DIY investment - required reading list?

Avoirdupois

Hi folks, I've recently posted a Q to do with restricted advisors, which some respondants have been kind enough to comment on, for which I thank them. :-)  The post has prompted me to start reading up on the subject - good job I'm now retired...  I notice from reading dozens of posts, here on the MSE forum, several comments that crop up again and again, the foremost being to suggest that do-it-yourself investment is well within the capabiities of someone who is prepared to read up on the subject and to put in the necessary work and effort.  I would say with a wry smile that that advice will come from a self-selecting group, in that the sort of person who is likely to advise to the effect that diy investment is a possibility is going to be literate, numerate, organised and clear-thinking, none of which describes me!
But to my Q.  What are the books or on-line resurces that are recommended as required reading for someone like me who is considering diy investment or who simply wants to get their heads round the core ideas and principles, in order to inform their conversation with a pro.?

Thrugelmir

Harriman's New Book of Investing Rules: The Do's and Don'ts of the World's Best Investors

The Smart Money Method: How to pick stocks like a hedge fund pro

BritishInvestor

Thrugelmir said:

Harriman's New Book of Investing Rules: The Do's and Don'ts of the World's Best Investors

The Smart Money Method: How to pick stocks like a hedge fund pro

"The Smart Money Method: How to pick stocks like a hedge fund pro"

Build a huge dataset and use market knowledge, advanced mathematical concepts and machine learning to program strategies and let computers make the trading decisions? 

Or rather something that doesn't work?

BritishInvestor

Avoirdupois said:

Hi folks, I've recently posted a Q to do with restricted advisors, which some respondants have been kind enough to comment on, for which I thank them. :-)  The post has prompted me to start reading up on the subject - good job I'm now retired...  I notice from reading dozens of posts, here on the MSE forum, several comments that crop up again and again, the foremost being to suggest that do-it-yourself investment is well within the capabiities of someone who is prepared to read up on the subject and to put in the necessary work and effort.  I would say with a wry smile that that advice will come from a self-selecting group, in that the sort of person who is likely to advise to the effect that diy investment is a possibility is going to be literate, numerate, organised and clear-thinking, none of which describes me!
But to my Q.  What are the books or on-line resurces that are recommended as required reading for someone like me who is considering diy investment or who simply wants to get their heads round the core ideas and principles, in order to inform their conversation with a pro.?

This is a good starting point

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Invest-Your-Way-Financial-Freedom-ebook/dp/B09BVZVSF6/ref=sr_1_1

JohnWinder

Smarter Investing, by Tim Hale.  I wouldn't say 'required' but packed with coherent information that sounds enough like common sense with enough evidence to back it up to be very appealing. Very little specific to UK tax law, it's about investing. But you won't find anything about how to pick individual stocks like a pro, or what the world's hottest investors do or don't do.

Some of Bogle's books are free to download, even if only older editions which still sound sound.

RacingDriver

https://monevator.com/investing-for-beginners-why-do-we-invest/

Thrugelmir

BritishInvestor said:

Thrugelmir said:

Harriman's New Book of Investing Rules: The Do's and Don'ts of the World's Best Investors

The Smart Money Method: How to pick stocks like a hedge fund pro

"The Smart Money Method: How to pick stocks like a hedge fund pro"

Build a huge dataset and use market knowledge, advanced mathematical concepts and machine learning to program strategies and let computers make the trading decisions? 

Or rather something that doesn't work?

You're a couple of decades to late. Long-Term Capital Management used rocket scientists in an attempt to create the perfect solution. Unfortunately their system failed when the stock market roulette wheel hit the zero. 

My suggestions were educational in nature and easy reads. Most new investors would get bogged down and bored with something like

This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly

Another good easy read if someone has never studied economics is

How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes

bostonerimus

David Copperfield for Mr Micawber.

Audaxer

Smarter Investing by Tim Hale is a good book to get started as well as looking through the Monevator website. In particular I would recommend researching passive investing and also low cost globally diversified multi asset funds like for example, the Vanguard LifeStrategy range, the HSBC Global Strategy range and the L&G Multi Index range of funds. These and several others are discussed a lot of this forum, so just search under these names and you will get a lot of info about these funds. 

gm0

A few possibles:

Web

+1 for monevator summaries.  Also earlyretirementnow (not least to validate how much of this stuff you are prepared to deal with before hiring the pro.

For more depth:

Investing domain language - stocks, bonds, funds, etfs, portfolios

Rational Expectations (Bernstein)
Random Walk down Wallstreet

And for DC drawdown pension mechanics for those actually making their own DIY plan.

McClung (Living off your money) - Brilliant applied testing of a literature survey of methods to handle DC drawdown - income, access, rebalancing etc. Dreadful to digest in a single sitting. Arguably impossible if not already somewhat up to speed on investment domain language and concepts.  As an engineer with a strong need to roll in the detail mud I took several goes.

JohnWinder

The first three chapters of McClung’s book used to be free online. Might still be. But it’s second order stuff compared with how to invest.