Is your money working to make you rich or are your mistakes making only your brokers, traders and mutual fund and insurance agents wealthy? While the rich investor builds wealth for himself, most investors commit elementary mistakes and lose money.

This book on common sense investing highlights the typical mistakes made by investors and shows you ways to avoid and rectify them:

• Why investment losses arise — and how to avoid them;

• Why you must pause and think before investing on tips and advice;

• Why timing is important in investing — and how you can time your investment using simple methods;

• Never follow "star" or "large" investors — you don't know why they are investing and when they might exit;

• How to profit from "flavour-of-the-day" investments — and when to avoid them;

• Why you must take your own investment decisions;

• How simple investments earn more and cost less to manage;

• Why your savings generate the best returns when invested early and liquidated at the right time — and much else.

Arjun Parthasarathy is imparting to investors all the knowledge absorbed from his twenty year stint in financial markets. His website "investorsareidiots.com" is followed by investors both in India and across the globe and is acknowledged by retail and professional investors alike for its high quality analytical content.

Arjun started his writing career in 2005 by running a weekly column on fixed income markets for the newspaper DNA Money. His column was the first of its kind as it brought the esoteric world of fixed income to the layman and is now the most widely followed fixed income column by anyone interested in the fixed income markets in India. He is also a valued contributor on investments and financial markets to the Internet publication Firstpost.com.

Arjun's knowledge of financial markets comes from his stints in proprietary trading in banks, fund management in mutual funds, equity research in an institutional broking house and floor trading in a stock exchange. He is a postgraduate in economics and finance.