Full Title: Asset Allocation: Balancing Financial Risk

Authors: Roger Gibson

Publisher/Date:  McGraw-Hill (2000)

List Cost/Pages:  $55 Hardcover /  317 pages

Cover Notes:
As financial commentators fill the airwaves with warnings and advice, and coworkers gather around computer screens to track hot stocks, investors find it increasingly difficult to stick with proven, orderly investment strategies. But in the updated third edition of his classic Asset Allocation, Roger Gibson reminds us that choosing a sensible, proven asset allocation strategy—concerned more with the optimal mix of investment classes than with today’s hot stock picks—is exactly what investors must do to remain sane and successful…And then he shows us how to do it.

Asset Allocation dispenses with luck, market timing, and other “Buy low, sell high” sleights of hand to outline sensible decisions that all investors can make on their own. Less concerned with how investments perform individually than how they perform as a group, it explains how to assemble a long-term portfolio that will actually outperform its parts—while minimizing overall risks—no matter what the market environment.

This all-in-one template for successful long-term investing includes: An easy-to-follow, risk-adjusted model for striking the best portfolio balance between equity and fixed-income securities Rewards of Multiple-Asset-Class Investing—a new chapter that proves why, over time, diversification is still the only sensible alternative Managing Client Expectations—Guidelines to help clients ignore short-term fears—and hold to long-term investment strategies Classic lessons of modern portfolio theory placed into the framework of today’s tumultuous marketplace Performance tables, charts, figures, and more—completely updated from the best-selling second edition.

Overriding principles of successful and low-pressure investing are relatively few, and easy to understand. What becomes difficult is to stick to these principles, remind oneself that both bull and bear markets are historically inevitable, and design a long-term portfolio strategy that—once the day traders and market timers have pulled out to tally their defeats—provides day-to-day peace of mind and lifetime financial security.

Asset Allocation learns from history instead of ignoring it. This updated third edition remains today’s most valuable resource for understanding and applying historically tested asset allocation principles, and designing an investment strategy that shifts the focus from short-term tips and blips to long-term needs and results.