Divorcing the Dow: Using Revolutionary Market Indicators to Profit from the Stealth Boom Ahead

After watching a goodly portion of my portfolio melt away over the past few years, I was not only sleepless with anxiety but also furious at my financial advisor and at the financial community and corporate America in general. When I found and read this remarkable book, “Divorcing the Dow,” I understood WHY the majority of the so-called financial “experts” were and continue to be so completely off-base, living in and advising on outmoded investment vehicles, as their clients’ hard-earniend dollars go swirling down the drain! I likewise saw clearly how to intelligently and safely invest my remaining discretionary funds for maximum results in terms of my future goals.
I cannot underestimate my sense of relief and also my gratitude for this lifechanging book. The authors have done a prodigious amount of research. More than that, their brilliant conclusions appear to be sound and right on target. This is a one-in-a million book that should be a must-read for anyone who wants to see their savings grow the most effective way possibie. It is also, to my mind, a must-read for every single individual in the financial community. To NOT read this book is to remain in the dark ages of investing, and to lose out on the opportunity to profit enormously from the new investment culture that is right in place sight but invisible to those stuck in the status quo. I read constantly, and I can tell you that this book is the absolute best of the bunch – the real thing.
This review is from my heart – I know how I have suffered, watching my money – including money I inherited from my parents -just evaporate. Read “Divrocing the Dow” more than once. Give it to everyone you know. I did. I have also sent a copy to my financial advisor…and if he doesn’t “get it” I am picking up my portfolio and moving on.

While Divorcing the Dow highlights some tried and true criteria for selecting individual equity investments, e.g. to focus on leading companies that dominate vital growing sectors of the economy, it also falls prey to a “new logic” approach that can be very misleading, especially to beginning investors. Worse, the authors don’t understand a fundamental rule of financial arithmetic. On page 162 they discuss a hypothetical investment manager that turns a portfolio worth $100,000 into $200,000 in one year, and then loses half that value the next, resulting in an end year value of $100,000. The authors suggest that the “average return” from this is 25% (the arithmetic mean of +100% and -50%). Clearly, if we began and ended with the same dollar value, the average annual return is 0%, which is the result calculated by the geometric mean, the correct method to use in computing growth rates. A 25% average annual return on $100,000 would result in a portfolio value after two years of $100,000 X (1.25^2) = $156,250. The authors and their editors should know better. In my opinion readers would be far better served by such classics as The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel, or Contrarian Investment Strategies, by David Dremen.