Bob Moriarty, veteran resource investor and founder of 321 Gold and 321 Energy, is known for speaking his mind, something that he does on his websites and in his books.
His latest book, "Basic Investing in Resource Stocks: The Idiot's Guide," has made Amazon's best seller list for commodities trading. In this book, Moriarty dispenses advice for people interested in investing in the resource sector, an area where he has over 50 years of experience.
Pundits have been reading and sharing their opinions on the book.
Fund manager Frank Holmes, CEO of U.S. Global Investors, notes that "perhaps what I admire most about Basic Investing is how refreshingly open it is. Bob doesn't mince words, and he's more than willing to share what he describes as his own past errors so that readers might learn from them. (To be perfectly honest, though, the longer anyone spends in the capital markets, the more likely it is that he or she will make a bad bet or 10. No one gets it right all of the time.)"
Holmes finds the book is "rich with practical advice on trading precious metals and resource stocks. Timing is key on both sides of the trade, and Bob uses a number of tools to help him make as large a profit as he can. Obviously you want to buy low and sell high, but sometimes that's easier said than done."
"Bob sees gold 'as a solution to our continuing financial chaos. It worked for much of history and nothing says it won't work again,'" Holmes stresses, quoting from the book:
"If you don’t own some gold (or silver or platinum or palladium or rhodium) that you can lay your hands on, you may regret it. Precious metals are the most secure insurance policy that you can buy to protect your financial house, even as it begins to burn down."
"Hard truths, practical guidance, invaluable insight. It's all there in Bob's book, which, I should add, is also a delightful, often humorous read," Holmes concludes.
Jayant Bhandari, an investor and the organizer of the annual Capitalism & Morality seminar, notes in the Canadian Mining Report that investors have lost a lot of money in the resource sector in the last few years. "This shouldn't have been the case had investors paid attention to the work of Bob Moriarty. Exactly when the sector was losing money, Mr. Moriarty was investing in resource stocks—of the likes of Novo Resources and Irving Resources—that made him 10 to 20 times his investment. In some cases, more," Bhandari writes.
He notes that Moriarty "provides a common-sense approach to investing in the resource sector."
"Mr. Moriarty advises people to have the courage—once they have studied their homework properly—to have contrarian thinking, even if it goes completely against the emotions of the market," Bhandari states.
"'Change your mind when information changes" makes common sense, except that most people are resistant to changing their views. The end result is that 90% of investors lose money. While Mr. Moriarty advises not to be a part of that 90%, he is happy they exist, to help him make the extra money," Bhandari notes.
"Read [his] words of wisdom in his short and sweet book, including the description of the resource industry, and some saucy stories of his investments," Bhandari commands.
Industry pundit The Hedgeless Horseman notes that the book "covers everything from the current state of the world, the metals, the different kinds of resource companies, how to go about investing and what tools that are important to use."
It's a pragmatic book, he says, "written by a long term resource company investor. Bob has been in this business for a long time and has seen it all. He has seen the ups and downs of commodity cycles, and he has run across all types of people and companies. He knows all the shady tricks and all the pitfalls that most of us will have fallen into, on our way to (hopefully) enlightenment."
"Bob explains key concepts with the help of anecdotes and real life examples, which makes them easier to understand, and will hopefully come in handy when the reader comes across different subjects in the future (like counter party risk)," the Hedgeless Horseman states.
He concludes, "The book covered more subjects than I first thought and is an invaluable source of knowledge for anyone investing in this sector. There are loads of quotes and bullet points that I myself am planning to print out and put up on the wall, since keeping the common (human) pitfalls in mind at all times is a very big step towards beating the market. In essence, this is decades of experience summed up in a good and pragmatic way."
John Rubino, a Wall Street veteran who manages DollarCollapse.com, also reviewed "Basic Investing in Resource Stocks." One takeaway is the book will "save you a lot of money," as Moriarty "explains everything from why gold is rising to how to find (and when to sell) tomorrow’s great mining stocks."
For investors "who want to do more than just rise with the precious metals tide," Rubino notes "Moriarty lays out some principles for outperforming this market." These include:
- Start with the physical metal
- Take profits
- Embrace the royalty companies
- Expect silver to outperform gold
- For life-changing returns, play the junior miners.
Rubino finds the last principle the most useful part of the book, "both because Moriarty knows whereof he speaks and because the junior sector is so full of landmines. By explaining the frequently crazy nature of these stocks, he takes some of the emotion out of owning them. That alone will save a lot of people a lot of money in the next few years."
"Basic Investing in Resource Stocks: The Idiot's Guide" is available on Amazon.
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