"It (Making Money on the New Zealand Sharemarket) is a mine of information and will remain a ready source of reference material for me." L. J.

"'Making Money on the New Zealand Sharemarket' was a pearler of a read!! 10 out of 10!" S. G.

"Your book, Making Money on the New Zealand Sharemarket, is fantastic. When are you going to write an Australian edition?"

"The book’s huge - it’s got everything in it. Excellent. Awesome."

"I wish I had read your book years ago. It has shown me where I have gone wrong all these years. I now have the confidence to make some serious money on the market. Thanks for a great book."

"This is the best book I have ever read about the sharemarket. It’s well worth the price."

"I have just finished reading Making Money on the New Zealand Sharemarket. It’s excellent. It has everything I need to know about the market, and a whole lot more. I love the top sections on each page, the cartoons and quotes are great. Thank you very much. Well done."

"I’ve just finished your book and having also read a number of US books on Technical Analysis and Investment generally your book really does cover the ground well and has the advantage of explaining the institutional setup in NZ...Your Appendix II on tax issues is the most useful explanation I have yet seen... Thanks again for the great book." - B.H.

Second edition offers first class advice

I reviewed the book at the time and recommended it for its depth of information, its clarity and above all the objectivity of its authors, financial advisors Frank Newman and Phil Briggs. 

Making Money on the New Zealand Sharemarket is basically an opinionated encyclopaedia to investment by two very experienced men. I highly recommend it for those wanting to know more about investment.

Avoid sharemarket hell and discover what stags do

 Last-minute Christmas shoppers stuck for a gift for the person who has almost everything might consider the latest good-humoured book from Frank Newman and Phil Briggs.

Making Money on the New Zealand Sharemarket is a timely publication for those who want the mysteries of sharemarket investment explained in a clear and highly readable form. Novices are taken through a beginner’s guide at the outset, while more experienced investors will probably skip to the later chapters.
The book’s structure is logical in its progression from the simple to the complex, which makes for an excellent educational text.

Exercises such as revision crosswords are included.

Fundamental analysis - which is concerned with translating company statistics into investment decisions - is covered in reasonable depth, including a "how to" chapter on making sense of financial information published in newspapers and company reports.

Graph-based charting, or technical analysis, is also explored in a couple of sub-chapters, but at more of an introductory level that would require further reading to build upon.

Making Money covers the gamut of sharemarket listings such as ordinary shares, cash and bonus issues and initial public offerings (IPOs).

It also gives brief mention to sharemarket-based derivatives, which are futures and options contracts written on shares and sharemarket indices.

A budding futures trader would need a specialised book on the subject, but would get a good grounding from Newman and Briggs on how the underlying sharemarket works to create profit opportunities through derivatives.

The book is distinguished by superb indexation and cross-referencing in contrast to many of its type by local authors. Included are six appendices, of which one, the sharemarket dictionary, represents particularly good value.

Those who mix with share investors need no longer bluff their way through conversations studded with terms like "arbitrage", "OTC", "pari passu" and "spread".

It is intriguing to learn what is meant by being a "bull", a "bear", a "squirrel" or a "stag", which are pertinent in the world of investment, not just astrology.

The book de-mystifies what can be an intimidating topic for first-timers without patronising seasoned sharemarket players."

The nonprofessional sharemarket investor now has easygoing A - Z

For many newcomers to the sharemarket, investment there can seem a bewildering mystery beset by conflicting advice from competing, mutually derogatory experts.

What has been needed is an unbiased, comprehensive but easy-to-read book that covers the A - Z of being an ordinary, nonprofessional sharemarket investor.

Frank Newman and Phil Briggs have come up with as near to perfect a formula as could be wanted for supplying this information in Making Money on the New Zealand Sharemarket. The book reads like an encyclopedia of what the amateur share investor should know. It has appeal to novices and old hands alike.

Making Money works its way through stratified levels of information, starting out with a beginner’s guide and building up to in-depth discussion on strategy. Both fundamental and technical analysis are studied, although the charting sections represent more of an introductory standard.

The two modes of analysis are, after all, quite compatible. There is also a brief subchapter on derivatives which gives a summary overview but the serious investor would need a specialised book to study on the subject before committing money to futures and options.

