Favourite investment books of all time?

15th Oct '09 by Murakami

16 comments 13195 reads

We are launching soon the Stockopedia Bookshop

At the moment, we have put a selection of beloved classics in there - e.g. Reminiscences of a Stock Operator & The Intelligent Investor etc - but the shelves are not yet exactly groaning.

So we welcome any suggestions for further titles. Let us know what your favourite investment books are and why, and equally which investment books you don't rate at all! We will be adding functionality for members to rate and review books over time but, for now, any thoughts here are very welcome.

Cheers,

Murakami

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About the Author

Murakami

Premium Member

16 comments

Murakami

19th Apr '09

p.s. Forgot to say that the categories we have selected at the moment are:

Classics
History
Buffett
Trading
Modern
Beginners

Although this is just a starting point for now so, again, any suggestions welcome!

Betasurfer

19th Apr '09

Given the nature of many discussions on this site, I think you might want to consider widening the focus to include Economics and Economic History and, in that context, a particular favourite of mine is "Gun, Germs and Steel: A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years" by Jared Diamond. It's a great book to help understand the world. What's it about? Well, the book opens with an account of Diamond's conversation in 1974 with Yali, a friend from Papua New Guinea. The conversation turns to the obvious differences in power and technology between Yali's people and the Europeans who dominated the land for 200 years, differences that neither of them considered due to any genetic superiority of Europeans. Using the local term, "cargo" for inventions and manufactured goods, Yali asks Diamond a deceptively simple question: “Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo, but we black people had little cargo of our own?". The rest of the book is Diamond's attempt to answer that question which, you guessed it, may have something to do with the title of the book... Highly recommended!

MrT

19th Apr '09

He may have taken a few knocks in 2008 but I still rate David Swensen's "Pioneering Portfolio Management" and I loved "HedgeHogging" by Barton Biggs. Lots of great anecdotes about life in the hedge fund industry, including one lunch meeting with Alfred Jones (essentially the father of the modern hedge fund industry) in 1964.

“His first question when we sat down to lunch was, “When you go to pee in a restaurant urinal, do you wash your hands before or after you pee?” I was stunned. “Afterwards, sir.” He looked at me sourly. “That's the wrong answer. You're a conventional thinker and not rational. I always wash before rather than after.”

Gradders73

19th Apr '09

"Against the Gods, the Remarkable Story of Risk", by Peter Bernstein

"Extraordinary Popular Delusions, or the Madness of Crowns" by Charles Mackay. Written back in 1841, but the sections on money manias are great. So little has changed...

"Critical Mass", by Philip Ball - the sections on the science of traffic flow may sound dull, but it explained the credit crunch to me better than any economics book.

"Banker to the Poor," by Muhammad Yunus - the man behind the Grameen Bank, not a great book but one at least to give hope.

"On the Wealth of Nations," by P.J. O'Rouke is a very readable analysis of Adam Smith's famous work, which is not...

"Shock Doctrine", Naomi Klein - almost seems passe given what has happened since

"China Shakes the World, the Rise of a Hungry Nation," by James Kynge - the FT correspondent for China gives a balanced account of the state of China today.

Murakami

19th Apr '09

Excellent stuff. I have aded all of those. Keep the suggestions coming! Thanks, M.

Gradders73

20th Apr '09

Two others I enjoyed:

"Brainwash, the Secret History of Mind Control," by Dominic Streatfield.

"Flat Earth News," by Nick Davies. You must read this book if you have anything to do with the media.

Murakami

20th Apr '09

Good stuff - I wasn't planning on having a Critical Media section to the bookshop but why not? As long as no-one suggest anything by Jacques Derrida...

Betasurfer

1st Jun '09

You've got "Fooled by Randomness" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb but I would also suggest adding "The Black Swan". It's not as well-written as his first book, and his somewhat egotistical style does get bit annoying, but the Black Swan does provide a great framework for thinking about how we got into our current predicament - excessive leverage based on far too much reliance on predictive models that completely failed to consider the possibility of a black swan event like the credit crunch!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory

stopthenewworldorder

12th Jun '09

Gold Wars by Ferdinand Lips

War Cycles Peace Cycles - Richard Hoskins

Creature from Jekyll Island - Edward Griffin

all absolutely fascinating

bullhorn

17th Jun '09

In the "Buffet" section, you don't have the biography "Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist", by Roger Lowenstein. Prior to the release of the "authorised" biography by Alice Schroeder, this was widely thought to be the best Buffet book to read. I have the first (1995) edition and have recommended, and indeed lent it to several people over the last few years.

Looking at the Amazon listings, it appears my own might be a US edition. I think this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/product-description/0715638300/ is a UK version of the second (2008) edition, which includes an updated Afterword and omits the word "American" from the title, no doubt in order to appeal to a wider audience.

PS Can't see how you added the stockopedia affiliate links to the above postings. I assume you did this yourself after the titles had been posted.

loglorry

17th Jun '09

I realise that you'll probably want to make some Amazon commion from sales but how about allowing book swaps or even second hand sales here? I have a few books I'd swap or sell, or give away, that I have read and are just collecting dust.

Log

Murakami

17th Jun '09

That's a good idea. It would probably need to be done on a member to member basis as we just don't have the capacity to monitork exchanges but we could set up a separate thread where people could offer or request investment books from each other and then they could deal with the mechanics themselves by email - would that do the trick? As a general rule, if its investment focused and helps the user community, we're likely to be up for it - but we just need to be careful not to take on too much incremental admin! :-)

FranzK

19th Jun '09

My personal favourite that I always recommend is the very simple strat book Zurich Axioms by Max Gunther ISDN 0-285-62703-1, I also reread The Intelligent Investor By Ben Graham and I like The Pocket Ivestor by Phillip Ryland. ISBN 1-86197-082-X.

doverbeach

15th Oct '09

In memory of Bruce Wasserstein http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/6331035/Bruce-Wasserstein-dies.html, perhaps you could add Barbarians at the Gate to the History section

db

marben100

15th Oct '09

A couple of practical books I have found useful for learning the mechanics of the market:

The Investor's Toolbox by Peter Temple (learn about CFDs, spreadbetting, futures, options & warrants)

The UK Trader's Bible by Dominic Connolly (mechanics of SETS, SEAQ etc)

Cheers,

Mark

lfc

15th Oct '09

Market Wizards by JD Schwager.

In this series of interviews with top traders, which I'm now reading for the second time, what comes out is that there is no set formula for success and no unique set of rules of trading. Instead it is the way in which certain individuals are able to see the important messages behind the huge confluence of data being recieved. Ultimately it's the ability to see when the odds are in your favour and to bet accordingly.

The question as to whether people are born with the skills for successful trading or can learn them is an open one. But IMO, apart from those who are happy to put their money into a tracker and forget about it, we are all traders at heart.

Some brilliant insights.

lfc

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Murakami

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