Whether you are an experienced trader or a first-time investor, it never hurts to have a good knowledge of the rules and market trends. Below is a list of 21 Best Books on Investment that exist out there.
Books revolutionized our society. They are the premier reason for the success and growth of our civilization as they allow people to borrow others’ knowledge.
When it comes to investing, one can always learn about it via the internet; however for a greater perspective and a more detailed analysis, one should consider reading Investment Books. The knowledge and wisdom imparted in these books are timeless and written by some of the world’s most respected market practitioners. By reading such books, investors can gain valuable insights and learn to develop a profitable investment strategy.
In that light, here we have compiled for you a list of some of the Best Investment Books ever written by legendary pioneers.
Contents
- Best Books On Investment
- 1. THE LITTLE BOOK OF COMMON SENSE INVESTING: THE ONLY WAY TO GUARANTEE YOUR FAIR SHARE OF STOCK MARKET RETURNS - By John C. Bogle
- 2. THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR - By Benjamin Graham
- 3. BEATING THE STREET - By Peter Lynch
- 4. THE DECISION BOOK: FIFTY MODELS FOR STRATEGIC THINKING - By Mikael Krogerus
- 5. COMMON STOCKS AND UNCOMMON PROFITS - By Philip Fisher
- 6. LEARN TO EARN: A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO THE BASICS OF INVESTING AND BUSINESS - By Peter Lynch and John Rothchild
- 7. INTERPRETATION OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - By Benjamin Graham
- 8. ONE UP ON WALL STREET: HOW TO USE WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW TO MAKE MONEY IN THE MARKET - By Peter Lynch and John Rothchild
- 9. THE FIVE RULES FOR SUCCESSFUL STOCK INVESTING: MORNINGSTAR'S GUIDE TO BUILDING WEALTH AND WINNING IN THE MARKET - By Pat Dorsey
- 10. A RANDOM WALK DOWN WALL STREET: THE TIME-TESTED STRATEGY FOR SUCCESSFUL INVESTING - By Burton G. Malkiel
- 11. RICH DAD POOR DAD - By Robert T. Kiyosaki
- 12. THE ONLY INVESTMENT GUIDE YOU’LL EVER NEED - By Andrew Tobias
- 13. THE ESSAYS OF WARREN BUFFET - By Lawrence Cunningham
- 14. STOCKS FOR THE LONG RUN - By Jeremy J. Siegel
- 15. HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN STOCKS: A WINNING SYSTEM IN GOOD TIMES OR BAD - By William J. O’Neil
- 16. COMMON SENSE ON MUTUAL FUNDS - By John C. Bogle
- 17. IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE - By Robert J. Shiller
- 18. THE WARREN BUFFET WAY: INVESTMENT STRATEGIES OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST INVESTOR - By Robert G. Hagstrom
- 19. BIG MISTAKES: THE BEST INVESTORS AND THEIR WORST INVESTMENTS - By Michael Batnick
- 20. PREDICTING THE MARKETS: A PROFESSIONAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY - By Edward Yardeni
- 21. BIG MONEY THINKS SMALL: BIASES, BLINDSPOTS AND SMARTER INVESTING - By Joel Tillinghast
- Best Books On Investment - The Conclusion
Best Books On Investment
1. THE LITTLE BOOK OF COMMON SENSE INVESTING: THE ONLY WAY TO GUARANTEE YOUR FAIR SHARE OF STOCK MARKET RETURNS - By John C. Bogle
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
In this phenomenal book, legendary mutual fund veteran and author, John C. Bogle, shares with his readers the ultimate guide to get satisfactory returns from the stock market. According to him, “the simplest and most efficient investment strategy is to buy and hold all of the nation’s publicly held businesses at very low cost.” As per him, the best way to guarantee fair returns from the stock market is index investing.
