Morningstar Guide to Mutual Funds: 5-Star Strategies for ...

Good discussion of Mutual Fund investing from the experts:
Morningstar is the recognized name in evaluating mutual funds. This book shares some of their insight. The advice is fairly straightforward and not earth-shaking: set your goals, pick an assett allocation in line with your goals and risk tolerance, diversify. From there they go into picking funds addressing such things as evaluating fund manager, looking at costs, judging past performance etc. I found the book helpful, but I am more philosophically aligned with the advice in Bogle's book (Common Sense on Mutual Funds : New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor by John C. Bogle) that emphasizes index funds. I thinking chasing hot funds can almost be as bad as chasing hot stocks. Finally, the book deals strictly with mutual funds. Probably need a second reference to fully deal with you investment life (insurance, etc).

Seriously misleading:
Morningstar has tremendous market power and reputation, and this book builds off that. But academic work, often published on the Internet and summarized at sites like ABetterWayToInvest, show that Morningstar ratings have no predictive value whatsoever. Doesn't that undermine this sort of book?

MorningStar User Guide:
I was so excited to find this book, after reading the usual junk, the classics, surfing hundreds of websites -- and yes, leaving lots of money on Brokers Conference Room Tables. {If only I knew then, what I know now.} It read fast, pulling so many ideas together in a very readable manner, backed up by authors who eat, sleep and process one of the best market data-sources around. My surprise was that it had elements of an adventure novel, by introducing me to the personalities and investment styles of Fund Managers. Suddenly the market, became real people. Annual Reports become chapters in an ongoing historical novel. Is it oriented to Morningstar? Sure, but that's not a bad thing for a new investor trying to re-gain control of his or her financial future. It makes a good companion, to the online data.

Good mutual fund book for beginners:
That is THE book I am looking for!!! It is very easy to read and follow for beginners like me. It provides an overall review about the whole industry, major players, popular funds, and basic strategies. It emphasizes a lot on the importance of diversifying the portofolio and how to do that. The book serves well to prevent beginners from making BIG investment mistakes. Of course, it is a MORNINGSTAR book. It is all about Morningstar methods and tools. And I discovered that most of advanced tools recommended by authors are NOT free.

Learn the Fundamental Principles of Wise Investing:
Technical analysis may be necessary to wring every last penny out of your investment portfolio, but knowing and implementing the time-tested knowledge of the fundamentals is what guides a new or seasoned investor safely along the path to success. Guide To Mutual Funds 5-Star Strategies for Success is essential to new investors to help them establish their safe place in the investment community. This 'textbook' presents and explains most all of the most important investment tools and concepts to safely invest in bonds, stocks and mutual funds. It explains how to properly gauge and understand risks, the import role of the fund manager, how to build and manage a portfolio of investments, the value of, and how to use Morningstar investment analysis tools, investing in bear and bull markets, the challenges of investing in sector funds, identifying sell flags, and other essential knowledge and wisdom which will build an investor's skill and confidence in investing. I give it five stars! Hal Dekker Roseville, CA