Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment
by David F. Swensen
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Book Summary Information
Author: David F. SwensenEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-08-02
ISBN: 0743228383
Number of pages: 403
Publisher: Free Press
Accessories:
- Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment, Fully Revised and Updated
- Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment
Book Reviews of Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment
Book Review: A Call to Action, not an "Approach"
Summary: 2 Stars
Swensen spends hundreds of pages tearing down the supposed success and safety of typical assets (stocks, mutual funds, real estate etc.). He describes the impossibility (for mortals, unlike his managers at Yale) of actively managing a portfolio without getting chewed out by fees, taxes, rash emotion or plain bad luck. He's absolutely right, investing is tough. What's the solution? Index funds and certain ETF's. But did he really need 400 pages to say that? He quantifies trends and risks most investors already understand by intuition, using admirable but redundant analysis. This book is more about the problems with investing, not the solutions. His only concrete advice is indexing, an oft mentioned trivial "strategy" covered better by others. He refrains from detailing index fund techniques though because there aren't any; it's a dead-easy, sane approach to using money to make money. But everyone *already* knows that. Indexing is no secret, nor are *any* of the investing pitfalls he mentions. His book just academically analyzes what most investors already know.
For investors deluded by trading fads, consistently buying high and selling low, this book may be a needed admonishment. Swensen's dense, technical prose though means that his message will get through to everyone but those who need it. If you want to learn the heart of his "approach," type "index funds" into Google and you're good to go. If you're looking for a general approach to picking stocks, read Graham's, Lynch's or even Jim Cramer's works. There's nothing wrong about indexing, but this book claims to present far more than it really does.
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