Throughout the book, he gives in-depth insights and practical advice on how to maximize our optimum returns, and make investing a winner’s game. The book is illustrated with evidence in the form of graphs, tables, and charts. He also seeks third-party validation in the book from famous investors and investing experts, from Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham to Paul Samuelson and Burton Malkiel.
2. THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR - By Benjamin Graham
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, wrote this book in the year 1949, and it focuses on Graham’s strategy of loss minimization over profit maximization. This book won’t tell you how to make millions, but instead, provide you with a roadmap to avoid major errors throughout your investing journey.
In the latest edition of the book, published in 2003, Wall Street Journal Columnist, Jason Zweig, adds in some commentary, and he draws parallels between Graham’s examples and today’s financial headlines. One of the Best Investing Books of All Time, this book introduced time-tested principles that every investor can use. It has been described as “By far the best book on investing ever written,” by Warren Buffet, who was one of the students of Benjamin Graham.
3. BEATING THE STREET - By Peter Lynch
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
Beating the Street focuses on the process Lynch used for picking winning stocks when he ran the famed Magellan Fund. The book preaches a common-sense approach, insisting that individual investors who conduct thorough due diligence – by looking at and analyzing financial statements – can invest just like the experts.
In this book, Peter Lynch shows you how you can become an expert in a company and how you can build a profitable investment portfolio, based on your own experience and insights and straightforward do-it-yourself research. He explains his own strategies for investing and offers advice on how to pick stocks and mutual funds to assemble a successful investment portfolio. This book has also been categorized as one of the Best Investing Books for Beginners.
4. THE DECISION BOOK: FIFTY MODELS FOR STRATEGIC THINKING - By Mikael Krogerus
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
This book is a great guide for individuals who are involved in dealing with people or are in a decision making position, managers or aspiring entrepreneurs or frankly, anyone who wants to learn how to improve their decision making capability. And investing is one of the areas that checks all these boxes. Investment requires a great deal of strategic thinking, analysis of risk and past performance of stocks.
The Decision Book provides a permanent framework with which one can view the problem from a different vantage point. The book also draws upon some of the theories mentioned in Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Visually displaying the concepts through illustrations for each model, the book provides a summary of the different strategies that are widely implemented by individuals and businesses when making a decision.
5. COMMON STOCKS AND UNCOMMON PROFITS - By Philip Fisher
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
A pioneer in the world of financial analysis, Philip Fisher has had a major influence on modern investment theory and is credited with the idea of analyzing stocks based on their growth potential. In this book, he teaches investors to analyze the quality of a business and its ability to produce profits. It is one of the Best Investing Books on choosing investments by evaluating a company’s management team. Fisher is one of the few guys Warren Buffett points to as an influence on his investing strategy.
The investment philosophies, introduced in this book almost forty years ago, are not only studied and applied by today’s financiers and investors, but are also regarded by many as gospel. This book is an invaluable read and has been since it was first published in 1958.
6. LEARN TO EARN: A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO THE BASICS OF INVESTING AND BUSINESS - By Peter Lynch and John Rothchild
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
Being one of the Best Investing Books for Beginners, Learn to Earn explains the basic principles of the stock market and business in an investing guide that will enlighten and entertain anyone who is high-school age or older. Peter Lynch and John Rothchild break down many business basics and explain not only how to invest, but also how to think like an investor.
There are four chapters in the book – namely a short history of Capitalism, the basics of investing, the lives of the company and the invisible hands along with the introduction of companies around us. The authors are of the idea that students are better exposed to a product whose shares can turn out to be a multi-bagger. If students understand the fundamentals of investing then they will surely take out time to research a company whose product they use regularly.
7. INTERPRETATION OF FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - By Benjamin Graham
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
The Interpretation of Financial Statements guides the reader through the core concepts found in balance sheets, income and expense statements, and financial ratios. Graham’s philosophy was to closely examine a company’s financial statements to identify undervalued opportunities and take advantage of it.
