Books on investments
1 – 18 of 18
Books on investments
The books here are in no particular order, except that I have divided them into 3 sections:
A Books that I found worth reading
B Books that I did not find particularly useful though they have some good bits
C Popular books that I have not read but may be interesting
In addition to the above, there are numerous books that I read and binned as I did not consider them to have any redeeming features.
You can get fuller descriptions of the contents of the books at the Amazon site where they also have reviews by customers. Though I do not necessarily agree with all the reviews, I find many of them quite interesting.
A Books that I found worth reading
THE ESSAYS OF WARREN BUFFETT - Laurie Cunningham
I love reading Warren Buffett’s writings as, apart from his wisdom, he has
such a way with words.
INVESTMENT CLASSICS — Leo Gough
Good summaries of 25 well known investment books.
THE BATTLE FOR INVESTMENT SURVIVAL- Gerald Loeb
An old book written in different times but contains some words of wisdom that may still be relevant.
THE BLACK SWAN — Nassim Taleb
FOOLED BY RANDOMNESS - Nassim Taleb
Enjoyable reads that highlight the dangers of highly improbable events that have a massive impact but are unpredictable, though they are rationalised after the event.
THE (MIS)BEHAVIOUR OF MARKETS - Benoit B MandelbrotAs Richard L Hudson (co-author) says in his prelude: "reading this volume will not make you rich. But it will make you wiser - and may thereby save you from getting poorer."
THE FOUR PILLARS OF INVESTING - William Bernstein
The four pillars are the theory of investing, the history of investing, the psychology of investing and the business of investing.
THE BOOK OF INVESTING WISDOM — Peter Krass
Lots of interesting writings from the diverse investors, analysts, speculators, raiders, chartists, etc like John Templeton, Abby Cohen, George Soros, T Boone Pickens, Roger Babson, etc.
EASY MONEY - Philip Coggan
An entertaining book that has many useful observations.
THE ULTIMATE INVESTOR - Dean LeBaron and Romesh Vaithilingam
The title is a gross exaggeration but the book covers, albeit briefly, a lot of topics such as contrarian investing, hedge funds, investor psychology, etc.
PREDATORS AND PROFITS - Martin Howell
Numerous useful red flags that could be warnings of impending trouble or even disaster.
VALUE INVESTING - Bruce Greenwald, Judd Kahn, Paul Sonkin, Michael Van Biema
Some interesting bits plus profiles of eight value investors like Mario Gabelli and Michael Price.
BEYOND WALL STREET - S L Mintz, Dana Dakin, Thomas Willison
Covers eight interesting topics - growth, value, quantitative, index funds, emerging markets, fixed income, asset allocation and risk and investor psychology.
WARREN BUFFETT SPEAKS - Jane Lowe
Wit and wisdom from the world's greatest investor.
INVESTORS CHRONICLE GUIDE TO CHARTING — Alistair Blair
A very good overview of various charting techniques.
INVESTORS CHRONICLE A-Z OF INVESTMENT - Caroline Sefton
A guide to the tools, terms and techniques of investment.
POCKET INVESTOR - Philip Ryland
A useful little book that you can carry in your coat pocket and read on the tube
MONEY MASTERS OF OUR TIME - John Train
Well written.
THE INVESTOR’S ANTHOLOGY - Charles D Ellis
Like the proverbial curate’s egg - some good bits and some not so good.
WINNING THE LOSER’S GAME — Charles D Ellis
By the author of the seminal article, way back in 1975, on the “loser’s game” that provided the first insight into why professional investors fail to beat the index.
A RANDOM WALK DOWN WALL STREET - Burton Malkiel
A must read and very entertainingly written too.
INVESTMENT GURUS - Peter Tanous A very good book.
DETERMINING VALUE — Richard Barker
A unique book that discusses valuation theory in the context of the availability (or lack) of information to apply the theory.
EQUITY INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT - Stephen Lofthouse A very good book.
INVESTMENT TITANS - Jonathan Burton
The views of the great academics like Harry Markowitz, Paul Samuelson, William Sharpe, etc.
A GUIDE TO STOCKPICKING - Gillian O’Connor
A useful book for beginners.
FINANCIAL SHENANIGANS — Howard Schilit
The first book that I would recommend to non-accountants interested in accounting gimmicks and fraud.
VALUEGROWTH INVESTING - Glen Arnold
Includes descriptions of the philosophies of six great investors.
B Books that I did not find particularly useful though they have some good bits
THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT - John Kay
Some good theory but unlikely to be useful in practice.
INVESTING AGAINST THE TIDE - Anthony Bolton
Private investors hoping to emulate Anthony Bolton's outstanding record by reading this book will be disappointed as his methods rely heavily on his position in Fidelity and the massive resources of Fidelity.
SOROS ON SOROS - George Soros
Rather boring and little of use to investors.
CREATIVE CASH FLOW REPORTING - Charles Mulford and Eugene Comiskey
As it is a US book, the reader should be aware of the important differences between UK and US accounting standards.
COMMON STOCKS AND UNCOMMON PROFITS — Philip Fisher
The private investor will find it impossible to follow Philip Fisher’s methodology.
THE MONEY GAME — “Adam Smith”
A best seller at one time but now dated.
