Beating the Dow with Bonds: A High Return, Low Risk Strategy for Outperforming the Pros Even When Stocks Go South

Zero coupon bonds are the bonds spoken of in the book's title. Zero coupon bonds do well in falling interest rate and stable, low interest rate investing environments as we had 90% of the time from 1982 to 2004. Now is NOT the time to use this book's advice, wait until interest rates fall again (2010??). but it is true, by not owning any stocks O'Higgins outperformed the greatest -and longest- bull market in history.

Michael O'Higgins' long-awaited second book provides welcome and timely advice for a wide variety of investors! O'Higgins convincingly presents a specific and simple strategy for achieving above-average returns on investments at relatively low risk, using either stocks, T-bills, or T-bonds as warranted. It is a strategy well worth following, especially in periods of speculation. O'Higgins' strategy is both simple and sophisticated, and can be easily understood and implemented by individual investors, although I understand that there is now an O'Higgins mutual fund that presumably uses the investment system touted in the book and does the work for us. I am truly pleased that O'Higgins has realized the importance of a solid understanding of the positive role that certain bonds can play in one's investment choices. Bravo, Michael O'Higgins!

Michael O'Higgins latest book may be a timely reminder that stocks are not always the best investment. The systematic method of investing that is espoused in the book is simple, and easy to follow. It annually moves investments to one of three asset classes: stocks, bonds or Treasury bills. In recent years, I have heard a lot arguments about this bull market in equities being a new and different investment era. I have heard little about investing in bonds and have heard nothing about investing in cash investments such as Treasury bills. Thanks for the reminder.

As a longtime follower of the stock "Dogs of the Dow" stock selection method first propounded in Mr. O'Higgins' first book, Beating The Dow (HarperCollins, 1991), I was anxious to read his latest book not only because of the success which I had with the Dogs strategy but also because I was uncomfortable with the sky-high levels of today's stock market.I found Beating The Dow With Bonds extremely educational about the whole bond arena, an investment alternative about which I knew very little prior to reading this book. Not only does it give an easy-to-understand explanation of the different types of bonds and how they work, but it also gives you plenty of bond market history with which to place the current stock and bond markets into perspective. I never knew, for example, how advantageous it was to be in bonds during the Crash of 1929-32 or in the difficult market environment of 1968-74.In my opinion, every stock investor, especially anyone with the bulk of his retirement savings invested in stocks, would benefit from reading this book.