Motley Fool books and services

[ouzacprice]

ive been getting investment ideas from their new caps thing (im still probably subscribed to stock advisor but will not be renewing the subscription this year)
however caps.fool.com is a place where everyone picks stocks and its great for picking up ideas from some of the really good investors.

[JordanIB]

I always loved the message boards, but figuring the amount of discourse would drop dramatically, I didn't continue when they went to a subscription format for the boards.

Maybe I should revisit...

[zimmer879]

Their message boards are top notch.

[hlacheen]

They have nice boards, and CAPS is good, but I didn't like their books (I rented em from the library.) Peter Lynch's books were a pretty good read. I am reading the Intelligent Investor atm.

[kagame]

The Little Book that Beats the Market would be an excellent place to start, value investing/semi-longterm buy and hold is the way to go

[Carl_William]

Dear Duck Rabbit,

"The Four Pillars of Investing -- Lessions for Building a Winning Portfolio" is probably a must for you.... The author is William J. Bernstein via McGraw Hill. This book has been recommended by a few other guys on this Internet site. I'm sure there are a few other good books out there, but other guys will have to recommend them. Also; Author Larry E. Swedroe's books are written by a guy who recommends no-load funds and an asset balanced stable of funds.

For guys starting out in IRA or preferably Roth IRAs; it would be best to buy no-load asset balanced mutuals funds -- funds like "Vanguard Target Retirement 2045 (VTIVX)." When you are young and only have a relatively small dollar amount in IRAs, it is best to start out with asset balanced funds -- the reason is obvious (it's hard to divesify when there is a minimum amount that can be invested in specific funds). Also when you are young; you want to be agressive as possible because you have time on your side (discounting all the factors and Monday morning quarterbacking -- if I knew 25 years ago what I know now --I conservatively estimate I would now have at least twice my current assets -- easily).

Say after 5, 10 years down the line; and your Roth Ira has a lot more $$ in it -- you can diversify with more individual specific funds such as the European, Pacific, Emerging Markets, etc, etc.
Duck, you are lucky to have some very smart guys on this Internet site who know the ropes. Good Luck

Carl

PS: Also learn about ETFs -- they can be a great asset to your investment methods. Use good extreme brokerage houses; and about the spreads (bid & ask) to minimize the somewhat hidden expenses when buying and selling shares.

[Carl_William]

PS: Also learn about ETFs -- they can be a great asset to your investment methods. Use good extreme discount brokerage houses; and about the spreads (bid & ask) to minimize the somewhat hidden expenses when buying and selling shares. Be your own man -- salesmen usually just take your money.

[pig4bill]

I like the Fool stuff for the teaching aspect. They are good at teaching beginners about the ins and outs of how markets operate. What I'm not a fan of is some of their investing philosophies. Like finding undervalued stocks and hoping the rest of the market notices them someday some way. What's going to compel that stock to make a move? Anything you can see now has been visible to the market all along. I'd rather play stocks that are already in motion.

So read their stuff to learn about how stuff works, but take their investing advice with a grain of salt. I would buy their book(s) and read their free stuff on their site but I wouldn't pay for a subscription.

[kagame]

uhhm wow thats so flawed I dont even know where to start

trying mentioning IBD, CANSLIM, etc

Best performing stocks in the long run are value small cap. There are inefficiencies in the market all the time. Irrationality rules in the short term. Swing trading just utilizes that to the upper-upside. Value Investing takes irrationally beaten down stocks and allows time for them to balance back to rational levels.