The Secret Code of the Superior Investor: How to Be a Long-Term Winner in a Short-Term World

What should your investment strategy be now that the steady, upward trend of the U.S. stock market seems like history? The years ahead promise to be volatile, full of ups and downs, so is this the time for investors to hunker down and scale back?

Not at all, is Jim Glassman’s advice. Sure, there were some people who bailed out of the market early and came out ahead, but that was luck—the kind of luck that wins the lottery once in a blue moon: it’s not a strategy. And if there is one clear lesson to be learned from all of the recent market drama, it’s that you need a point
of view and a coherent investment strategy. And that’s just what Glassman provides in The Secret Code of the Superior Investor.

If you believe that the long-term outlook for the American economy is positive (as Glassman and most experts do), then the best strategy is the tried-and-true approach that has worked well for more than a hundred years: acquiring a diversified portfolio of stocks in great companies and then holding on to them forever.

Jim Glassman’s investing principles provide the ballast to help you keep your investing balance no matter how the markets bubble or bobble. His rigorous, practical, straightforward way of thinking and taking action enables you to build a portfolio that performs well no matter what the economic climate. Here is invaluable advice on what stocks and mutual funds to buy—and when to sell them. (Hint: Almost never.)

JAMES K. GLASSMAN has been writing about investing and the economy since the mid-1970s. From 1993 to 2004 he wrote a syndicated column on investing for the Washington Post. He was also the first investing columnist for Reader's Digest and now writes a monthly column for Kiplinger's Personal Finance. From 2008 to 2009 he was the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs and is currently executive director of the George W Bush Institute, the nonpartisan think tank affiliated with the George W Bush Presidential Center. Glassman is also the host of Ideas in Action, broadcast over more than 100 public television stations. He is the author of two previous books, Dow 36,000 and The Secret Code of Superior Investor; and  his articles have appeared in many publications, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal


From the Hardcover edition.