Books for Newbie Investor..

BLB53

I liked 'Smarter Investing' but could be too much for beginners to take on board.

Also like 'Monkey with a Pin' which is now available for free.

'Slow & Steady Steps..' is good basic introduction - also by same person 'DIY Simple Investing' may be worth a read - short and sweet so could be better for a complete novice to investing.

claire111

Many Thanks for all the replies folks, lots to get my teeth into.

DominicH

Personally I think a lot of these books consist of one or two perfectly reasonable ideas, but in order to get them into marketable book form they have to be padded out to 200 or 300 pages. Most of them could be condensed to about ten pages without losing very much.

I like Investing Demystified, for example, but its central message can be boiled down to what its author says in a couple of guest columns at Monevator, chiefly this one:
http://monevator.com/why-a-total-world-equity-index-tracker-is-the-only-index-fund-you-need/

themanfromamarillo

I've read The Intelligent Investor and it's pretty good if a bit old-fashioned (written in the 40s, updated in the 70s and with a commentary from the 00s). The most defensive thing Graham recommends is buying all the shares in the Dow Jones. This was before trackers were invented so his simplest suggestion is essentially buy a tracker. The second simplest thing he suggests is it buy companies with consistent earnings, dividends, reasonable growth and low debt.

One thing to note is a lot of the books mentioned before are based on the efficient market assumption. This assumes that the market absorbs information efficiently and readjusts the price of a stock to what it should be. An alternative to this is Irrational Exuberance by Robert Shiller. This looks at how bubbles can form in the stock market.

Playing_with_Fire_2

DominicH wrote: »

Personally I think a lot of these books consist of one or two perfectly reasonable ideas/

This!! Here are some more:

Smarter Investing: After fees, the average managed fund is below average; buy cheap index funds and as many bonds as you need to sleep at night.

MND: You get rich buy saving money not spending it on fancy cars