What do you think?
Rate this book
Getting Started in Shares For Dummies
Understand the Australian sharemarket Minimise your risk and maximise your returns Reduce your capital gains tax bill Your up-to-the-minute guide to share investing!
If you've ever wondered whether you're missing out by not investing in shares, here's your chance to find out, and do it with confidence. Experienced financial journalist and commentator James Dunn shows you exactly what to do, how to do it, and what you should never, ever do. Understand how the stock market operates and benefit from the advice of some legendary investors. You'll learn to analyse the share market, track trends, develop an investment strategy, assess your risk, choose a broker, understand tax implications, and so much more.
Inside...
How the Australian Securities Exchange work What a broker does Tips for assessing potential share investments When to buy and sell Managing tax matters Strategies for success
If you've ever wondered whether you're missing out by not investing in shares, here's your chance to find out, and do it with confidence. Experienced financial journalist and commentator James Dunn shows you exactly what to do, how to do it, and what you should never, ever do. Understand how the stock market operates and benefit from the advice of some legendary investors. You'll learn to analyse the share market, track trends, develop an investment strategy, assess your risk, choose a broker, understand tax implications, and so much more.
Inside...
How the Australian Securities Exchange work What a broker does Tips for assessing potential share investments When to buy and sell Managing tax matters Strategies for success
- GenresNonfictionFinance
352 pages, Paperback
First published April 22, 2008
58 people are currently reading
92 people want to read
About the author
James Dunn
3 booksJames Dunn is a freelance finance journalist and media consultant. He was founding editor of Shares magazine and writes for many other finance magazines and newspapers. He frequently appears on Australian radio and television and also works as a media and investment consultant.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 20, 2020
Cons: Not really a book for the absolute beginners and 'dummies'. Dunn often uses unfamiliar lingo and terminology at the start without prior explanation, which interrupts the flow of logical progression of ideas. Some examples of issues in investing are provided that labour the point without providing much useful insight. Problems and risks with investing aren't supplemented with sufficient number or depth of strategies to counter them. Actual strategies for investing are quite superficial, but that is to be expected from a beginner's book.
Strong pro: provides great breadth of topics that allowed me to actually know what i have to study in greater depth. Without this, there would be things I wasn't even aware of when investing.
Bottomline: don't expect a book that walks you through all the basics of investing in Shares from start to finish. Expect that you'll need to supplement your reading with online research. But by the end of it, you can expect at least to know what to look for.
Details:
Example: the chapter on risk details the types of risk over 20-30 pages, but only provides 2 pages at the end to try and counter them, but only very briefly.
Example: at the start I had no idea what the word 'shares' meant, but Dunn moves straight into providing statistics on Australian and American investments in the market (I didn't know what 'market' meant either). Terms like 'capital growth', 'dividend income', 'inflation' etc... are provided by page 11 with no explanation. Plus there's an expose on the GFC early on, but I didn't understand any of it at the start.
Example: the chapter on diversification (and other chapters) begins by very briefly explaining what it is, and then expounds the virtues of diversification through detailed examples. It might be better if the examples were kept simple enough to motivate the reader, then provide the strategies for diversification in more depth, with boxes of 'added information' for more details about the usefulness of diversifying.
Overall a good starter, but do not expect you can get all the information laid out in a step by step format for you to digest easily. Be prepared to sit down with pen and paper, and Google.
Strong pro: provides great breadth of topics that allowed me to actually know what i have to study in greater depth. Without this, there would be things I wasn't even aware of when investing.
Bottomline: don't expect a book that walks you through all the basics of investing in Shares from start to finish. Expect that you'll need to supplement your reading with online research. But by the end of it, you can expect at least to know what to look for.
Details:
Example: the chapter on risk details the types of risk over 20-30 pages, but only provides 2 pages at the end to try and counter them, but only very briefly.
Example: at the start I had no idea what the word 'shares' meant, but Dunn moves straight into providing statistics on Australian and American investments in the market (I didn't know what 'market' meant either). Terms like 'capital growth', 'dividend income', 'inflation' etc... are provided by page 11 with no explanation. Plus there's an expose on the GFC early on, but I didn't understand any of it at the start.
Example: the chapter on diversification (and other chapters) begins by very briefly explaining what it is, and then expounds the virtues of diversification through detailed examples. It might be better if the examples were kept simple enough to motivate the reader, then provide the strategies for diversification in more depth, with boxes of 'added information' for more details about the usefulness of diversifying.
Overall a good starter, but do not expect you can get all the information laid out in a step by step format for you to digest easily. Be prepared to sit down with pen and paper, and Google.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 22, 2017
A good basic guide to investing in stocks
A good introduction to investing in the Australian stockmarket. The author explains the basics in easy to comprehend english. They cover the things 6ou would and shouldn't do.
A good introduction to investing in the Australian stockmarket. The author explains the basics in easy to comprehend english. They cover the things 6ou would and shouldn't do.
August 14, 2020
I guess it’s a good book to get the foundation of share structure and get better understanding of how it all works but I feel that you won’t be equipped enough to start share investing after reading this book.
February 20, 2022
An excellent book for someone just starting to invest in shares. Covers all aspects of share investing and is easy to read.
June 29, 2022
An excellent introductory work. Explains this volatile and knotty field of finance well, teaching you what to look out for and avoid. I'm glad I got this one.
October 11, 2024
Great introduction to share. Perhaps too much information for a beginner.
May 15, 2023
Considering my personal history and my ability to get things done by finding the most complicated or difficult way to complete the obvious, you would believe that i would have been an avid buyer and reader of Dummies books.
