Four Great Books for the Stock Market Fiend

For those who are hooked on stock market investing, there is nothing better than a little good information. There are many books on the subject, but often the advise given is of the get-rich-quick variety and can't be trusted. But here are some books which have a bit more credibility and thus are worth a read for any true stock market addict.

How to Make Money in Stocks: A Winning System in Good Times or Bad, by William J O'Neil. Since O'Neil is the founder of Investors Business Daily, he has is a good information source on investing. His system is based on analysis of a stock's past performance to see when it is ready to take off in price. It is explained in clear and simple language. He gives many rules to follow in order to avoid or minimize losses and maximize gains.

24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success by William J. O'Neil. This book by O'Neil is if anything even easier to understand than the other. It covers a great many issues such as how many stocks you should own and how to read a stock chart. It tells at what point to sell a declining stock to avoid large losses. The 24 essential lessons in this book are lessons that no investor can afford to miss out on. This is a good stocks book to read more than once.

The Single Best Investment, by Lowell Miller, takes a somewhat different approach. He recommends growing your wealth with low risk, steady growth stocks. He advocates looking for stocks that are showing a pattern of dividend growth. He gives a straightforward, simple plan to evaluate which stocks meet his criteria for being 'single best investment' stocks. He gives sample evaluations of numerous stocks so that the reader can learn to evaluate stocks for himself using these principles. He also gives rules to determine when to hold a stock and when to sell.

The Dividend Growth Investment Strategy: How to Keep your Retirement Income Doubling Every Five Years, by RoxAnn Klugman, shows the reader that mutual funds tend to underperform the market and may not be the best investment for retirement funds. She, like Miller in the previous book, strongly recommends investments in stocks with a pattern of dividend growth. She gives information on other forms of investing before she gets to the meat of the book--- basic principles for investing in stocks, and an analysis for 30 stocks which, at the time of the writing of the book, she felt were the best dividend stocks. After reading through this book the reader should be better equipped to evaluate stocks for himself and make better stock choices.

Success in investment requires learning about the market, about stocks and the companies they represent, and about how to pick stocks that are valuable and are likely to maintain that value. These books are a good start to your learning process. They also make great gifts for other stock market fiends.

References:

O'Neil, William J. - How to Make Money in Stocks

O'Neil, William J. - 24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success.

Miller, Lowell : The Single Best Investment

Klugman, RoxAnn - The Dividend Growth Investment Strategy