Hardcover

ISBN 10: 007058043X ISBN 13: 9780070580435

Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill, 1998

Jeremy Siegel's bestselling book has proven that stocks are the best investment over the long term. Now, this classic guide has been revised to include today's most successful investment strategies. With its phenomenal analysis of financial market returns since 1802, no other book offers such an in-depth historical -- and yet timely -- perspective on what drives the market.

Review:

If anyone told you that investing in the stock market was the safest investment you could make, you might raise an eyebrow. However, if Jeremy Siegel tells you this, prepare to be convinced. Siegel's book, Stocks for the Long Run, is a comprehensive and highly readable history of the stock market that dramatically makes the case for long-term investing in stocks.

In summing up his approach to investing, Siegel writes, "Poor investment strategy, whether it is for lack of diversification, pursuing hot stocks, or attempting to time the market, often stems from the investor's belief that it is necessary to beat the market to do well in the market. Nothing is further from the truth. The principle of this book is that through time the after-inflation returns on a well-diversified portfolio of common stocks have not only exceeded that of fixed income assets but have actually done so with less risk. Which stocks you own is secondary to whether you own stocks, especially if you maintain a balanced portfolio."

Stocks for the Long Run considers subjects as diverse as the history of the various market indices and what makes for a business cycle to contrarian indicators and the utility of 200-day moving averages. If you've just come into investing in the last few years and feel the need for a solid and comprehensive text about the market, Stocks for the Long Run is probably the best primer available. It also works as an excellent reference for seasoned investors and anyone else interested in how the market works. --Harry C. Edwards

From the Author:

Jeremy Siegel's 1994 book, Stocks for the Long Run, makes for dry but very interesting reading. A finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Siegel has compiled some of the most thorough information about stock market performance over time relative to other asset classes that can be found for such a low price. The book is frequently used as a reference by various Fool HQ writers who are looking for the authoritative numbers on how stocks have done over various time periods.

Siegel analyzes stock returns and large-scale economic factors deftly, pausing to focus on specific historical issues that demonstrate the idea of stocks being a superior investment vehicle over long periods of time. His analysis of the performance of the Nifty Fifty stocks bought at their high in 1973 through the early 1990s is one particularly interesting stopping point, and his work on gold, recessions and taxes all make for interesting sidebars as well. Although some of the peripheral stuff may not exactly be Foolish, the general conclusion that stocks make superior long-term investment vehicles certainly is.