Comments on: Can small investors beat market professionals?

By: valuegeek

valuegeek — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 15:20:01 +0000

To Jen Francis. Thanks for the tip. I have not read Elder’s books, but I look forward to reading them.

By: Jen Francis

Jen Francis — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:58:23 +0000

Have you read any of Alexander Elder’s books? – really good for money management and trader psychology. Not so much on investing, but you seem well versed in that, you can definitely incorporate some of his ideas into your investing strategy.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=alexander+elder

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:31:08 +0000

Interesting viewpoints. I am actually doing something similar. I am using stocks that I have a good understanding of (in the financial sector) and have been trading aggressively. Although trading commissions eat your gains, I have found that picking up a few percentage points here and there have more than paid for the extra commissions.

By: Jae Jun

Jae Jun — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:34:13 +0000

As I was going through what books to read, this was always on the shelves at the bookstore but just reading reviews and a few pages it turned me off. It was probably the technical analysis part that did it for me.

As to the question can small investors beat market professionals? Im a firm believer that the answer is yes.

While there are many managers out there that invest in a contrarian manner, I believe the vast majority of fund managers are sheep that are insecure about their jobs every quarter when earnings and large price fluctuations occur.

I guess the reason why I don’t like books such as this one is that it emphasizes ideas of Wall Street on the small investor. Whether we make 20% or lose 10%, the house always wins.

Have you read Active Value Investing? It may also be closer to what you are looking for.