finance and investing

Barely 12 years ago, before the Web, there was very little on the Internet for the investor. And what there was cost money to access. Here, Biafore gives a good current survey of how there has been a vast systemic change.

The bulk of her book consists of methods ("hacks") of getting financial data from the Internet. Mostly free access, note. But the book is far more than just a list of good financial websites. For that, you can go to magazines like Forbes, Fortune, Business Week and Kiplinger's, which regularly publish such lists. Remember that this is an O'Reilly book, and the publisher's readers are often programmers.

Thus, many methods involve downloading data into an Excel spreadsheet that has logic to analyse it using meaningful financial formulas or metrics. Of course, given such a spreadsheet, you can add further logic of your own, to winnow down a list of stocks. If you are already a programmer, then from that standpoint, there is nothing hard in the book. You may not perhaps be as conversant with some of the financial jargon. But part of the book's job is to educate you on that.

The thrust of the book is to let you, the investor, take a maximal and active advantage of the best financial resources on the Internet.

This is an excellent text covering a wide variety of investment topics; from do-it-yourself Excel spreadsheets for tracking and evaluating investment ideas to understanding technical analysis to online trading (and pretty much everything in between). There is a wealth of diverse investing information in each of the 100 "hacks".

I really liked the short "hacks" format - which really reads more like an informative news article. I don't have the patience to read an entire book about Technical Analysis, so this book was perfect for me. Each "investing hack" is any where from a couple pages to 10 or more which makes the book very easy to read. Curious about line and bar charts, candlestick charts, point and figure charts, or more importantly, how to spot patterns in techincal charts? Turn to the Hacks 46-53 on Technical Analysis. Mutual Funds? Hacks 59-72. Hindsight is 20/20, but if you're interested in how Enron and WorldCom cooked the books, there are hacks that point to the warning signs in a company's financial statements (Hack #39 - Spot Hanky Panky with Cash Flow Analysis).

Each hack also references other hacks in the book as well as online resources available (both free and fee-based sites) if you'd like more information. This book makes an excellent reference collection of investing "hacks" - there is something for everybody, whatever your online investing skill level and investment style may be. I have already put a few of the Excel hacks to good use!