suspect just because of the lack of information most IPOs are able to offer given their nascent entrance into the business world. To be fair, the Gardners did spend a few sentences to preface their recommendations with the obvious heads up that one must do their due diligence before jumping into a stock head first. The element of humor within the informative book serves to entertain and amuse, satisfying a promise they make from the get go. If you're a fan of Shakespeare or at least can read prose from that day in era (personally I found it difficult) then we may not get some of the quips that were intended for us. Overall it's a good read that echoes the teachings of the Sage of Omaha: buy and hold.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and Stimulating
Review: It seems as though the success of the Motley Fool is very much a product of the information age and the internet's foray into the stock market. It's index of funds "^MFF" has taken a nosedive over the last year or so, only coming up slightly within the last couple of months. But let us take a look at what can be learned from the printings of the two Fools: David and Tom Gardner. For one some of the advice that they dish out can be a product of the time at which the book was written. A small portion of the book extols buying stocks when they are at their IPOs, a practice that brought investors considerable success before the advent of the dot-com debacle. Today such a practice would come under suspect just because of the lack of information most IPOs are able to offer given their nascent entrance into the business world. To be fair, the Gardners did spend a few sentences to preface their recommendations with the obvious heads up that one must do their due diligence before jumping into a stock head first. The element of humor within the informative book serves to entertain and amuse, satisfying a promise they make from the get go. If you're a fan of Shakespeare or at least can read prose from that day in era (personally I found it difficult) then we may not get some of the quips that were intended for us. Overall it's a good read that echoes the teachings of the Sage of Omaha: buy and hold.
Rating: 
Summary: A Wonderful Collection of Well-Written, Poor Advice
Review: One thing that the Gardner brothers do especially well is writing for the general public. I read my first Motley Fool book when I was ten and very little of it went over my head. Granted, I was a precocious little bugger, but David and Tom still do an excellent job of taking the abstractions of the investing world and bringing them down to earth. It doesn't take much skill to write an esoteric investment book full of jargon to make it seem intellectual. However, explaining the same issues in laymen's terms takes finesse, and I respect that. Enough about the writing though. What matters most in an investment book is what it has to say, and unfortunately, that is where Rule Breakers, Rule Makers is most lacking. Reading this book in the midst of a recession, I couldn't help but laughing on several occasions because over and over again Rule Breakers, Rule Makers dates itself. Written at the height of the tech bubble, this book is full of overly optimistic advice that borders on lunatic at points. No one can be held accountable for what was said during the tech bubble, surely, because we were all talking crazy. However, the advice that could have been perfectly applicable at the time is far from useful or relevant now. That's not to say that there aren't any nuggets of truth in Rule Breakers, Rule Makers, because there certainly are quite a few. However, much of the advice, particularly that involving Rule Breakers, is quite sketchy. The fact that they give high-risk investment advice in a book geared toward the average investor speaks poorly of it. In summary, Rule Breakers, Rule Makers is a very readable book. It offers some sensible advice to its readers. However, most of its advice was only useful during the tech bubble. These days, this book has the dangerous power to encourage impressionable investors to engage in high-risk trading creating a world of problems for themselves. All in all, this book does have advice to offer, but you have to wade through a great deal of crud to get to it.
Rating:
Summary: A Systematic Approach
Review: Statistically, stock picking is a risky strategy. If you think that you can outperform the average investor's picks, then the Gardners have some excellent advice for you in this book. They present two systems; one for large, established companies and one for small companies with growth potential. Of the two, I like the Rulebreakers (small company strategy) the most - the Rulemakers strategy, with emphasis on S&P 500 market leaders, seems too risky due to its lack of asset class diversification (especially post-2000). Both strategies contain what I consider the rock-bottom minimum of quantitation required of any stock picker, aka fundamental analysis. There are lots of reviews for this book, and most of the negative ones I recall have little basis. However, one reader laments the treatment (or lack of treatment) of VALUE. The Gardner's emphasize growth, which for small stocks especially has been an underperforming asset class on historical average. Growth stocks are a two-edged sword; more downside risk means more upside return for those who pick the right stocks. As an individual investor, I liked this book. However, if you are going to read _one_ book on investing, don't read this one - read John Bogle's "Common Sense on Mutual Funds" ... read this book because it contributes to the many, many sources that form your well-considered investment strategy.
Rating: 
Summary: An Excellent Approach to Thinking about Investments
Review: The Rule Breakers/Rule Makers approach to investing shows how to differentiate between the next Microsoft and the next Priceline, and how to capitalize on that knowledge. Wondering whether to take your profits on that start-up and run or hang on for greater glory? Whether to buy that stock that's already way up on the year or look elsewhere? This is the book for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Really bad advice by guys wearing clown hats....
Review: This book is chock full of really bad investing advice. It's just another magic stock picking get-rich-quick strategy guide. The most disappoining aspect is the fact that they are so critical of other "Wise" men on Wall Street but push a similar active stock picking strategy of their own. They don't even run portfolios based on this strategy any more because it is so flawed!! You'll also notice that these two fools (yes, that's a lower case "F" for all you fool.com readers) no longer even run their real money portforlios as of 02/2003. Here is CBS Marketwatch's assessment of their performance: "Of course, one year does not a track record make. How have the Motley Fool portfolios stacked up over the 6-plus years the HFD has tracked the service? Taking into account several portfolios that it used to maintain but which were discontinued along the way, the HFD calculates that the Motley Fool produced a 1.3 percent annualized return between Jan. 1, 1997 and Jan. 31, 2003, underperforming the 3.4 percent annualized return of the Wilshire 5000 over the same period. Furthermore, among the 98 newsletters for which the HFD has data over this 6-plus year period, the Motley Fool stands in 62nd place." Really this book should be avoided. I was going to sell my copy used, but honestly I felt the information in this book is so bad and so dangerous to other investors that I decided to throw it out instead. That way at least I know nobody else would succumb to its fallacy of easy money. I suspect their other books aren't much better. Stay away and read books by Bogle, Larry Swedroe, William Bernstein and other advocates of passive indexing. You'll do far better.
Rating:
Summary: DON'T STALL YOUR INVESTMENTS, BREAK THE RULES - LEGALLY!
Review: This is a more sophisticated book than the first two, yet no less enjoyable and candid. I applaud the Gardner's efforts to share their rules, or methodology for investing, with everyone. They are common sense rules, such as look for the "Top Dog and First Mover in an Important Emerging Industry". The Gardners also suggest that you ignore conventional valuation. Don't get caught in that Tradition Stall that is so well described in "THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION" by Mitchell, Coles and Metz. The follower usually is not the "dog" to ride. However, the Motley Fool's do present lots of examples of how to analyze the numbers. They also explain when it is okay to ignore some of the rules from their earlier books. Yes, that is okay too - don't get caught by the "Disbelief Stall". In fact, to follow "THE MOTLEY FOOL'S RULE BREAKERS", you may have to suspend some of your old beliefs and look towards the future. Would you have invested in AOL, Wal-Mart or Starbuscks early on? What makes this book fun are the stories of wonderful companies that they made money on and are still wonderful companies. I urge you to read all three of the Motley Fool books, and to read them in order. I also urge you to read THE 2,000 PERCENT SOLUTION to help you look for what companies should be doing to be tomorrow's hot picks!
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