GUIDE TO FINANCIAL MARKETS - Marc Levinson
The Economist’s guide to the various markets like forex, bond, fixed income, commodities, securitisation, etc and includes explanations of repos, swaps, duration, CDOs, etc
LIAR’S POKER - Michael Lewis
A good read but not much use for the private investor.
CONTRARIAN INVESTING - Anthony Gallea and William Panatalon
Nothing special.
JOHN NEFF ON INVESTING - John Neff
Much of the book is an autobiography.
BEAR ESSENTIALS - “Evil Knievil”
EVIL’S GOOD - Simon Cawkwell (alias “Evil Knievel”)
His “book of boasts and other investments” by the self-styled “king of short sellers”.
MONEY MAKERS - Jonathan Davis
Profiles of 8 famous investors like Anthony Bolton, Colin McLean and Mark
Mobius.
BEYOND GREED AND FEAR - Hersh Shefrin
I find it hard to apply behavioural finance in practice.
THE CITY - Tony Golding
About the great expectation machine.
MIDAS INVESTING - Jonathan Steinberg
The cover says it all: “How you can make at least 20% in the stockmarket this year and every year”.
MANIAS, PANICS, AND CRASHES - Charles Kindleberger
Exciting title but the contents are rather boring.
HOW TO READ THE FINANCIAL PAGES - Michael Brett
Published in 1988 and a bit dated now.
STOCKS FOR THE LONG RUN - Jeremy Siegel Some regard this as an investment classic.
BEATING THE STREET - Peter Lynch ONE UP ON WALL STREET - Peter Lynch
Entertaining books but rather simplistic.
EQUITIES - Mark Mobius
The emerging markets expert's attempt to introduce the core concepts to the novice investor though such investors are likely to find other books, with similar aims, more interesting.
THE WARREN BUFFETT WAY - Robert G Hagstorm
If you think that you will find Warren Buffett’s secrets of success here that you could use, you will be disappointed.
ACCOUNTING FOR GROWTH — Terry Smith
Was a revelatory book when it was written but accounting has changed significantly since then and many of the loopholes described in the book have since been closed.
FORECASTING COMPANY PROFITS - Fred tellings
More useful in showing the shaky grounds of forecasts than how to actually forecast.
INVESTMENT PHILOSOPHIES - Aswath Damodaran Better known for his book on Valuation.
THE SUPER ANALYSTS - Andrew Leeming OK, I suppose.
THE FINANCIAL NUMBERS GAME - Charles Mulford and Eugene Comisky A useful book but written in an academic style that will not appeal to investors who are not accountants.
INVESTING WITH THE GRAND MASTERS - James Morton
Strange - includes The Prince of Wales as one of the “grand masters”.
BUFFETOLOGY — Mary Buffett
Written by his former daughter in law.
AGAINST THE GODS - Peter Bernstein “The remarkable story of risk.”
CREATIVE ACCOUNTING - lan Griffiths
Was very useful in 1986 when it was written but many of the avenues for creative accounting described therein have since been closed.
USING THE FINANCIAL PAGES - Romesh Vaitilingam The Financial Times Guide.
ADVANCES IN BEHAVIOURAL FINANCE - Richard Thaler
I find it hard to apply behavioural finance in practice.
IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE — Robert Shiller A New York Times bestseller.
RULE BREAKERS, RULE MAKERS - David and Tom Gardner Motley Fool’s book.
A ZEBRA IN LION COUNTRY - Ralph Wenger
Investing in small growth companies by a well-regarded fund manager in this area.
100 MINDS THAT MADE THE MARKET - Kenneth Fisher
SUPER STOCKS - Kenneth L Fisher
By the one who put the price to sales ratio in the limelight.
THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR - Benjamin Graham
The writings of Warren Buffett incorporate the best of Benjamin Graham and are more relevant to investments now - towards the end of his life, Graham himself acknowledged that it would be better to invest in index trackers rather than undertake the sort of security analysis that was relevant in his time.
WHAT WORKS ON WALL STREET - James O’Shaughnessy
A huge amount of data crunching has gone into this book but isn’t it data mining?
THE ZULU PRINCIPLE - Jim Slater
BEYOND THE ZULU PRINCIPLE — Jim Slater
HOW TO USE COMPANY REFS — Jim Slater
Requires the use of Company REFS
THE SNOWBALL - Alice Schroeder Comprehensive biography of Warren Buffett.
THE TRILLION DOLLAR MELTDOWN - Charles R Morris
Mainly about the credit crash but, along the way it contains lucid explanations of the risks involved in portfolio insurance, relative value trading, CMOs, CDOs, CLOs, RMBSs, CMBSs, ABSs, private equity, synthetics, hedge funds, credit default swaps, etc. Reinforces one's belief that high returns are usually the result of having taken high risks, knowingly or unknowingly.
C Popular books that I have not read but may be interesting
SECURITY ANALYSIS - Benjamin Graham
This may sound like heresy to some but, from glancing through this, I think that it is less relevant in today’s investment climate.
WHERE ARE THE CUSTOMERS’ YACHTS — Fred Schwed
Widely quoted book.
BEATING THE DOW - Michael O’Higgins
A fund set up in the UK to replicate the author’s method failed.