Through the Money Labyrinth: A Canadian Broker Guides You to Stock Market Success

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, Japan Foundation Fellow 1991-92, and the author of
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home and As Though Life Mattered:
Leo Kennedy’s Story.

Labyrinth is a good title for the financial maze represented by the
diversity of financial fields covered here by S.E. Woods. These include
mutual funds, RRSPs, common stocks, preferred shares, bonds, gold, other
sources of financial information and advice, and options and futures.
For those who have an appetite for high-risk investing, Woods has also
included a 14-page chapter on “Commodities and Financial Futures.”

Labyrinth is a good starting book for the ambitious novice investor.
There are anecdotes, but the general tone is straightforward and
factual. The guide’s language is clear, the explanations crisp and
generally satisfying. Advice, leavened by humor and clarified by charts,
is well organized. The first three chapters, for example, are called
“Why Put Your Money in the Market?”; “Choosing a Broker”; and
“Rules of the Game.” There is also a useful 15-page glossary of
terms.

After more than 20 years in the investment business as a broker, branch
manager, and partner, Woods retired at 54 and remains an active
investor: a reassuring profile. Labyrinth is his tenth book.