Toni Turner

Investment books are a dime a dozen. Each one claims to offer some insight that is "certain" to give investors a leg up on making money in the stock market. Turner & Scott are no exception in their book Invest to Win: Earn and Keep Profits in Bull and Bear Markets with the GainsMaster Approach.

To their credit, the authors do give some important advice, perhaps the most important of which is that one should protect one's capital (the money one puts into the market), as well periodically adjusting one's investment strategy to also protect earnings (what the market gives you - if you are lucky - on top of your capital). This is simple, straightforward, advice - the trick is in how you manage to do it in an environment where market behavior is unpredictable and even irrational.

The "GainsMaster" approach is, at root, four very simple principles that every investor should already know; the trick is in figuring out how to actually act on the four principles - there's the rub. I tend to rely on fundamental analysis when it comes to investing, and I was fairly disappointed that the authors do not give a more thorough discussion on fundamentals; instead, they seem to edge more towards technical analysis (trends, cycles, "predictions"). Fundamentals focus on the actual performance characteristics of a company.

The structure of the book is rather disconcerting, as Turner and Scott wrote their own chapters individually, then put the book together. The result is a lot of repetition, and an occasional bit of conflict between what each author is pressing for. A little more collaboration would have given the book a bit more cohesiveness, instead of making the reader wonder which author wrote what. Given the approach taken here, each author ought to have written their own books - at least that way each book would have been a coherent whole.

My recommendation would be to find a different book on investing.… (meer)