This book will make better investors of people who have a lot, a little orabsolutely no experience in the stock market, but want to use theirintelligence, common sense, and knowledge and curiosity about theworld to make better and more profitable investment decisions. There isno simple formula for successful investing. Successful investing is partcommon sense, hard work, knowledge, and art form. Hopefully whatfollows will impart some of these qualities to those who read it.Although I am a professional investor, I wrote this book in an easy to understandstyle. As my college professors can attest, I was a poor student of financeand accounting-I found the subjects extremely boring. Once in theworking world, though, I discovered that finance was exciting anddynamic. However, having been through the drudgery of textbook andclassroom learning, I wanted to write a book for others that would makefinance and investing easy to understand, interesting, useful, and relevant.This book will primarily address the skills and knowledge needed tosuccessfully invest in publicly traded stocks, but some of the topicsdiscussed will also aid the reader in evaluating investments in other assettypes, such as real estate, private businesses, and fixed incomeinstruments, such as bonds.