A reader recently asked me for a list of books that I’d recommend for other investors. Flattered that anyone would care what I though, I’ve decided to do a post on that very subject, and here it is.

This is a list of the books and studies that have most influenced my thinking so far, both positively and negatively.

Secrets for Profit in Bull and Bear Markets (Stan Weinstein)

This is a book about technical analysis. I spent a short while trying to apply technical techniques and failed miserably. Of course this means I now think this approach is of no value.

How to Make Money in Stocks (William O’Neil)

Covers both technical and fundamental analysis, including things like earnings, new products, management, growth, that sort of thing. It also covers technical strategies to help time your purchase, like "buy on a new high from a properly formed base". I tried this approach for a while but found the chart aspects too ambiguous and too much work.

Various books by Jim Rogers of the Quantum Fund

I got into macro economic predictions for a while, playing the game that almost everybody else plays (which is why it’s such a bad game to get into). It didn’t take me long to see that this was either a game for short term traders or for people who wanted to bet on decade long themes... neither of which was me.

The Intelligent Asset Allocator (William Bernstein)

This book is awesome (dude). Just about everything I know now is down to this book. It very clearly lays out the ideas behind Modern Portfolio Theory and easily sold me on it since it requires almost no effort to apply. After reading this I adjusted my portfolio to a split between US, UK, European and Japanese index trackers and I think a bond tracker too. I’m still on the side of the efficient market to a large extent, certainly for people who don’t have an interest in stock picking. However, this book also covers bubbles in history and how markets may be predictable. It also talks about how value investing has the best long term results, how good companies are usually bad investments and bad companies are usually good investments.

The Intelligent Investor (Benjamin Graham)

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