All about Exchange Traded Funds

Rating:
Summary: Big Disappointment
Review: After reviewing the front and back covers, I purchased this book. The author has spent 26 years writing a newspaper column on the subjects of money and investments. The author is not bashful with his opinions. The book describes the only strategy to use in buying securities, was the buy and hold strategy. Holding securities for 25 years. He does not believe in day trading, advising the reader against doing so. The book does not believe in fundamental analysis, technical analysis, or chart reading. It says you can not predict future prices and should not rely on historical prices as a guide. The book spends too many chapters describing stocks, mutual funds, bonds and how to find a broker. This did not leave much room to talk about Exchange Traded Funds. Which was the title of the book. Only one and half chapters were devoted to the subject. The book had potential, but it was a big disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Diversifing with Exchanged Traded Funds
Review: The inner workings of Exchanged-Traded Funds are well explained in Richard's book. Do-it-yourself investors would be wise to learn about ETFs, and then apply that knowledge to better diversify their holdings and save expenses. Richard's book offers the sophisticated and the novice a single-source reference that can make you money over the long run. Building a well-diversified portfolio and then managing it is difficult, but "All About Exchange-Traded Funds" provided me with the insights that only an experienced advisor, like Richards, can offer. If more people had understood the essential precepts found in this book, far less money would have been lost during the past few years. Read it and profit by it.

Rating:
Summary: Title should be "A Little about ETF's"
Review: This book is more about Archie Richards' personal investment philosophy than it is about ETF's. I'm not sure who his target audience is, but I can assure you if you want to learn about ETF's, you are going to be spending about 75% of your time reading about Archie's personal opinions about the investment world and what is wrong with it. The other 25% covers what ETF's are and how they work. It may be good info. if you want to be the Cliff Claven of ETF's at your friendly neighborhood bar. But if you want to learn how to use ETF's as a viable investment, you would be better off going to the websites of the sponsors for these funds and read their free information. I can think of only one market that can benefit from this book - those of you who have never invested in your life, are VERY conservative and are prepared to buy and hold your investments for more than 20 years. For the rest of you, don't waste your time or money.