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Winning With Index Mutual Funds
By IndexFunds.com Staff
1999
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You get what you pay for, right? Well, according
to the recent book Winning with Index Mutual Funds, on
Wall Street nothing could be further from the truth. Most
investors end up paying too much in fees for too little in performance.
The answer for most investors, of course, is index funds.
The book is actually quite readable--no small feat
for a book on index funds. The authors themselves admit
that "indexing is about as glamorous as a box of rocks".
As would be expected, much attention is paid to the advantages
of index funds. Also included is a very good chapter on
how to allocate your investments according to your time horizon
and risk tolerance. The back of the book contains some valuable
information including a list of index mutual funds (slightly outdated,
but that's why you have IndexFunds.com).
The authors have a combined 50 years of investment
experience, and it shows. Noticeably absent from the book
is the pie-in-the-sky optimism that so dominates modern thinking
towards the stock market and mutual funds. Both authors
have been through true bear markets and their advice is accordingly
on the conservative side. This advice would well serve the
vast numbers of investors who have never seen a bear market.
The book would serve well as a good general reference
on index funds. It doesn't have quite the level of detail
and information available in other books on the subject, but it
should suffice for most index fund investors.
The Authors Jerry Tweddell is a former
stockbroker with more than 20 years of experience in both individual
and institutional investing. He is currently an independent
registered investment advisor.
Jack Pierce retired recently from Donaldson,
Lufkin & Janrette. He spent more than 30 years as a stockbroker
and regional manager at major Wall Street firms.
