Dead cat bounce

Money Digest, April, 2001

Dead Cat Bounce: The Skinny on E-Vesting

An excellent primer on investing on-line for Canadians

A BOOK BY GAIL VAZ-OXLADE

In general, books that deal with online investing are full of hype. Dead Cat Bounce: The Skinny on E-Vesting is different. It is not a book on how to get-rich-quick online, but rather on how to use online resources to make sensible investment decisions.

The book, written in an informal style, starts with discussing the basic principles of investing online. Not surprisingly, they are not much different from principles of investing off-line. So the first part of the book is really an investment primer that covers different types of investments such as stocks, bonds, closed-end funds and mutual funds.

When the book truly gets into online investing -- mostly starting from chapter 7 -- it picks up speed. Readers new to online investing will particularly appreciate references to a number of well-known (some less well-known) Web sites that will help you to get specific information on:

* stocks and stock screening

* corporate information

* names, addresses and phone numbers

* financial data

* financial news

* business research

* investment letters

* mutual funds

* bonds

* options

* IPOs

Author Gail Vaz-Oxlade discusses how you can go about choosing an online broker, how to make online trades, how to trade on margin and how to manage your online portfolio.

We of course don't agree with her implied support for the `Big Brother" regulations that force us to pay $29 commission for trading $1,000 shares with TD Waterhouse in Canada while preventing us from trading with the same brokerage south of the border that charges just $12 for trading 5,000 shares.

Despite its incongruous title (the justification being that it makes the author smile), this book is well and clearly written. Gail Vaz-Oxlade is a good writer and this is an excellent primer on online investing for Canadians.