With the prevailing wisdom changing on an almost daily basis, Burton G. Malkiel’s reassuring and vastly informative volume remains the best investment guide money can buy.

In a time of increasing inequality, when high-frequency traders and hedge-fund managers seem to tower over the average investor, Burton G. Malkiel’s classic and gimmick-free investment guide is now more necessary than ever. Rather than tricks, what you’ll find here is a time-tested and thoroughly research-based strategy for your portfolio. Whether you’re considering your first 401k contribution or contemplating retirement, this fully-updated edition of A Random Walk Down Wall Street should be the first book on your reading list.

In A Random Walk Down Wall Street you’ll learn the basic terminology of "the Street" and how to navigate it with the help of a user-friendly, long-range investment strategy that really works. Drawing on his own varied experience as an economist, financial adviser, and successful investor, Malkiel shows why an individual who buys over time and holds a low-cost, internationally diversified index of securities is still likely to exceed the performance of portfolios carefully picked by professionals using sophisticated analytical techniques. In this new edition, Malkiel provides a brand-new section on the recent bubble in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, as well as valuable new material on “tax-loss harvesting”—the crown jewel of tax management. He also presents a critical analysis of two recently popular investment-management techniques: factor investing and risk parity.

On top of all this, the book’s classic lifecycle guide to investing, which tailors strategies to investors of any age, will help you plan confidently for the future. You’ll learn how to analyze the potential returns, not only for basic stocks and bonds but for the full range of investment opportunities—from money market accounts and real estate investment trusts to insurance, home ownership, and tangible assets like gold and collectibles. Individual investors of every level of experience and risk tolerance will find throughout the book the critical facts and step-by-step guidance they need to protect and grow their hard-earned dollars. **

Amazon.com Review

It's unlikely that you'll spot many dog-eared copies of A Random Walk floating amongst the Wall Street set (although bookshelves at home may prove otherwise). After all, a "random walk"--in market terms--suggests that a "blindfolded monkey" would have as much luck selecting a portfolio as a pro. But Burton Malkiel's classic investment book is anything but random. Since stock prices cannot be predicted in the short term, argues Malkiel, individual investors are better off buying and holding onto index funds than meddling with securities or actively managing mutual funds. Not only will a broad range of index funds outperform a professionally managed portfolio in the long run, but investors can avoid expense charges and trading costs, which decrease returns. First published in 1973, this seventh printing of a A Random Walk looks forward and does so broadly, examining a new range of investment choices facing the turn-of-the-century investor: money-market accounts, tax-exempt funds, Roth IRAs, and equity REITs, as well as the potential benefits and pitfalls of the emerging global economy. In his updated "life-cycle guide to investing," Malkiel offers age-related investment strategies that consider one's capacity for risk. (A 30-year-old who can depend on wages to offset investment losses has a different risk capacity from a 60-year-old.) In his assessment of rocketing Internet stocks, Malkiel defends his "random" position well, explaining how "the market eventually corrects any irrationality--albeit in its own slow, inexorable fashion. Anomalies can crop up, markets can get irrationally optimistic, and often they attract unwary investors. But eventually, true value is recognized by the market, and this is the main lesson investors must heed." Written for the financial layperson but bolstered by 30 years of research, A Random Walk will help individual investors take charge of their financial future. Recommended. --Rob McDonald

From Publishers Weekly

Latest edition of Princeton professor Malkiel's bestselling investment guide.
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