This of course would be the easy and obvious path, so i certainly did not follow it, until i read this detailed and easy to read book by James Dunn. I have been building a share portfolio since July 2020 after having made the decision to do so in the April of the same year. I have had wins and losses lessons and growth - both fiscal and emotional - and having come out the other side substantially better off in both cases. So, it was time for me go back over the facts and presumed standards that had built up like plaque on a set of dentures that are cleaned regularly but not efficiently.
In education the act is referred to as reflecting but for me it was a reality check on what i did know and something even worse - what i thought i knew. There was a lot i learned from engaging with this book. I only read books when the pace of my reading of the book never changes, whereas engaging is all about building velocity and depth of interest. If i struggle to put the book down even when boring parts impede the way, then i am truly engaged.
I worked my way through the first few chapters methodically and in a pedestrian manner while by the time i got to the end i was fully engaged. James Dunn displays a vast and pragmatically shared knowledge base built up over years of working within finance and the stock market. The information on tax, brokerage, ETFs, LICs and share platforms was dispensed without bias or arrogance. I did not just learn how my portfolio was structured and performing i came away with a better understanding of how to check it to ensure that it was and will remain healthy. I will be using the contents of this book to remind me of what i need to do for years to come.
I know the advice will last for years because many of the case studies used were dated by the time the book was written and even more again were dated by the time i read the book. Dunne used case studies the way an astute general uses their strongest units. They would either reinforce his position or take control of if by denying any other options and or choices. Each of the case studies added value and gave clarity to the concepts and ideas that have been developed and demonstrated.
One part that i did enjoy the most was the advice at the end of the book where he gives the names and principles of ten of the greatest investors and ways of avoiding the loss of money and value while trying to invest in a future that is and will always be dominated by change.
Reading this book will not make you a millionaire but it will act as the fulcrum for which you can start hammering out a future that suits you and is not dictated by others. Something that is truly and absolutely close to my heart. Read and learn from this book of knowledge.
Live long and Prosper.
This of course would be the easy and obvious path, so i certainly did not follow it, until i read this detailed and easy to read book by James Dunn. I have been building a share portfolio since July 2020 after having made the decision to do so in the April of the same year. I have had wins and losses lessons and growth - both fiscal and emotional - and having come out the other side substantially better off in both cases. So, it was time for me go back over the facts and presumed standards that had built up like plaque on a set of dentures that are cleaned regularly but not efficiently.
In education the act is referred to as reflecting but for me it was a reality check on what i did know and something even worse - what i thought i knew. There was a lot i learned from engaging with this book. I only read books when the pace of my reading of the book never changes, whereas engaging is all about building velocity and depth of interest. If i struggle to put the book down even when boring parts impede the way, then i am truly engaged.
I worked my way through the first few chapters methodically and in a pedestrian manner while by the time i got to the end i was fully engaged. James Dunn displays a vast and pragmatically shared knowledge base built up over years of working within finance and the stock market. The information on tax, brokerage, ETFs, LICs and share platforms was dispensed without bias or arrogance. I did not just learn how my portfolio was structured and performing i came away with a better understanding of how to check it to ensure that it was and will remain healthy. I will be using the contents of this book to remind me of what i need to do for years to come.
I know the advice will last for years because many of the case studies used were dated by the time the book was written and even more again were dated by the time i read the book. Dunne used case studies the way an astute general uses their strongest units. They would either reinforce his position or take control of if by denying any other options and or choices. Each of the case studies added value and gave clarity to the concepts and ideas that have been developed and demonstrated.
One part that i did enjoy the most was the advice at the end of the book where he gives the names and principles of ten of the greatest investors and ways of avoiding the loss of money and value while trying to invest in a future that is and will always be dominated by change.
Reading this book will not make you a millionaire but it will act as the fulcrum for which you can start hammering out a future that suits you and is not dictated by others. Something that is truly and absolutely close to my heart. Read and learn from this book of knowledge.
Live long and Prosper.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 19, 2016
Highly recommended as an introduction to investing on the sharemarket. This is the first 'for Dummies' book I have read, and to be honest I expected it to be quite patronising considering the name of the series. But this is just an informative introductory book on the topic. It is really nice to have a book specific to the Australian share market as well.
The book is well structured and provides a large amount of practical information. A variety of investment strategies are presented without significant bias. The investment strategies of famous investors are very well distilled down to an essential checklist for each at the end of the book, so you can roughly follow their methods if you please.
After this book I am moving on to 'Reading Financial Reports for Dummies', the next step in my financial education. I will also re-read 'The Intelligent Investor' at some point, as I now have a more developed understanding of the fundamentals of the stock market.
The book is well structured and provides a large amount of practical information. A variety of investment strategies are presented without significant bias. The investment strategies of famous investors are very well distilled down to an essential checklist for each at the end of the book, so you can roughly follow their methods if you please.
After this book I am moving on to 'Reading Financial Reports for Dummies', the next step in my financial education. I will also re-read 'The Intelligent Investor' at some point, as I now have a more developed understanding of the fundamentals of the stock market.
May 26, 2017
This is a good book for both beginners and those with a basic experience and an understanding of a share market. You will definitely learn something new whether it’s a new tax tip or a fascinating piece of corporate history. Just like the rest of ‘for Dummies’ series the book is organised well and is easy to understand. Unlike so many US centric books on the subject this one is focused on the ASX and Australia and provides useful insights both into the market and our tax system. It also covers the basics of personal investing principles. It’s was published in 2016 so it is very current and I do recommend it to any Australian who is interested to learn more about investing in shares. My personal take away from this book: shares require way more attention than I am prepared to give to my investments so its ETFs all the way for this grateful reader.
October 26, 2016
Quite an inconsistent book, which is shame because clearly the author got lot to share.
March 13, 2018
Fantastic! Learned so much! Essential reading.
July 10, 2018
I am still none the wiser
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews