Preferred Stock Investing, 5th Ed.

40 years ago, when I was 16, I found the cornerstone book on Dow Theory in my local library - Technical Analysis of Stock Trends by John Magee. I was hooked. I manually charted stocks on semi-log paper (purchased from Magee's company). Way before PCs, laughable today. I have read 100s of books on stock investing since then always getting the sense I was missing something. I felt someone was withholding a key piece of information. The insiders revealed ALMOST everything. I made money. I lost money. My entry into preferred stocks came from recommendations from the outstanding income investor, Richard Lehmann, a contributor to Forbes. My timing was somewhat lucky - I did well. As I learned more, Preferreds seemed "simple" to me. You could hit one stand-up double after another and it didn't require a Phd in Math or Economics. I moved some money in my brokerage account once triggering phone calls to me by the broker. I mentioned my "luck" with preferreds. The broker said, "Oh yeah, it's easy to make money in preferreds." I thought but did not say, "Well, you son-of-a-bitch, why didn't you call me and help me with that 20 years ago?" I then asked him if he was my fiduciary and the conversation came to a grinding halt. I had to learn more on Preferreds. Le Du's book filled in the blanks for me and systematized my thinking. It's not a tough subject or tough reading. But Le Du's organized mind "gets it all down on paper." It is in fact a template for making AT LEAST 6 percent at very low risk - and much more if you apply Le Du's teachings. I have read other reviews saying the book is nothing but an advertisement for the website. Guess what, the website is an extremely valuable tool. Getting automated notices of Preferred IPOs - which I have now used several times - is worth the price. Not to mention the very complete search tools. To the best of my knowledge, Le Du's book and website are the only products out there that address this little discussed subject so well. Richard Lehmann loves Preferreds and so you should to. Le Du explains the easy to understand details extremely well.

I'm too excited to wait until I finish reading the book, so here's my view on the author's information. I just got the book last night, but in the previous week, after visiting his website and reading information there, I've already made actual cash profit from the methods he teaches in this book and on his website. I also became a subscriber to his website a week ago to receive instant updates and his constantly updated list of "Bargain cdX3 preferred stocks". In less than a week of just experimenting with the "Bargain Table" preferred stocks, I profited more than enough to pay for a full year of the subscription cost and the cost of the book. The book is full of practical and easily understood information to help a novice or an experienced stock investor (or trader) implement the methods to bring cash into your pockets. His methods taught in the book are not the typical risky methods of trying to make money in the stock market. I'm not saying the risk is zero, but by following what he teaches in the book, I feel it's almost impossible to profit less than you can earn from a cd times 3. And that's an understatement, regardless of the economic environment.Maybe I should add a footnote here. I might be a little biased. I met the author recently when he gave a presentation at an AAII meeting. I almost didn't attend this meeting because I knew nothing about preferred stocks at all, and figured it would be a waste of my time. I talked to the author after the meeting, and left really excited. He is extremely knowledgeable on the subject, and very practical and down to earth.

1. This book is a giant advertisement. 90% of this book is just an infomercial for his CDx3 subscription service. Excerpt " Unless you are a subscriber to the CDx3 Notification Service (in which case this research is done for you), figuring out ______ can be a bit time consuming (not to mention tedious)." That's the tone of the whole book - "here's the information (which coincidentally my other service already provides to subscribers), and here's a time consuming way to figure it out for everyone else."2. Direct quote: "One thing you can say about a period of increasing interest rates is that it is ALWAYS followed by a period of decreasing rates." He proves this point by showing a graph of rates from the 80's - 2009, which trended downwards the whole time. If interest rates start trending up over the next 30 years, everyone buying his preferreds will get stuck with lower than market yields and no capital appreciation as there would be no reason to call them.3. He neglects to inform you about quantumonline, which he throws in the "pay service sites" category. Quantum is by far the biggest resource of free information on preferreds and provides much of the information he claims is hard to find anywhere outside his service.Summary: It's an ok primer, but oversimplifies the risks and spends most of the book pushing his subscription service. You'd be better off going with Paul Joseph's book, which gives you the same basic information and a better awareness of risks.

Excellent work on the subject

I'm new to preferred shares and this book was what I needed to get a good start on understanding how to invest in them within the US market. Would have been nice to see some comments on how this strategy could be adjusted for the Canadian market where most preferred are fixed resets.

Excellent!!!! Eye Opening!