cover image It's Your Money: The E Trade Step-By-Step Guide to Online Investing

It's Your Money: The E Trade Step-By-Step Guide to Online Investing

Christos M. Cotsakos. HarperCollins Publishers, $16 (234pp) ISBN 978-0-06-662003-9

From buying a computer, learning how to use it and selecting an Internet service provider, to signing up for an online trading account, setting up short- and long-term financial plans, learning about bonds, stocks, futures, options, mutual funds and other investments, this is a whirlwind guide in 128 pages. To cover such vast territory in a breezy, easy-to-read manner, Cotsakos sacrifices explanations and theory. For example, he instructs the reader to take the book to a local computer retailer and show the salesperson his specifications for a computer system. The option chapter lists the terms you need to know to understand options, but does not define them, nor does it deal with how options are priced or traded. It does, however, give detailed instructions on how to fill out E*Trade's option order entry screen. There are some obvious problems with this approach. It teaches how to trade aggressively, without imparting the knowledge necessary to trade intelligently. As computer technology advances and E*Trade redesigns its screens, the book will quickly fall out of date. However, it will still be useful to those who already know most of what's in it, but want an accessible, comprehensive guide to fill in the gaps. 4-city author; 15-city NPR campaign. (June)