The Little Book of Picking Top Stocks: How to Spot Hidden Gems

by Martin S. Fridson

"Brace yourself. You're about to see the stock market from a radically new angle. The focus of this book is figuring out which stock is going to be the year's single best performer in the S&P 500 Index. In the period studied here, those stocks have produced one-year returns ranging from 80% to 743%. You've read the standard investment approach lots of times. Financial institutions and personal wealth advisors present familiar "Focus on the long term. Diversify. Stick to high-quality companies with dependable earnings and proven management." These are wise words, well worth heeding if you hope for a secure financial future. But let's face it. Those prudent principles don't even vaguely describe the actions of certain investors. A nontrivial percentage of people who buy stocks are shooting for a monster payday. Not between now and retirement in 40 years but immediately. Or sooner. They have zero interest in "hitting a lot of singles." They're swinging for a grand slam, game over, right this very inning. The instant gratification style of investing made headlines on the business page and beyond in 2021. Hordes of market newcomers became obsessed with meme stocks. The shares of a few companies with a ton of social media buzz went to the moon--and back, in some cases"--

Genres: Finance

241 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 26, 2023

Reviews

[Shantanu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each chapter builds on the previous one. Good information about top stocks of the last few years and guidance on how to pick the next possibility.

[Niko · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bird’s eye view of the stock market, with a focus on the S&P 500, from an expert’s perspective. Fridson does a great job of posing a theory and dismantling it to prove another theory’s worth. The writing is succinct, concise, and basic enough for even those not too familiar with the ins and outs of Wall Street to understand.

The book contains both qualitative and quantitative considerations when evaluating the S&P for the potential top pick.

The summary at the end of the book is invaluable.

[Trevor Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun, easy read with good, realistic advice

This book scratched the itch I had for finding better ways to swing for the fences with a small percentage of my portfolio.

[JS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Within this disorganized little book, I found some pieces of food for thought.

[Dan Dawson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pretty bad.

[Ron Cruz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I might have expected too much. This book could easily have been a newspaper article with contents from Chapters 4 & 5. I can't recommend this one.

[VJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Martin Fridson has written a simple book. The book’s theme is simple - Forget abt conventional analysis i.e analysts way of using PE ratio to come up with a Price Target. Martin is in the quest of finding the number 1 stock. Martin comes up with a simple framework with examples on how to find the next top stock like Devon Energy in 2021 or Tesla in 2020. It’s a quick read!!