The authors take potshots at sharebrokers but their advice is sound for the beginning investor who might mistake these salesmen as infallible guides to getting rich. Criticism of litigious companies and their habit of threatening to sue honest advisers is also broached.

An independent state of mind is what the authors seek to encourage and their book provides a wide range of analytical tools to enable investors to become capable of making their own decisions.

An evenhanded assessment of choosing managed funds versus direct investment is included; this departs from the usual vested-interest rivalry concerning the superiority of one over the other waged between sharebrokers and fund managers.

The book is superbly indexed and cross-referenced throughout, and can be readily consulted as a dictionary on specific topics. It would make a sensible addition of enduring relevance to any investment book library.

Considering their dry subject matter, the authors manage to be engagingly humorous and provide a wealth of diversionary anecdotes and quotations for light relief. They have unearthed some rather grotesque pictures of what today’s captains of industry looked like in the sartorial holocaust of the 1970s.

A book that seeks to be so general and comprehensive will not necessarily recommend a specific investment approach for the reader.

The novice will have to sift through the abundance of material to put together an investment method, and so there will be an element of trial-and-error involved if Making Money is relied on as the sole authority.

Further reading would be recommended, for example, in the case of the investor thinking of turning professional.

Considered as a well-rounded reference book and primer for sharemarket investing, however, it is difficult to see how Messrs. Newman and Briggs will be surpassed for some time as the standard introductory text for local equities investors.

Often I am asked to recommend a book about share market investment, preferably one that spells things out for investors who are not familiar with many of the terms and concepts that "expert" investors deal with.

I use the term "expert" loosely because I believe that the extra complexity the mainstream investment industry brings to investment analysis doesn’t produce any better results.

I find that question difficult to answer because I make a conscious effort to avoid research and commentary by others about the New Zealand share market. In order for me to outperform the market, I have to think and act differently from other investors and the last thing I want to do is fall into the trap of being influenced by others’ opinions, especially if they all agree.

The logic of such an approach can be seen from a comment just a few days ago from a US funds manager, after the Nasdaq trading system (where most technology shares are traded) reached yet another record high.

Mark Dawson, a money manager with Seattle-based Rainier Investment Management, said buying pressure was pushing up the Nasdaq and that trend may continue for some time.

"If you’re not exposed to technology stocks, you’re compelled to buy them to keep up with your competitors," he said.

Needless to say, when the inevitable market correction comes all the former buyers will turn into sellers and the result will not be pretty.

However, I have been sent a new book by Whangarei share broker Frank Newman and investment adviser Phil Briggs that I not only have read but can recommend.

Rather than come up with a simplistic strategy for investment success, the two writers have produced a comprehensive and unbiased look at every aspect of the market.

At around 350 pages Making Money on the New Zealand Sharemarket comprehensively covers all significant investment terms, strategies and concepts.

One thing I particularly like about this book is its objectivity. Despite both men’s history as brokers and advisers, they pull no punches in explaining the weaknesses as well as the strengths of various options.

For example: "Listen to your broker, by all means, but don’t expect them to make mountains of money for you. Their first priority is to make money for themselves. . ."

The same applies to technical analysis (charting), even though Mr. Briggs is a proponent of this technique. "Like a road map, technical analysis is superb at telling you where you have been, but it does not tell you where the next bend in the road is going to be."

Brevity and clarity are other virtues of the book, demonstrating that the authors have a deep knowledge of their subject. Most chapters are just a few pages long, and most contain tidbits of information, quotations, graphics or cartoons - allowing someone with limited time to learn just by flicking through the book.

I highly recommend this book as a resource for investors. It is not a guide to making money so much as a useful encyclopedia that explains how the market and the investment industry in this country works.

Empower Education - Book of the Month - February 2000

From the author of How to Grow Rich and The Seven Ways to Wealth, this new book sets out to show you how to profit on the Sharemarket.

Making Money on the New Zealand Sharemarket is a comprehensive guide which unscrambles the jargon and will be valuable for anyone interested in the sharemarket - theory and practical.  It's full of interesting facts and recent history (including horror stories) about the NZ sharemarket, and shows how our market fits in to the world.

This is a worthwhile addition to any investor's bookshelf.