Probably this book annoys many readers by its failure to say which are the best companies, but we feel we have good reasons for the omission. This book aims to give information and ideas that an investor has difficulty in finding elsewhere. By contrast, details about specific investment companies, as well as […]
A “sales charge” is included in the cost of shares in most mutual funds. To an investor who understands words better than figures, a selling charge is like taxes something to be avoided, if possible. To a more analytical investor, the ques tion is “Where can I get the best net over-all […]
When a man makes a deposit in a savings bank or joins a savings and loan association, or takes out a life-insurance pol icy, he pools his money with that of other investors. Thus in fixed-dollar investing, the assembling of capital from many people into one pool, to be invested according to […]
Fixed Dollars and Buying Power Suppose a man buys some common stock at $10 a share, and a month later the price has risen to $11. Does that mean he did well? Or suppose that a month after he bought at $10 the price went down to $9. Does that mean […]
Taxes, Although Serious, Are Second Income taxes are a rather complicated subject, and are discussed here only to suggest how they may affect investing. A major difficulty in writing about the income-tax aspect of investments is that people can own investments exactly alike, but the Federal income tax they pay […]
The words “principal” and “income” on an investment are usually assumed to have a clear and simple meaning. A man puts $1,000 of his principal into a savings deposit; during the year the bank credits him with $30 interest, and this is his income. If he buys 100 shares of corporate stock, […]
“Yield” is a common expression in Wall Street; and as with the word “security,” sometimes its meaning is what an intelligent amateur would suppose, but often it is misleading. On Bonds Among the corporate and government bonds bought and sold in the stock market, sometimes the purchase price, the par […]
A “profit,” in business or investing, is usually defined along this line: The selling price of an item, less its cost and expenses, is profit; or if selling price is lower than cost plus expenses, the difference is “loss.” Suppose we buy an invest ment for $1,000, including buying expense, and sell […]
Forecasting During 1956 the peak price reached on a share of some common stocks listed on exchanges was as much as ten times as high as it had been three years earlier, in August 1953. Even in some broadly diversified investment companies, the price of a share was more than doubled […]
Are Small Payments Expensive? A person with no savings can indulge himself in dreaming that some day, without effort, a lot of money will fall into his lap; and of course, sometimes dreams come true. But for nearly all of us, the only way we can logically expect to ac quire […]
