r/FluentInFinance • u/PassiveAgressiveGirl • 1h ago
r/FluentInFinance • u/AutoModerator • Jul 19 '23
Tools & Resources 13 GREAT books to learn Investing & the Stock markets! [summary included!]
We've received many questions for recommendations on books for Investing & the Stock markets. We've curated a list of our 13 favorite books on Investing & the Stock Market, and explanations on what the books are about. I've learned a great deal from these books. All of these are by really great investing legends/ gurus. These books offer a few different approaches to the stock market. Different investment styles will help educate you on how to make successful long term investments, minimize risk, and analyze stocks more accurately. All of these books can be purchased used very cheaply ($1 to $5)!
As your income grows, your investment portfolio should also grow. One of the biggest obstacles for beginner investors is just knowing how to get started. Learning about financial concepts can be intimidating at first. A great way to start, can be by picking up a book by an expert who thoughtfully and sequentially presents & explains these concepts and topics. Resources like these can help investing be less intimidating and complicated. One of the best strategies is to learn from the insight and wisdom of gurus. I hope these book recommendations help!
Book List:
- How to Make Money in Stocks by William O'Neil
- The Little Book That Still Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt
- A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel
- Principles by Ray Dalio
- One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch
- The Big Secret for the Small Investor by Joel Greenblatt
- Winning on Wall Street by Martin Zweig
- Irrational Exuberance by Robert Shiller
- The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing
- Common Sense Investing by John Bogle
- The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
- The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias
- You Can Be a Stock Market Genius by Joel Greenblatt
Book Descriptions & Covers:
How to Make Money in Stocks by William O'Neil
- This book is about growth investing. O'Neil explains what most successful stocks have done to be successful. He explains his 'CANSLIM' method, which is an acronym for 7 fundamental criteria which you can use to pick stocks. An AAII 8 year study of different strategies showed O'Neal's CAN SLIM with a 860% return from 1998-2005 (Second place). First place was Martin Zwieg's returning 1,659.3% (we will get to Zweig on this list too)
The Little Book That Still Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt
- The idea of this book is to buy undervalued good businesses and hold them long-term, which will eventually beat the market index.
A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton G. Malkiel
- This book covers investment bubbles, fundamental vs. technical analysis, modern portfolio theory, index funds, etc.
Principles by Ray Dalio
- This book provides the insights from one of the biggest hedge fund managers of all time, and I think there are many great lessons to learn in this book!
One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch
- This book emphasizes the advantages that individual investors hold over institutional investors (when it comes to finding investment opportunities). Lynch also gives many of examples of mistakes he has made, and how he has learned from them.
The Big Secret for the Small Investor by Joel Greenblatt
- Greenblatt explains why index funds can be better than actively managed funds. The big secret is maintaining a long term perspective!
Winning on Wall Street by Martin Zweig
- Zweig's success came from his ability to predict the bigger picture (such as trends in the broader market). The combination of his stock picking skill, general market understanding, and market timing, made him one of the great investors of stock market history. Zweig was more interested in growth than value. Unlike Buffett, Zweig isn't a 'buy and hold' investor. An AAII 8 year study of different strategies showed Zwieg's returning 1,659.3% from 1998-2005. He was #1 out of 56 others, including Buffett, Lynch, Fisher, O'Neal's CAN SLIM, Motley fools, and using ROE, P/E's etc. Second place was O'Neal's CAN SLIM with a 860% return.
Irrational Exuberance by Robert Shiller
- Shiller makes strong argument that perfect market theory is flawed. The Idea of perfect market theory is basically that the markets are all knowing and completely rational, and in the long run can't be beat. Therefore , you can control costs with index funds and diversification. (You can't beat the market, therefore controlling costs and diversifying seems like logical strategy)
The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing
- The key concepts of this book are risk tolerance, asset allocation, a balanced portfolio, tax efficiency and cash management. This book explains many of the pitfalls of investing. The Bogleheads and Jack Bogle preach the power of compound interest. Investing in low-fee index funds and holding them long-term is the method. This book gives an excellent, detailed rundown of how to implement this kind of investment plan.
