Online Investing: The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition's Complete Guide to Becoming a Successful Internet Investor

This book is an entertaining, written in easy non-technical language, but VERY basic text about what types of investing and trading exist, how they work (i.e., what and where is traded), and where to look for further information about these issues on the internet. The book does a good job discussing what sources of information can be trusted on the web, and which not, and gives an useful list of URLs on every investing-related topic you can think of. The comparative analysis of online brokerages and their services and fees is quite good. Stocks, IPOs, mutual funds, bonds, futures, and options are explained on a very simple level, which will help those who never heard these words to understand what they mean. I liked that the book is unbiased: unlike most other guides on online investing it does not promote a specific web page or a specific online brokerage. This book is fun to read, and it would be a good starting point for people who decided to go into online investing (but never did it before) and have little or no internet experience. However, my opinion is that it does not woth purchasing if you already have investing experience or read a few other books about investing because the book is just too simple and not as much about investing strategies as about the web resources, discussion boards, and investor stories. The authors' analysis of what drives the discussion boards is probably the only part which I have not seen anywhere else; this part may be useful for investors on all levels. Therefore, my rating is 5 stars for the novices, 3 for everyone else, which makes it 4 stars in average. By the way, most of this book is available online on wall street journal web page, so check it out before you buy.

This book offers an excellent introduction to the mechanics of online investing. Don't look for the secret to successful investment results. But if you already have the basics of asset allocation and markets, it is a well written how-to guide to assist you in dramatically lowering your transaction costs. But hurry...this information will become stale at lightning speed.

The Wall Street Journal has come out with a series of clear and concise investing guides in the past. This one, from the editors of the interactive site, is a little bit more involved than the other ones, but just as helpful. Unlike some other online investing guides I've read, this book doesn't advocate risky trading, and leans in the direction of more conservative advice. Still, it covers a wide variety of trading strategies for the more adventurous. It's a good introduction for beginners, but it also is helpful to an experienced investor who hopes to become a more well-rounded investor. I highly recommend it.