Complete Money & Investing Guidebook

While scanning investment books' stack at my local library, I came across :- "The Wall Street Journal Complete Money & Investing Guidebook" by Dave Kansas. ISBN-13: 9780307236999

The book promises to provide education on basic jargons used in investment field. It is like a '101' for all the investment vehicles in the market right now. I guess, this book has faired very well on its stated objectives. Also, book, being part of the "The Wall Street Journal" series, has lived up to the credit. Dave Kansas delivered non-biased picture of the investment market.

You can find table-of-contents at Barnes & Noble's web-page. One of the useful information is "suggested reading" list after each chapter. For handy reference, here are the sub-topics Mr. Kansas has touched upon...


STOCKS

• Two types of markets: NYSE, NASDAQ, ECN
• Indexes and how they are calculated
• Dow Jones industrials through the years
• Growth, Value and other kinds of stocks
• Bulls and Bears
• Going public (Standard IPO, Dutch-Auction IPO)
• Stock splits, buybacks and dividends
• Stock options
• Insider trading
• International Markets

Suggested Reading:
* Origins of the Crash by Roger Lowenstein
* Reminiscences of a stock operator by Edwin Lefevre
* The Number by Alex Berenson.
* Wall Street Meat by Andy Kessler

MAIN STREET

• Evaluating stocks
• Earnings
• Buying and selling stocks
• Trading online
• Short selling
• Investment clubs
• Margin
• Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway
• Stock strategies
  
• Fundamental investing
• Technical and chart-based investing
  

Suggested Reading:
*Barron's guide to making investment decisions by John Prestbo and Doug Sease @
* Bull ! by Maggie Mahar
* A random Walk down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
* Wall Street: How it works and for whom by Doug Henwood

BONDS

• The history of bonds
• Treasury bonds
• Municipal bonds
• The rating agencies: Moody's investor service; standard & Poor's.
• Bond laddering
• Agency debt. Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae etc. govt backed debts
  
• Corporate bonds
• Junk bonds
• Convertible and other types of bonds

Suggested Reading:
* The bond Bible by Marilyn Cohen
* Bill Gross on investing by William H. Gross @

WALL STREET

• Securities firms
• Brokerage
• Trading
• Research
• Research Analyst's ratings (WSJ's best on the Street guide to analysts; www.starmine.com; www.investars.com)
• Investment banking
  
• Underwriting
• Merger & Acquisitions
• Asset management
• Prime Brokerage
• Risk managers and compliance
• Wall Street's police
• SEC
• Self-regulatory organizations
• State regulators
• Other regulators
• Investor advocacy groups: CFA, aaii.com, ici.org, nasd.com.
  

Suggested Reading:
* The house of Morgan: An American banking dynasty and the rise of American finance by Ron Chernow @
* Liar's Poker: Rising through the wreckage on Wall Street by Michael Lewis
* Den of thieves by James Stewart
* The great game: The emergence of Wall Street as world power by John Steele Gordon


ECONOMICS AND MONEY

• Business cycle
• Investors and the economy
• Government data
• Jobs data
• Inflation Measures: CPI
• Retail sales
  
• Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
• The Federal Reserve
• The money supply
• Fiscal policy
• Money
• U.S.Money
• The rise of electronic money
• Bank accounts
• Trading money

Suggested Reading:
* The worldly philosophers: The lives, times and ideas of the great economic thinkers by Robert L. Heilbroner
* Basic Economics: A citizen's guide by Thomas Sowell
* Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith @
* The communist manifesto by Karl Marx
* The general theory of employment, interest and money by John Maynard @
* Maestro: Alan Greenspan and the American economy by Bob Woodward


MUTUAL FUNDS

• Stock mutual funds
• Index funds
• Growth funds
• Value funds
• Income funds
• Small-cap, large-cap, midcap
• Bond funds
• Balanced funds
• Money market funds
• Going overseas
• Other funds
• Investing in a fund
• Evaluating a mutual fund
• The rise of ETF (Exchange Traded Funds)
• Closed-end funds

Suggested Reading:
* Common sense on mutual funds by John C. Bogle @
* How mutual funds work by Albert J. Fredman @
* The intelligent asset allocator by William J. Bernstein
* Morning Star ; Smart Money


RETIREMENT INVESTING

• 401(K)
• Catch-up contributions
• Borrowing from your 401(K)
• IRAs and other retirement accounts
• Other retirement accounts
• Red flags
• Investment strategies
• Withdrawing money
• Social security
  

PRIVATE MONEY

• Some hedge fund history
• Venture capital
• Private equity

Suggested Reading:
* When genius failed by Roger Lowenstein @
* Barbarian at the gate by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar @
* The nudist on the late shift by Po Bronson


OPTIONS, FUTURES AND NONTRADITIONAL INVESTMENTS

• Futures
• Options
• Puts and Calls
• Other kinds of options
• Long-term options
• Index options
• Future options
• Nontraditional investments
• Collectibles
• Art
• Coins and stamps
• Miscellany

REAL-ESTATE INVESTING

• Our homes
• Second homes
• Income properties
• REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts)
  

Suggested Reading:
* The McGraw-Hill 36-hour real estate investment course by Jack Cummings
* What no one ever tell you about investing in real estate by Robert J. Hill