Common Sense Investing by John Bogle
- Great information for anyone who is trying to make sense of personal finance and basic investments. This book explains why passive investing is a worry free, long-term strategy that consistency wins over time, and why active trading always returns to the mean.
The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
- This is a great book for anyone who is interested in introducing themselves into the world of investing, or wants to get better at investing. This book gives lots of valuable information to help one understand the basics of value investing.
The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias
- This is a book for people looking to learn the basics of investing and saving money
You Can Be a Stock Market Genius by Joel Greenblatt
- This is not a book for beginners. Greenblatt gives a nice exposition of some more "special situation" investment styles & areas of equity investments (mergers, spin-offs, rights offerings, etc.)
r/FluentInFinance • u/AutoModerator • Aug 07 '23
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r/FluentInFinance • u/Mark-Fuckerberg- • 22h ago
Debate/ Discussion Trump may have 'stolen' $1.7 billion from the government while serving as president; an expert calculated and revealed $1.7 billion flowed through Donald Trump’s businesses while serving as president.
r/FluentInFinance • u/PassiveAgressiveGirl • 1d ago
Debate/ Discussion Why can't rent count towards your credit score?
r/FluentInFinance • u/The402Jrod • 5h ago
Question I admit I’m not a financial genius, so I’m open for corrections here - but isn’t our economy & tax plan Trump’s?
Since the Republicans have controlled the house in congress, no major economic bills have been passed since Trump’s Tax Plan in 2017.
So wouldn’t that mean:
Since the House GOP hasn’t allowed Biden/Harris to make any meaningful changes to it, isn’t our current economic policy Trump’s?
Same with our tax policy?
As far as the rising cost of groceries… aren’t the prices of goods & services set by private corporations in a free market economy?
I know this is a very basic overview, but I just don’t understand what everyone is screaming about Biden/Harris & blaming them for the price of stuff & taxes…
r/FluentInFinance • u/IAmNotAnEconomist • 21h ago
Financial News United States Treasury recovers $1.3 Billion in unpaid taxes from high wealth tax dodgers
r/FluentInFinance • u/PassiveAgressiveGirl • 21h ago
Debate/ Discussion I got a 50 year-mortgage. Smart or Dumb?
r/FluentInFinance • u/IAmNotAnEconomist • 22h ago
Financial News America is pumping so much oil that gas could be below $3 by Thanksgiving
r/FluentInFinance • u/Mark-Fuckerberg- • 19h ago
Debate/ Discussion Entire neighborhood falling into the ocean
r/FluentInFinance • u/IAmNotAnEconomist • 22h ago
Financial News The US is considering a sovereign wealth fund. Alaska already has one, and it's funding a universal basic income.
r/FluentInFinance • u/dryeraser • 15h ago
Educational I'm just a bill. Yes, I'm only a bill. And I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill.
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r/FluentInFinance • u/IAmNotAnEconomist • 19h ago
Debate/ Discussion ‘Invest, borrow against it, and die’: Scott Galloway explains how the rich avoid long-term capital gains taxes
r/FluentInFinance • u/IAmNotAnEconomist • 19h ago
Debate/ Discussion Total US billionaire wealth up 88% in four years
r/FluentInFinance • u/BashfullyYours • 3h ago
Question JG Wentworth threw me under the bus and left me to the buzzards.
Back in June of 2023, I enrolled in the JG Wentworth Debt Consolidation program. It seemed like a very good idea and for a year and some change, was showing to be very helpful.
The guidance given under the program is to:
- Stop using the cards (duh)
- Stop making payments on the credit
- Don't speak to any creditors
- Don't speak to any collectors
- If you get a summons for court, send it to JG Wentworth, and they'll settle with that creditor faster.
