Investment Clubs for Dummies?

by Douglas Gerlach, Douglas Gerlach, Angele McQuade

Whether you want to join an existing investment club or start a club from scratch with your friends, family, and co-workers; whether your club meets in your living room or on the Internet, Investment Clubs for Dummies will show you how to reap the rewards of being a member of an investment club. It doesn’t matter how old you are—23, 43, or 63—this book will put you on the right path today. Investment Clubs for Dummies is filled with practical guidelines and advice that explores all aspects of starting, joining, and running an investment club. In addition to showing you how clubs work, this book shares stories about real clubs across the nation—so you can see firsthand how rewarding and how fun investment club membership can be. Investment Clubs for Dummies will also help you: It’s a fact—investment clubs have a better record of beating the market than mutual funds. So find out how investment clubs work and get ready to take control of your financial future!

384 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2001

About the author

For nearly twenty years, Doug Gerlach has taught individuals and investment clubs to make smarter decisions about investing in the stock market, through books, software tools, web sites, and educational presentations across the U.S.

Gerlach is the President of ICLUBcentral Inc., makers of software for individual investors and investment clubs. He is the author of six financial books, including The Investor's Web Guide , The Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Investing , The Armchair Millionaire , Investment Clubs for Dummies , BetterInvesting’s Guide to Computerized Investing and the Internet, and The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Direct Stock Investing . He writes the “Clubhouse” column in BetterInvesting magazine and has also written articles for publications such as Individual Investor, PC World, and ComputerLife. He was a Consulting Editor and columnist for Time-Life’s Mutual Funds Magazine, and his articles have appeared on many web sites, including Yahoo! Finance, E*TRADE, and ShareBuilder.com.

A familiar name to many investors, Doug is a popular speaker on such topics as online investing, getting started in the stock market and running a successful investment club, Gerlach has spoken at events from Honolulu to Berlin, for such organizations as the National Education Association, National Investor Relations Institute and Charles Schwab, as well as at personal finance conferences organized by CNBC, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, Morningstar, BetterInvesting and Oregon Public Broadcasting. He has taught at investor events in more than 80 cities across the US, where his skill in explaining often-complex concepts with humor, energy and clarity helps to turn beginning investors into better investors.

In addition, Gerlach has been a guest on countless radio and television programs, including CNNfn’s Digital Jam, Yahoo! FinanceVision and the Wall Street Journal Report.

Doug is Editor-in-Chief of the Investor Advisory Service, the market-beating newsletter published by ICLUBcentral. The IAS was named to the Hulbert Financial Digest's 2010, 2011, and 2012 Investment Newsletter Honor Rolls in recognition of its outstanding performance in both up and down markets over the past decade.