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Stocks Essay

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Originally published in 1973, the book recommends a buy-and-hold strategy using dollar cost averaging. The book also talks about some historical investment crazes; or as Dr. Malkiel calls them, creating “castles in the air.” For instance:
• Tulip Bulb craze: Tulips imported into Holland from Turkey during the 17th century gained instant popularity. According to Investopedia: “The true bulb buyers (the garden centers of the past) began to fill up inventories for the growing season, depleting the supply further and increasing scarcity and demand. Soon, prices were rising so fast and high that people were trading their land, life savings, and anything else they could liquidate to get more tulip bulbs. Many Dutch persisted in believing they …show more content…

Fortunes were lost in a heartbeat.”
This book is a great read for any investor and I highly recommend it.
In this book I will take you on a random walk down Wall Street, providing a guided tour of the complex world of finance and practical advice on investment opportunities and strategies. Many people say that the individual investor has scarcely a chance today against Wall Street's professionals. They point to techniques the pros use such as "program trading," "portfolio insurance," and investment strategies using complex derivative instruments, and they read news reports of mammoth takeovers and the highly profitable (and sometimes illegal) activities of well-financed arbitrageurs. This complexity suggests that there is no longer any room for the individual investor in today's institutionalized markets. Nothing could be further from the truth. You can do as well as the experts — perhaps even better. As I'll point out later, it was the steady investors who kept their heads when the stock market tanked in October 1987, and then saw the value of their holdings eventually recover and continue to produce attractive returns. And many of the pros lost their shirts during the 1990s using derivative strategies they failed to understand.
This book is a succinct guide for the individual investor. It covers everything from insurance to income taxes. It gives advice on shopping for the best mortgage and planning an Individual Retirement Account. It tells you how to

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