Jim Slater's own books

[Note: this book is currently unavailable, but a new edition is under consideration]

I recommend Investment Made Easy because as well as giving a general backcloth, there are six chapters on how to select shares and others on portfolio management and how to judge the state of the market. Investment Made Easy is in paperback and was completely updated in August 1995.

Investment Made Easy is in two parts. The first is for Safety-First investors who prefer to delegate the management of their portfolios to professional managers or to invest in unit or investment trusts. However, even Safety-First investors have a number of decisions to make. To name just a few: they need to decide whether to deposit their money with a building society or in a TESSA scheme; they have to weigh up the relative merits of unit and investment trusts and once they have made that choice they need to select the right ones and decide when they should add to their investments or take some profits.

The second part of Investment Made Easy is for active investors, who like to manage their own funds. It is aimed at those people who have already made preparations for their basic financial health and now want to make the rest of their money work extra hard by accepting the risks and seeking the rewards of investing directly in shares. They will be prepared to spend a few hours a week considering their investments and, with or without professional advice, prefer to make their own decisions. I hope to help them to acquire a much improved understanding of the financial news and to learn how to minimise their downside-risk and maximise their upside-potential. They will also learn how to read accounts, judge markets, manage their portfolios and, as a result, how to make their money work much better.

Published by Orion Publishing Co
published in 1995

After reading Investment Made Easy, I suggest my next book, The Zulu Principle, which has been one of the best selling UK investment books of all time. It was written for active investors and explains several methods of investment, including growth shares, cyclicals, shells and asset situations. However, there is no doubt that The Zulu Principle majors on how to invest in small dynamic growth shares. In particular, I explain how to use the PEG (price-earnings growth factor) for deciding whether or not a growth share is cheap or dear in relation to its growth rate. I also explain other important investment criteria like cash flow and relative strength and show readers how to construct a margin of safety as a kind of safety net under any investments they might make.

Published by Orion Publishing Co
published in 1997

My most recent book, Beyond The Zulu Principle, is the most advanced book I have written on investment so far. It incorporates recent ideas and, in particular, the lessons learned while devising Company REFS, the monthly investment service I developed in conjunction with publishers Hemmington Scott.

In essence, Beyond The Zulu Principle shows readers how to select growth shares using an array of value filters such as the PEG. It highlights the important criteria to help identify a great growth stock and how to determine when to sell.

Published by Orion Publishing Co
1st edition, published in 1998

I wrote this book for people who have little or no experience of investing but who have the determination to build real wealth for themselves over the long term. The principle underlying the book is the eighth wonder of the world - the Power of Compounding. I show how, if you start early enough, you can create a significant tax-free sum out of small regular investments in shares, coupled with the purchase of your own house or flat. If you follow the ideas outlined in this book and are you patient, millionaire status is a realistic and attainable goal.

Published by Texere
New edition edition, published in 2002