The Economist Guide to Investment Strategy: How to Unde… (2024)

The title of this book is very apt. It's a guide. The book is split into different sections each for different asset classes (equity, bonds etc) and investment vehicles (hedge funds, private equity etc). It's a good introduction to the world of investing for those with any amount of money.

What this book lacks is focus. There is no focus on the target audience. There is no focus on an investment strategy. There is no focus on portfolio building. It's a very dry "dummy's" guide to different types of investments.

What I did like about this book is how Peter talks about investment in terms of risk more than return. I am a fan of risk parity, and think managing risk is more important than managing returns. Every investment vehicle he mentions has at least a few pages explaining how to understand the risk profile of it, and how it might fit into a portfolio.

One thing I loved that was included was the chapter on arts and collectibles. I have never read about or thought about art and collectibles as a strategic investment. I am not an art person, but I got a very unique perspective on it (although I still won't invest in thing I don't understand).

One thing I wish he had included was human capital. We focus too much on finding assets that can maximise our returns but we don't bother to see the most valuable asset we already have - us. By investing in ourselves and learning new skills, we can increase our income usually at pace faster than markets can grow. Something to think about, but I would like to see Peter include that in the next version, perhaps.

Finally, I recommend this book as a 102-level personal finance or economics book. You should know basics of investing, and money management before you jump into it to truly get the most from it.

Borrowed from local library in the hopes of obtaining some good overview. Completely disappointed! This also discredits the Economist. The book confuses more than clarifies . Some sentences have got multiple negativities or so Long that one lost sight of what is going on. Lots of mythical talking , none driven to a conclusion. Lucky the author didn’t get to write textbooks or else the passing grades would be horrible . That said, gave it two stars for the skill of elaborative techniques : how to tell a simple crude idea in an elegantly Lengthy fashion .

Kind of the book, where if one doesn't deeply understand the topic, it is too complicated to learn a lot. If one understands the topic, there is nothing new to learn from it.

A good overview of investment strategies for the time it was written. I would recommend this to young investment managers or to high net worth individuals who did not make their money in finance.

Another book on investment, but this one is for veterans who are familiar with the nitty gritty of stock market and bond market and not for novices who are just embarking on the road to investment. This book more or less covers a broad range of investment avenues like stocks, bonds, hedge funds, real estate and other or alternative investment options like collectibles and art.

The author emphasizes more on the risk management rather than return generation and a whole chapter is devoted to explain how to manage risk aspect of every investment vehicle.

Those who are already abreast of the finance and basic of investment can give this book a try. Not recommended for amateurs who are contemplating of entering the investment world for the first time.

This is not a guide to the “individual investor” but more the “professional” individual investor.

I was after an introduction for beginners, ideally written for the layman and this book was brought up by a quick google search. It is more geared towards professionals as it lacks definitions and introductions to concepts.

0 stars for a beginner but I’ve given 2 as I am probably not the target audience.

Hmm dry but if you have an understanding of the markets and products could be informative and exciting. As a person that loves data, charts, graphs well and knowing money is a representation of society and freedom within that society to a point that it becomes the bit.

Far to many examples of this strategy could work and then again maybe not

It was more conceptual than actual advice like I had hoped. I'll keep searching for more to educate myself.

Not for amateurs. The amount of acronyms in this book... God.
Conclusion of the book: don't bother, SPY ETF will get you better turnovers in most of the cases.

Pretty difficult to follow and a bit boring. Like a highschool handbook. But has some good tips

This book provides an examination of various investment strategies.

There were a few interesting points in this book, but overall it lacked any real details. The writing style was very dry / laboured / academic – it read like an outline of a research paper that had been stretched to book length. It may have worked better as a shorter (100 page) book containing some real world examples.

Overall rating 2.5

Interesting book. I learned quite a bit about investing possibilities. However, the book is dry, hard to read and not very beginner friendly. I would have appreciated a conclusion at the end instead of just finishing on the chapter about art and collectibles. After reading I feel like I now have a broad knowledge of where it is possible to invest money. But not really a lot of strategies or recommandations to do so. The title is quote misleading in the regard.

An excellent overview of a broad range of investment markets and risks to account for in and across them. Having studied much of this material before, the succinct nature of the writing here provided a very good refresher, and I imagine the information would be easily accessible to a newcomer as well.

Pretty good overview of how to invest, for all different levels and a comparison across investment options including real estate

Dry, but useful.

i read this book to sleep.

A broad review of investment vehicles. Informative. Not a page turner.

A good introductory overview.

Informative book on investing for those of us who are new to the subject.

Couldn't learn a thing. Bad style also.