Written just three years after his landmark Security Analysis, The Interpretation of Financial Statements gets to the heart of the master’s ideas on value investing in only a few pages. The author provides simple tests any reader can apply to determine the financial health and well-being of any company. As he writes in the preface, “if you have precise information as to a company’s present financial position and its past earnings record, you are better equipped to gauge its future possibilities. And this is the essential function and value of security analysis.”
8. ONE UP ON WALL STREET: HOW TO USE WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW TO MAKE MONEY IN THE MARKET - By Peter Lynch and John Rothchild
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
In this book, author Peter Lynch argues that it’s not only possible for newbie investors to do as well as—if not better than—the pros, but he maintains they already have everything it takes right at their fingertips. He is of the opinion that solid investment opportunities are all around us, littering the ground at our feet, we just need to stop walking so fast, and bend down to inspect the clutter so we can pluck out the most viable options, and quite literally make the best out of waste.
It is one of the Best Investing Books to Read; and a very helpful book for those who want to gain basic knowledge and insights about how stocks work in the financial market and how to select the best portfolio of securities. Lynch shared his experiences and told us how he felt or how he dealt with losses and success when investing.
9. THE FIVE RULES FOR SUCCESSFUL STOCK INVESTING: MORNINGSTAR'S GUIDE TO BUILDING WEALTH AND WINNING IN THE MARKET - By Pat Dorsey
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
In many aspects of life, past performance has a lot of predictive value. It is only natural then for investors to believe that the past track record can foretell the future performance of stocks. But in The Five Rules For Successful Stock Investing author Pat Dorsey says that the past track record often does not translate into stellar results in the future.
This, he explains, happens as a result of the essential nature of capitalism. Outsized profits inevitably, and unfortunately, invite the competition. The entry of many rivals leads to whittling down of market share, and thereby the firm’s profits. The book is very informative and highly accessible, and should be read by anyone looking for the right investment opportunities in today’s ever-changing markets.
10. A RANDOM WALK DOWN WALL STREET: THE TIME-TESTED STRATEGY FOR SUCCESSFUL INVESTING - By Burton G. Malkiel
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
This book addresses the question of what an average investor can do at a time of frightening volatility in the financial markets. The author presents anecdotal, theoretical, historical, and statistical reasons to adopt his strategies. The book goes into extensive detail as to why you should strongly consider index funds or ETFs rather than mutual funds, individual stocks, or help from a personal financial advisor.
He further devotes an entire chapter to behavioral finance and mob psychology and covers some of the innumerable foibles of our race when it comes to making rational decisions.
In this book, Malkiel explains that the market is highly efficient, and no one can accurately predict its ups and downs; it’s a “random walk”. So, the best approach is to be passive, “buy and hold” investing using diversified index funds held long term.
11. RICH DAD POOR DAD - By Robert T. Kiyosaki
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
Rich Dad Poor Dad chronicles Robert’s early life and childhood when he was living with his two dads — his real father and the father of his best friend, his “rich dad” — and how both men shaped his thoughts about money and investing. It has remained one of the most influential personal finance and investing books since it was first published over 20 years ago.
This book revolves around the lessons rich folks teach their kids about money, which according to Robert Kiyosaki, poor and middle-class parents too often neglect. Kiyosaki’s simple-but-effective message preaches the importance of investing early to make your assets/money work for you, instead of you working for money — a concept all children should know.
It is undoubtedly one of the best books for our initial guidance toward financial education. Robert has a knack for putting complex financial and economic cases into simpler perspectives, the cases provided by the anecdotes of the rich dad were also helpful in understanding these theories.
12. THE ONLY INVESTMENT GUIDE YOU’LL EVER NEED - By Andrew Tobias
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
Andrew Tobias doesn’t just address the wealthy investor in his book. He offers tips and insights for those with more limited capital, and he does it in a frank, easy-to-understand, and often humorous way. He dedicated the book to his broker, who, he says, “from time to time made me just that.”
