The Perfect Stock Market Diet

The stock market regimen described in The Perfect Stock Market Diet is so lean and simple that most investors--professional and amateur--find it very elusive. However, sometimes that which is the most evident is the most difficult to accept.

Gene Nadler comes to the table with one simple strategy for winning on Wall Street: instead of paying big fees to professional portfolio managers, or trying to pick individual stocks yourself, just buy the entire stock market as a whole.

In other words, Nadler argues to invest in a market-based index vehicle such as the S& P fund or the comparable exchange traded fund. Think about it this way: if you were in the market for wood, and needed to make an investment that provided the greatest possible quantity of wood, would you buy those trees that looked to grow the tallest or would you buy a percent of each tree in the forest? Picking trees that might grow to the sky is most akin to picking individual stocks that may grow more than the total stock market index. Good luck at both! Much like your best strategy to accumulate the most wood is to buy a slice of every tree in the forest, you will accumulate the most wealth by buying a slice of every major stock in the index. Remember that not every forest ranger is Warren Buffett.