A new book by William Bernstein
"Portfolio Theory for Poets"
Now Available from McGraw-Hill
The Four Pillars of Investing, a journey to the heart of portfolio management, is aimed at the liberal-arts major seeking investment competence. Plenty of history and psychology, light on the math. ("Standard deviation" is mentioned only once, in a footnote.)
The book is now available from (among others) Amazon and Barnes & Noble. For an even broader selection of prices, check the listing at BestBookBuys, although we'd be a bit skeptical of some of the prompt availabilities advertised. McGraw-Hill has graciously allowed us to post the Introduction and Chapter 1.
A quick tour of the table of contents appears below.
The Four Pillars of Investing:
Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio
The Nature of the Beast Chapter 1. No Guts, No Glory: Risk and return in the capital markets from the ancient world to Yahoo!
Chapter 2. Measuring the Beast: Where stock and bond returns really come from.
Chapter 3. The Market Is Smarter Than You Are: How to get on the good side of an 800-pound gorilla.
Chapter 4. The Perfect Portfolio: All right, you can’t have it. But you can get tolerably close.
When Markets Go Berserk
Chapter 5. Tops—A History of Manias: How you and your neighbors got snookered in the market’s oldest con game.
Chapter 6. Bottoms—The Agony and the Opportunity: When only your grandfather owns stocks.
The Analyst’s Couch
Chapter 7. Misbehavior: Meet the enemy, the face in the mirror.
Chapter 8. Behavioral Therapy: It hurts and it’s not easy. But it is the only chance you’ve got.
The Carny Barkers
Chapter 9. Your Broker Is Not Your Buddy: How Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney have their hands in your pocket.
Chapter 10. Neither Is Your Mutual Fund: The new opiate of the people.
Chapter 11. Oliver Stone Meets Wall Street: Bread and circuses for John Q. Investor.
The Winner’s Game
Chapter 12. Will You Have Enough? How to avoid a diet of Alpo and Little Friskies.
Chapter 13. Defining Your Mix: Asset allocation without microprocessors.
Chapter 14. Getting Started, Keeping It Going: Getting off the dime. Sailing through the rough patches.