This book is for people who want to be financially sound, and not those who wish to get rich quick. It details all the financial instruments available and which option should we invest in.
Tobias demonstrates the risks of investing, through his personal examples. He is pragmatic and logical (invest/save small increments for a long time, buy low), doesn’t prey on greed, and tells you what to do and what not to do (don’t waste money on a broker). The writing style of the book is very casual, and the book goes over the long term investing most people should consider.
13. THE ESSAYS OF WARREN BUFFET - By Lawrence Cunningham
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
This book is a collection of Warren Buffett‘s letters to the shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway written over the past few decades that together furnish an enormously valuable informal education. The book spans more than 50 years, and offers an excellent explanation of the relationship between corporations and their shareholders, which makes it ideal for those new to investing. It is one of the Best Investing Books to be ever published.
These letters were arranged and introduced by Lawrence Cunningham, and provide its readers with seminal wit and wisdom. Buffett establishes that investors should go for good business rather than focusing on the market, buy at good prices and keeping them for the long term, which actually is what Warren has done during his management in Berkshire.
14. STOCKS FOR THE LONG RUN - By Jeremy J. Siegel
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
Stocks For The Long Run provides a portrait of the stock market with the strategies, tools, and techniques investors need to maintain their focus on and achieve meaningful stock returns over time. The most valuable part of the book is the historical return data and accompanying financial analysis.
Siegel presents interesting reference information on returns, sector composition of the stock markets over time and geographies, and the performance of various strategies that attempt to outperform the market. He traces the stock market returns back to 1802 and shows how stocks have performed over many different periods in that time. If you invest for a longer period, it is inevitable you will see large drops, scary headlines, biases, over-confidence and bubbles. Your job is to try and recognize these risks and avoid the temptations to take actions that won’t make sense in the long term.
15. HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN STOCKS: A WINNING SYSTEM IN GOOD TIMES OR BAD - By William J. O’Neil
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
William J. O’Neil, the founder of Investor’s Business Daily, provides tangible ideas to make smart stock investments. The main theories mentioned in this book are – making money reading the daily financial headlines; picking the best industry groups in the market; reading charts to improve stock selection and timing; reducing losses and mistakes; and turning a profit from reading and analyzing the news.
The author created the CAN SLIM system of choosing stocks, where each letter in the acronym stands for a key factor to look for when purchasing shares in a company. This focuses on buying stocks that are performing relatively strongly as well as having a fundamental momentum. Upon reading this book, you’ll gain insights on what drives stocks, positive news (big moves). The author adds a richness of other ideas, including learning when to buy, when to sell, and how to develop your own style. The book is also filled with charts throughout, such that you sometimes need to set it aside and return to it later with fresh eyes.
16. COMMON SENSE ON MUTUAL FUNDS - By John C. Bogle
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
Written in a visionary style, Bogle penetrates various financial myths and jargon and sheds light on central issues that confront every investor, no matter their level of experience or sophistication. This is one of the Best Investing Books for Beginners and talks specifically about the mutual fund industry. The author busts the reality of traditional mutual funds, especially their cost structure, and further goes on to discuss how mutual funds are organized and how they subtly deceive shareholders.
John Bogle, however, offers an alternative to this, and that is index funds. The book is a very thorough blueprint for the individual investor. Bogle believes in investors’ discipline, long-term focus, diligent saving, and the use of passively-managed index funds. By clearly laying out the four dimensions of investing (risk, reward, time, cost), he makes a strong case for avoiding high-cost, actively managed mutual funds or funds which have high turnover or high speculation.
17. IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE - By Robert J. Shiller
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
The book, named after Alan Greenspan‘s infamous 1996 comment on the absurdity of stock market valuations, dispels the myth that the market is rational and instead explains that it is more influenced by emotions, herd behavior, and speculation. Nobel-prize winning economist Robert Shiller gave a chilling warning of the impending dot-com bubble’s burst in his book, through an analysis of the structural, cultural, and psychological factors behind levels of price growth not reflected in any other sector of the economy.
