Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I need to make some disclosures before posting this review. First, I have been trading and investing in the markets for over 30 years. I have done very, very, very well, being able to retire years ago at age 52. These days I am more of a short term trader than a longer term investor, using systems that are based either entirely on technical analysis or hybrid systems that combine technical analysis with elements of fundamental analysis. Second, I have long been a harsh critic of so called "penny stocks" (there is not a uniform definition of "penny stocks," but most consider stocks selling for $5 a share or less as penny stocks). Penny stocks tend to be very risky to either trade or invest in for several reasons and there have been thousands of scams involving penny stocks over the years, like "pump and dump" scams or "short and distort" scams. Third, I did not learn or expect to learn much from this book. I got the book because I thought it would be full of lies and misrepresentations about penny stocks and it was my intention to expose both the author and the book as full of nonsense. Now to my review. This is an outstanding book. I give it 5 stars. The author (Peter Leeds) has a very good reputation and I know based on my own training, trading, investing and experience for over 30 years that what the author says and explains in the book is solid. No nonsense, no lies, no misrepresentations. The author candidly admits the risky nature of most penny stocks, and attempts to explain how to do fundamental analysis of the companies that have issued the penny stocks to separate the good from the bad. In the end, all movements in stock prices can be traced back to earnings, either actual, expected or speculated. The author explains how to investigate or "kick the tires" of the companies that have issued penny stocks to separate the junk companies from those that have real earnings and growth potential. The book consists of 15 chapters and is pretty comprehensive about explaining what fundamental analysis is (as opposed to technical analysis, which is more focused on the past and probable price movement of a stock in the short term than the company behind the stock). Chapter 1 is "Getting to Know Penny Stocks," Chapter 2 is "Deciding if Penny Stocks are Right for You," Chapter 3 is "Buying and Selling Penny Stocks," Chapter 4 is "Avoiding Promotions, Scams and Bribes," Chapter 5 is "Developing a Strategy," Chapter 6 is "Doing Your Research," Chapter 7 is "Picking a Winner," Chapter 8 is "Trading Strategies," Chapter 9 is "Fundamental Analysis," Chapter 10 is "Financial Ratios: Comparing Apples to Apples" (explains things like Price to Sales or P/S ratios, Quick Ratios, Current Ratios, etc.), Chapter 11 is "The Abstract Review in Penny Stocks," Chapter 12 is "Technical Analysis with Penny Stocks" (the author does not go deeply into technical analysis as it often does not work well or at all with penny stocks, the author explaining why in the book), Chapter 13 is "Ten Rapid Result Tactics," Chapter 14 is "Ten Trading Truths," and finally, Chapter 15 is "Ten Key Considerations for Companies." If you are managing your own investments, want to consider investing in penny stocks, and do not know much about funadamental analysis of penny stock companies or how to do it on your own (frankly if you are managing your own investments and do not know how to do fundamental analysis, you probably should not be managing your own investments), this is a good book to get you started. This book like most all the "Dummies" books is aimed more towards the beginner, not the person already an expert. The book speaks in plain English and is relatively easy to understand. I highly recommend it for those just getting interested or started. Another very pleasant surprise is that the author of the book, Peter Leeds, is pretty easy to find and contact on most social media platforms and he actually responds to people. This book would also be helpful if you are depending upon somebody else to alert you to good or high quality penny stocks, as your knowledge of how to do fundamental analysis would enable you to better research any alerts or recommendations you get (most of which come with something in the fine print warning you to do your own research or "due diligence"). One other thing I should mention is that there are a few typos in the book. Nothing serious and nothing that changes meaning. I mention the matter only because some people like to play English teacher instead of book reviewer. Bottom line is 5 stars from me. Very surprised, and pleasantly so. But this book is not for everybody. If you are an experienced investor in penny stocks and know how to research or do fundamental analysis on companies issuing penny stocks, you probably have little need of this book. Likewise, if you want to just trade instead of invest in penny stocks, based on technical instead of fundamental analysis, this book will be of little help to you as only one chapter addresses technical analysis (and the author explains why technical analysis often does not work with penny stocks).