Books on investing

7_week_wonder

Thanks everyone - plenty of food for thought there. I think it was the Tim Hale book that I'd seen recommended before. I will enjoy doing plenty of research and coming back with questions.

I'm just plucking up the courage to start asking questions on this part of MSE. I currently have various savings (in and out of ISAs), investments and a pension pot from previous employment, but I've had a six year career gap whilst I retrained during which I had a low income and no spare money. I'm just about to be able to start saving again and with about 20 years to go until retirement I think I should be doing something better than cash ISAs at 1.5% interest!

Archi_Bald

For those who have read earlier but not the latest edition of Tim Hale's Smarter Investing, there's a very helpful review on Monevator: http://monevator.com/tim-hales-smarter-investing-whats-new/

grizzly1911

I brought the 3rd edition has I had a book token that needed using and the graphs and tables of the earlier edition didn't show up well in my electronic version.

I "purchased" via HIVE rather than the mainstream internet providers as it was cheaper and it they claim to support local bookshops.

Interesting that it has lost 100 pages from the first edition. I did find a lot of repetition in the earlier one.

coastline

have a look at the Foolish Investing guides on the homepage ..

http://www.fool.co.uk/

WatsonNimrod

When I take on a new subject I tend to start with the dummies style of book then work my way up to the more academic tomes, I'm also fortunate in that I spend lots of time hanging about for trains and planes so get through a lot of books.

I'm sure it wont be to most peoples tastes, but for the basics (well in share investing) in an easy to understand layout is The Naked Trader by Robbie Burns. I read it after 20 or so years of share investing and I agree with a lot of what he says, lots of simple tips that are often overlooked in the more academic works where the author assumes the reader grasps the basic fundamentals. Its a tad heavy on product placement, but if you cut that out its a very good basic guide in plain english on share trading and value investing.

I also refer often to Benjamin Graham's Intelligent Investor which is a bit more meaty, but still covers a lot of basic fundamentals and is seen by many as one of the greatest books ever written on the markets.

I agree with whats been posted on US books (with the exception of Intelligent Investor) unless you are comfortable with their terminology they can be misleading. There are plenty of better reads before you move on to the US ones

Conrad

WatsonNimrod wrote: »

When I take on a new subject I tend to start with the dummies style of book then work my way up to the more academic tomes, I'm also fortunate in that I spend lots of time hanging about for trains and planes so get through a lot of books.

I'm sure it wont be to most peoples tastes, but for the basics (well in share investing) in an easy to understand layout is The Naked Trader by Robbie Burns. I read it after 20 or so years of share investing and I agree with a lot of what he says, lots of simple tips that are often overlooked in the more academic works where the author assumes the reader grasps the basic fundamentals. Its a tad heavy on product placement, but if you cut that out its a very good basic guide in plain english on share trading and value investing.

I also refer often to Benjamin Graham's Intelligent Investor which is a bit more meaty, but still covers a lot of basic fundamentals and is seen by many as one of the greatest books ever written on the markets.

I agree with whats been posted on US books (with the exception of Intelligent Investor) unless you are comfortable with their terminology they can be misleading. There are plenty of better reads before you move on to the US ones

Something I've pondered is that when you consider professional fund managers have access to all of this and far more, it strikes me as somewhat unlikely the average Jo could outperform such managers and bare in mind many a manager delivers a poor return.

Surely there's no value opportunity the professional fund managers have not already spotted well before joe blo does?

Isn't it the case then that the best we can do is pick reasonably good value stocks of decent companies and just hold for the long term?

WatsonNimrod

Conrad wrote: »

Something I've pondered is that when you consider professional fund managers have access to all of this and far more, it strikes me as somewhat unlikely the average Jo could outperform such managers and bare in mind many a manager delivers a poor return.

Surely there's no value opportunity the professional fund managers have not already spotted well before joe blo does?

Isn't it the case then that the best we can do is pick reasonably good value stocks of decent companies and just hold for the long term?

Oh absolutely, I agree with all of the above, however I find that a good starting point for someone starting out in investing is a book that covers the basics both good and bad.

My limited knowledge has developed over 20 years of investing by learning by my mistakes (20 years ago there wasn't that many user friendly books on share trading and investing).

What I like about the Naked Trader is that even tho I have read many many more 'higher brow' books all too often I see people trying to skip the basics of loss which that book covers rather simply and to the point.

IronWolf

Conrad wrote: »

Something I've pondered is that when you consider professional fund managers have access to all of this and far more, it strikes me as somewhat unlikely the average Jo could outperform such managers and bare in mind many a manager delivers a poor return.

Surely there's no value opportunity the professional fund managers have not already spotted well before joe blo does?

Isn't it the case then that the best we can do is pick reasonably good value stocks of decent companies and just hold for the long term?

The best fund managers have funds so large they cannot invest in smaller companies. Also a lot of funds are not long term focussed, despite what they proclaim, so theres always opportunities for smaller investors with the required discipline.

innovate

IronWolf wrote: »

The best fund managers have funds so large they cannot invest in smaller companies. Also a lot of funds are not long term focussed, despite what they proclaim, so theres always opportunities for smaller investors with the required discipline.

Also, there is no harm in Average Joe having a basic grasp of the workings of the markets, and the different investment vehicles available. De-mystifying investments for the private investor can only be a good thing, though perhaps not for those who have a vested interest in keeping it shrouded in mystery.

Sobryma

Another vote for Tim Hale's book; another really easy and interesting read is "All About Asset Allocation" by Rick Ferri.