Shiller’s research challenges the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH). He says that the theory does not explain why the stock market can go through periods of significant mispricing lasting years and decades.
The central theme is that asset classes will eventually become overvalued, sometimes hugely, and we can use long-term historical data to interpret the degree to which this happens. The same data can help us predict when we can expect solid future returns, for example, when we’re at the bottom of a crisis. Understanding this is important for investors as it’s difficult to recognize a bubble when you’re in it.
18. THE WARREN BUFFET WAY: INVESTMENT STRATEGIES OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST INVESTOR - By Robert G. Hagstrom
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
Warren Buffett is an investor who needs no introduction whatsoever. In his book, Robert G. Hagstrom managed to capture the investment philosophy, character traits and education of one of the main figures of value investment and one of the richest men on Earth.
Tracing Warren Buffett’s career from the beginning, Robert G. Hagstrom, tells us exactly how, starting with an initial investment of only $100, Buffett built a business empire worth $19.4 billion. The author offers nine case studies of common stock purchases made by Warren Buffett and walks the reader through what investment tenets were used and how they were used. In the first 3 chapters of the book, Hagstrom explains the 12 Tenets of investment. The last four chapters touch on a wide range of subjects, from portfolio management to market psychology and the personal qualities of successful investors.
19. BIG MISTAKES: THE BEST INVESTORS AND THEIR WORST INVESTMENTS - By Michael Batnick
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
This book explores the greatest failures of some of the biggest names out there; and thereby reveals the lessons learned that shaped more successful strategies going forward. Lessons learned through failures carry a weight that no textbook can convey, and in the case of these legendary investors, informed a set of skills and strategy that propelled them to the top.
Batnick mentions the mistakes made by some very prominent names, such as Charlie Munger, Bill Ackman, Jesse Livermore, Warren Buffett, and many more such personalities. Research-heavy and grounded in realism, this book is a must-read for any investor looking to maximize their probability of success. The motto of this book is to learn from other people’s mistakes, and derive wisdom from the same without the consequences of experience.
20. PREDICTING THE MARKETS: A PROFESSIONAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY - By Edward Yardeni
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
In Predicting The Markets, Edward Yardeni shares with his readers the lessons learned by him forecasting the economy and financial markets as a Wall Street Economist and Investment Strategist over the past 40 years.
He explores how and why many conventional forecasting models have been so frequently wrong. His approach is based on common sense, rather than complicated and baseless theories. The book is brimming with lessons for not only institutional investors but also for business professionals, individual investors as well as students. This is one of the Best Investing Books for Beginners. It can be read by anyone with an interest in Financial markets and economics.
21. BIG MONEY THINKS SMALL: BIASES, BLINDSPOTS AND SMARTER INVESTING - By Joel Tillinghast
WHY IT IS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS ON INVESTMENT?
Veteran fund manager, Joel Tillinghast reveals in his book how to avoid some commonly-made mistakes by investors. He offers the readers a set of simple but exhaustive steps to successful investing. Tillinghast walks us through some of the psychological minefields first explored by experts like Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversy, who are considered to be the pioneers in behavioral finance.
The author writes in a friendly and frank manner, and he tells stories about stocks and companies based on the evaluation of numbers that are enlightening. What he doesn’t do is give you the belief that you can do these evaluations yourself without a lot of experience and knowledge. The book contains practical and specific advice. This book is highly recommendable for anyone who has an interest in personal finances and investments.
Best Books On Investment - The Conclusion
The best investors did not emerge overnight but instead perfected their skills and knowledge via years of thought, research and practice. When you are done with these books, we hope that you would have gained some knowledge about the fundamentals of investing.
If you read these Investment Books, and keep coming back to them after you apply the financial concepts and theories that you learn, you should be able to become a good investor.
well written article