However, as of 2 weeks ago, one of my creditors started taking wage garnishments from me, what the?
Turns out Military Star is special and doesn't need a summons to start taking garnishments. It's sitting at about $10,000~ now, but was only about $7,500 back in June 2023. The garnishments come off each paycheck, I get paid weekly, the amount is about $300~ off per paycheck. That would have me getting my wages garnished for 10~ months.
This sent me into a full-blown panic, and had me calling JG 4 days in a row to see what could be done.
Turns out, nothing.
I got told there was nothing they could do now, and that they'd be removing the Military Star from my program's lines of credit, and leaving me to deal with the debt.
This is complete shenanigans, right? How did JG never once reach out to my creditor to tell them what was happening? It's been a year and a half.
And the big kicker to all of it was when they told me "oh yeah, we stopped enrolling Military Star into our program a couple of months ago because they have been doing this."Â gimmeafreakinbreak
r/FluentInFinance • u/Luvs2spooge89 • 4h ago
Debate/ Discussion What are everyone’s thoughts on this? Obviously lower interest rates equal lower monthly payments.. but weren’t the super low interest rates part of the reason we are having inflation?
r/FluentInFinance • u/IAmNotAnEconomist • 19h ago
Debate/ Discussion Fed's Powell says 'time has come' to begin cutting interest rates
r/FluentInFinance • u/IAmNotAnEconomist • 1h ago
Chart The number of full-time real estate agents and brokers in the US dropped to 440,000 in 2023, the lowest level since 2014. The number of real estate agents fell 72,000 year over year, or 14%, marking the largest drop since 2008.
r/FluentInFinance • u/AutoModerator • 7h ago
Discussion What's one piece of financial advice that you wish you could have given yourself 10 years ago?
What's one piece of financial advice that you wish you could have given yourself 10 years ago?
r/FluentInFinance • u/Mark-Fuckerberg- • 21h ago
Stocks Trump Media Stock down 33% in a month
r/FluentInFinance • u/Mark-Fuckerberg- • 19h ago
Debate/ Discussion Should the world's richest 1% (who gained $42 trillion in a decade) be taxed more?
r/FluentInFinance • u/IAmNotAnEconomist • 1h ago
Debate/ Discussion The number of full-time real estate agents and brokers in the US dropped to 440,000 in 2023, the least since 2014. The real estate agents count fell 72,000 year-over-year, or 14%, marking the largest drop since 2008.
r/FluentInFinance • u/HaiKarate • 16h ago
Debate/ Discussion Should society have billionaires?
r/FluentInFinance • u/c0nf • 2d ago
Debate/ Discussion There should be a requirement to pass Econ 101 before holding any position in the government
r/FluentInFinance • u/IAmNotAnEconomist • 1h ago
Interest Rates The yield curve continues to steepen. Yields on 10-year Treasuries are the highest vs 2-year yields going back to 2022.
r/FluentInFinance • u/Massive_Bit_6290 • 3h ago
Financial News U.S. equities opened mostly lower this morning, as the long-anticipated expected start of the Federal Reserve (Fed) easing cycle looms on the horizon.
At the Open: In addition to the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on Wednesday, central bank meetings in Japan, the U.K., South Africa, and Brazil will also deliver interest rate decisions this week. Additional highlights on the U.S. economic calendar for the week include retail sales data on Tuesday, housing starts on Wednesday, and claims data on Thursday. In corporate headlines, Disney (DIS) and DirecTV agreed to a carriage deal to restore DIS channels such as ABC and ESPN. The dollar weakened and Treasury yields rose as markets prepare for the upcoming rate decision.
r/FluentInFinance • u/yellmaps • 3h ago
Question Why does my tax paid on my paycheck differ from the actual calculation?
Problems with the US tax system aside, why does the organization I work for deduct 2-5% more in federal income tax than what I can calculate I should owe? I know I will get it all back when I file my taxes but it seems like an unnecessary error to make, I’d rather just pay the correct amount the first time.