| In April 2001, I reviewed “Understanding Online Investing.” Nick E Renton is no stranger to authoring books and journals in the fields of Finance and Business in Australia. The beginning of the book acknowledges that while approximately six million Australians own shares, many are new to share trading. Consequently the first two chapters cover a background to share investing generally, and to stockbroking. The text throughout the book, like some other texts by this author, is broken down into numbered paragraphs, thus “chunking” information and making the book an “indexers” dream.
By chapter three, the book is dealing with the core issues; those of using the Internet for on-line brokerage margin lending, and obtaining online company information. Placement and execution of orders are well covered. Key ratios and how they are derived are put into easy to understand language. Useful sections on such terms as CHESS, HINs and SRNs are provided, as is a section on overseas investing. The book wraps up with a short informative paragraph on taxation and one on frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) about online investing.
This book is aimed toward to the new investor venturing online for the first time. It has a wide spread of topics, covers the basics well, and keeps the language simple. Key for the Australia reader is that it has local content. For those AIA members who are not yet “wired” and want to be, this is as good a place as any, to start you down that road. I recommend this book.
Murray Fisher
AIA member
Melbourne, Vic |
