CLIENT LOGIN WEB MEETING
These books were used in the development of the investment strategies of Index Funds Advisors. The first book summarizes what is found in most of the books below it. The lack of reading these books is at the heart of the failure of investors. Learn and enjoy!

Index Funds: The 12-Step Program for Active Investors
by Mark Hebner (founder of ifa.com)

"The more I study and learn about your approach, the more I grow to appreciate its elegance. Matt Krantz, USAToday, 5/20/05

Many “Stockaholics™” are already beginning to see the light...




Reviews of Index Funds: 12-Step Program for Active Investors

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Category One: Understanding the Secret World of Wall Street

This first category is about the misaligned incentives and lack of investment theory education of stock brokers
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Robbing You Blind
      by Mark Dempsey

"Merrill Lynch's employees lied to clients"

Protecting Your Money from Wall Street's Hidden Costs and Half-Truths: Moneymaking Strategies for Today's Investor by Mark Dempsey. Once a high flyer at a major brokerage, he now says he succeeded only by cajoling clients into purchases that helped him meet sales goals" If the average investor only knew what really goes on behind the scenes with their money they'd think differently about having us manage it."
Related Story.
Broker Chat - Whistle Blower

 

 Wall Street Versus America : The Rampant Greed and Dishonesty That Imperil Your Investments
      by Gary Weiss
Never mind Enron—corruption, fraud and towering incompetence are Wall Street's daily bread and butter, insists this lively j'accuse. Ex-BusinessWeek reporter Weiss (Born to Steal: When the Mafia Hit Wall Street) details the myriad ways the financial industry preys on small investors. Scraping the bottom are the boiler-room operators who peddle worthless microcap stocks over the phone and the "paid research" outfits hired by companies to tout their stocks under the guise of independent analysis. But the author finds plenty of chicanery at the pinnacle of Wall Street probity, blue-chip mutual funds, which, he contends, charge exorbitant fees and pay kickbacks to brokers to steer customers their way—while yielding a markedly worse return than market indexes. He also pillories the industry's toothless watchdogs—the New York Stock Exchange, a business media addicted to hype and puffery, and a do-nothing Securities and Exchange Commission. (Weiss's savaging of oft-lionized ex-SEC chairman Arthur Levitt is particularly vicious and funny.) The author sometimes meanders, and his cures for the rot—empowered short-selling and investor grousing on the Internet—seem pretty feeble. But Weiss's wise-guy attitude and muckraking chops make for a devastating broadside.

 
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American Sucker
      by David Denby
In 2000, the bottom dropped out of David Denby's life when his wife announced she was leaving him. To make matters worse, it looked like he might lose their beloved apartment in the split. Determined to hold onto his home and seized by the "irrational exuberance" of the stock market, Denby joined the investment frenzy with a particular goal: to make $1 million in one year so he could buy out his wife's share of their home. Denby gathered courage from stock analysts, from the siren song of CNBC, and from tech gurus and lying CEOs at investment conferences. He befriended tech stars like ImClone founder Sam Waksal and Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodgett, both now disgraced in scandals. He plunged into a season of mania, swept forward on the currents of greed, hucksterism, and native American optimism that caught up so many in that era--wit