The Long and the Short of It

[Backache]

Not sure if this is the right board, however a heads up to say that a new edition is coming out on 1st Dec.
It was heavily recommended on the old board and I thought it an excellent book of UK based investment advice, however this kind of advice does date as new products and the economic environment changes and a new edition may well be worth getting
I will be ordering one.

[LooseCannon101]

I read the last version of 'The Long and the short of it' by John Kay and thought that it was in the same league as 'The Intelligent Investor' by Benjamin Graham.Both are incredibly insightful and worth reading for a second (or third) time.

There is so much rubbish spouted by the financial press and advisory firms who act like blood-sucking leeches as regards our hard-earned savings. The press more often than not create 'advertorials' which combine so-called editorial content with blatant advertising.

Speculation is rife at the moment e.g. spread betting, leveraged exchange traded funds, .. etc. These products are IMHO created to rapidly separate the gullible from their savings.

There is such as thing as financial common sense and you'll find plenty in both of the afore-mentioned books.

[Radiccio]

I read the original version and the advice has stood me in good stead for several years.

I do notice however that John is being a bit more cautious about incorporating bonds into a diversified portfolio - his last few FT articles have suggested not having any bonds at all, or at least only using a global bond fund?

[LooseCannon101]

I re-read the latest version of 'The Long and the Short of It'. It is a masterpiece that should be required reading for every investor.

There is a small error on page 130 in Table 5 - The cumulative frequency distribution from tossing a coin.

Under 'winnings - 20 tosses, the difference (14p) between the 10th and 50th percentiles is not equal to the difference (16p) between the 50th and 90th percentiles. The probability distribution should be symmetrical for a standard coin.

[Plutus]

It's the first time that I've read John Kay's website and it's good stuff.

https://www.johnkay.com/2016/12/02/how- ... t-manager/

Even some tips on portfolio building:

The conventional investor’s strategy — or how to build a portfolio with £10,000

The conventional investor can freeride on the asset allocation decisions of large institutions. Large investors publish details of their investment allocation.