Before Black Friday, there was Black Tuesday, a devastating stock market event that not only sent the market plummeting and in chaos but also ushered in the Great Depression. Then, there is the more recent Black Monday, on October 19, 1987, that rattled investors and, once again, brought the market to its knees. It is this 1987 event that becomes the backdrop of Donaldson’s book, one that is less of a preachy self-help book and more one that will provide readers with immense insight and understanding through direct, first-hand experiences, all minus the added fluff and conceptual conundrums that often plague books on investing.

When Donaldson describes Black Monday to open his work, what stands out most is that nearly 600 billion dollars were wiped off the US market in just one day. Beyond the numbers, Donaldson captures the humanness of this global despair, even recounting how, amidst the bombardment of frantic investor calls, a daily prayer journal helped provide perspective when it was unquestionably needed.

The catalyst for this shift from despair to hope comes to Donaldson not long after the crash in the form of Mrs. Hagedorn. While investors were trying to get out of their portfolios, she was inquiring about purchasing stocks using the funds from her bond account. Through her experiences, Donaldson showcases the benefit of pivoting if done correctly, such as buying when all others are selling, and more importantly, in the words of Mrs. Hagedorn, “I want to buy companies that I can own for the rest of my life.” This way to look at the “best stocks” beyond just a numerical dollar value is not groundbreaking. However, it certainly adds a perspective that is not always so apparent. Thus, companies such as Disney, P&G, and Johnson & Johnson come to Donaldson’s mind—companies with established brands that target large demographic groups that value their products.

Donaldson's ability to turn his own experiences into a well-flowing narrative supplements the key principles of investing he presents, keeping the readers hooked. Similar to his experience with Mrs. Hagedorn, those with the prominent Dr. Joseph Begley and his wife, Gayle, were just as instrumental in putting together the author’s rising dividend strategy. Interestingly, when he is trying to explain more technical phenomena earlier in the work, he relies on anecdotal evidence and dialogue to make it clear to even the layman what is being discussed, whether that is high-quality municipal bonds or blue chips.

As the work progresses, Donaldson delivers a perfect blend of historical context and technical charts and tables to bring home the strategy central to his work. For instance, the Federal Reserve led by Alan Greenspan became incredibly influential in the market’s direction, while the regulating bodies implemented circuit breakers to keep the market from toppling in a single day and having a repeat of Black Monday.

A demotion of sorts from a position of authority allows Donaldson to perfect his hidden rising dividends strategy utilizing three market forces. Following a spirited conversation and lesson with Billy Behr, Donaldson sets off on a stronger foundation in statistics and deciphering the Value Line data, comparing things such as the dividend rise to the Dow’s performance. As the work progresses, the insights continue in conjunction with timely graphs and charts, revealing tidbits such as how the common valuation metric, the price-to-earnings ratio (P/E), loses its predictive power of a stock’s direction over a larger time interval. Above all else, Donaldson’s book provides a meaningful learning experience disguised in an entertaining narrative that gives audiences a real glimpse into the investing world.

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