This was inspired by another thread.

Warren Buffett once said, "I could improve your ultimate financial welfare by giving you a ticket with only twenty slots in it so that you had twenty punches - representing all the investments that you got to make in a lifetime. And once you'd punched through the card, you couldn't make any more investments at all. Under those rules, you'd really think carefully about what you did, and you'd be forced to load up on what you'd really thought about. So you'd do so much better." - source

If you were to apply this rule to up to 5 books. Up to 5 books you could re-read as often as you like. What would they be?

Three that come to mind:
1) The Intelligent Investor
2) Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
3) Security Analysis

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Kfh,

Have you actually read Security Analysis cover-to-cover? Has anyone on here?

My blog: [www.thehackensack.blogspot.com]

My company's new site, which features tools and ideas for short sellers: [shortscreen.com]

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In no particular order:

You Can Be A Stock Market Genius - Greenblatt
Margin of Safety - Klarman
More than You Know - Mauboussin
Fooled by Randomness - Taleb
Influence - Cialdini

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Nope, not me Dave. Just got Security Analysis last week. :)

Ill add "Margin of Safety" - Seth Klarman to kfh's list. Which I also have, just started it last night.

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DaveinHackensack Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Kfh,
>
> Have you actually read Security Analysis
> cover-to-cover? Has anyone on here?
>
>

I probably got through 1/4 of it. It is hard reading but I do in fact intend on reading it cover to cover. With home remodeling, I just never had the time. I view it as required reading though, even though I have only gotten through 1/4 of it. Man, it is a tough book to read.

I will pay up to $50 for someones copy of Margin of Safety! I've tried locating through various means and I have had no luck.

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.

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1. Intelligent Investor
2. Security Analysis
3. Compendium of Berkshire Letters to Shareholders(I think Berkshire stopped giving this out for free.)
4. Tweedy, Browne paper :WHAT HAS WORKED IN INVESTING: Studies of Investment Approaches and Characteristics
Associated with Exceptional Returns
Available for free on their website www.tweedy.com
5. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits


V

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I haven't read many books (just a newbie and more occupied with articles than books :( )... and I'm not a value investor... and here are my top 3 picks so far:

1. Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham: A lot of it is obsolete but it gives the essence of the market. Initially I thought a lot of the examples were too old but then I realized that things are almost the same now. Just replace the industry with something new and it makes sense.

2. Contrarian Investment Strategies by David Dreman: Basically, convinced me that contrarian strategies can work. I don't know if I'm cut out to be a successful contrarian investor but that's my goal. The #1 lesson I learned is how out of favour stocks outperform during almost any market condition. The problem is avoiding falling knives (not sure how to do that yet)

3. Tomorrow's Gold by Marc Faber: I think once I start reading more books, I may find one better than this but for now it's on my list. I like the book for its super-long-term historical perspective. Faber has been right with commodities and Asia over the last 5 years but it remains to be seen how the future shapes up...

---------
Check out my investing blog - contrarian with a macro focus and a value investing tilt: Can Turtles Fly? A Contrarian Investing Blog.

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1. The Intelligent Investor - Graham


2. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits - Fisher


3. The Little Book That Beats the Market - Greenblatt


4. Contrarian Investment Strategies - Dreman


-- ccyork

"Slow and steady wins the race." - Aesop

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All the listed books are quite good. I would add.......The Warren Buffett Way by Robert Hagstrom.......Value Investing, various authors.........The Little Book of Value Investing by Chris Browne.........Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre............One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch.............Analysis of Financial Statements by Bernstein and Wild..............and the best of the lot.............The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing by Pat Dorsey.............read the latter if you read nothing else. Of the previously mentioned work, the Buffett letters from the partnership days forward would be my first pick. If you don't have the patience to read them all............you are in the wrong game...........:-)

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