DIY investment - required reading list?

Tassie_Devil

Lots of useful stuff here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/MeaningfulMoneyUK/videos

https://www.youtube.com/c/Pensioncraft/videos

BritishInvestor

Thrugelmir said:

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

"You're a couple of decades to late. 

For stock pickers, I agree. The market is way too efficient for that now!

I'm not sure of the relevance of LTCM for the companies I am referencing:

Differences in leverage
https://www.forbes.com/sites/prestonpysh/2017/03/13/edward-thorp-blackjack-beat-the-dealer/?sh=658ffd013de5

Mathematicians/scientists/computer scientists/physicians vs traders/economists
Mean reversion vs trend-following/patterns/anomalies (probably )
Liquidity of underlying assets
Level of model sophistication
Number of trades
Availability to external investors


Reading books about stock picking is a waste of time for someone starting out (and arguably for most private investors) and could lead someone to waste time and money as they make mistakes on their investing journey.

Along with Robin's book, this is another easy read and I would suggest will lead to better outcomes vs books about stock picking.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Winning-Losers-Game-Strategies-Successful-ebook/dp/B08NTX7N4Q/

BritishInvestor

Audaxer said:

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. 

Much as I admire Tim and his book I don't think it's what I would choose to read first if I were starting out.

jim8888

I enjoyed The Simple Path to Wealth by Jim Collins, which I listened to on Audible. It's choc full of good common sense ideas on personal finance (but it is US biased and isn't totally about investing.) Outside of that, posting on this forum has been the best thing I've found for good advice and helpful information.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01H97OQY2/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

QrizB

jim8888 said:

I enjoyed The Simple Path to Wealth by Jim Collins ...

I first read that as "Joan Collins" and my mind boggled.

Thrugelmir

BritishInvestor said:

Thrugelmir said:

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

Reading books about stock picking is a waste of time for someone starting out (and arguably for most private investors) and could lead someone to waste time and money as they make mistakes on their investing journey.

Basic principles apply whatever you invest in whether it be individual stocks or collective investments. Having an open mindset is essential when DIY. The broader your reading the better you'll swim the oceans. 

BritishInvestor

Thrugelmir said:

BritishInvestor said:

Thrugelmir said:

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

Reading books about stock picking is a waste of time for someone starting out (and arguably for most private investors) and could lead someone to waste time and money as they make mistakes on their investing journey.

Basic principles apply whatever you invest in whether it be individual stocks or collective investments. Having an open mindset is essential when DIY. The broader your reading the better you'll swim the oceans. 

Agreed, but I'm very wary of being blown off course/swimming in circles, as I'm sure we all have been at some point along the way.

Robert_McGeddon

gm0 said:

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.

A simpler and more UK-oriented recommendation is "Beyond the 4% Rule" by Abraham Okusanya.

redpete

Robert_McGeddon said:

gm0 said:

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.

A simpler and more UK-oriented recommendation is "Beyond the 4% Rule" by Abraham Okusanya.

That's one that I found useful as a read-in to drawdown strategies.

[Deleted User]

Basics

John Edwards. DIY pensions

General

The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
The Four Pillars of Investing, William Bernstein. ISBN 978-0071747059

If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly, Willim Bernstein.  Free download

The Intelligent Asset Allocator, William Bernstein. ISBN 978-0071362368

Rational Expectations: Asset Allocation for Investing Adults, William Bernstein, ISBN 978-0988780323

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, John C. Bogle. ISBN 978-0470102107

Winning the Loser's Game, Charles D. Ellis. ISBN 978-0071545495

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings, Philip A. Fisher. ISBN 978-0471445500

Risk is Still a Four Letter Word, George Hartman. ISBN 978-0773761100

One Up on Wall Street, Peter Lynch. ISBN 978-0743200400

Beating the Street, Peter Lynch. ISBN 978-0671891633

A Random Walk Down Wall Street, Burton Malkiel. ISBN 978-0393340747

Where Are The Customers' Yachts?, Or, A Good Hard Look At Wall Street, Fred Schwed. ISBN 978-0471770893

Money Masters of Our Time, John Train. ISBN 978-0887309700

Risk less and prosper; your guide to safer investing, Zvi Bodie and Rachelle Taqqu, ISBN 978-1118014301

Investment for adults series by Bernstein
Your Money and Your Brain by Jason Zweig

This board should have a basic list of reputable references.  Would answer 99% of all questions.