(ZT) The Top Investing Books of All Time/>
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1. One Up on Wall Street
By Peter Lynch
"Rule number one," writes Peter Lynch early on in his individual-investor-empowering classic, "Stop listening to professionals!" Lynch was a Fool before our time. As the portfolio manager who led the Fidelity Magellan Fund to mutual fund prominence in the 1980s, Lynch's 1989 book helped fuel the consumer-driven market passion in the 1990s. His secret to "stalking the ten-baggers" was simple: buy quality companies one can understand and believe in -- and hold on. He didn't dabble in the "science of wiggles" or promote options trading. He was able to uncover the winners of his time, like Dunkin' Donuts and La Quinta, by kicking the tires of the life experience. This was Lynch's first book and he managed to provide an easy-to-read market primer that also serves as an ode to the joys of self-directed investing.
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2. The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America
By Warren E. Buffett, Lawrence A. Cunningham
In the landscape of investment books, The Essays of Warren Buffett stands out like a schooner on a sea of inflatable rafts. Not only do we get 40 years of wisdom from the world's most successful investor, distilled into a slim, 200-page book, but we get lines like this: "My behavior has matched that admitted by Mae West: I was Snow White, but I drifted." Just as Obi-Wan Kenobi gave young Luke Skywalker a psychological center, Buffett's essays give investors a platform from which to begin a disciplined investing career. He covers issues ranging from mergers and acquisitions, to employee stock options, accounting goodwill, and corporate governance. Buffett can't give you experience -- you have to accumulate mistakes for yourself -- but he gives you a tack to start the journey and an angle to tilt your sails.
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3. The Intelligent Investor
By Benjamin Graham
One of the most important and influential investment thinkers and teachers of our time, Benjamin Graham's ideas about fundamental securities analysis and value investing formed the foundation for a generation of successful investors, including Warren Buffett. Broader in scope and more accessible than Graham's 1934 classic Security Analysis (co-written with David Dodd), The Intelligent Investor presents Graham's logical and proven investment approach with a broader audience in mind. Providing a framework and practical guidance for both "defensive" and "enterprising" (aggressive) investors, the book includes discussion of portfolio policy, the basics of fundamental securities analysis and stock selection, and the idea of "margin of safety." The fourth edition also includes Warren Buffett's famous lecture, "The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville."
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4. Beating the Street
By Peter Lynch
My colleague Brian Graney recently told me the precise moment at which he became truly interested in stocks and investing -- a conference in 1996, at which he had the opportunity to hear famed money manager Peter Lynch speak. Brian came away with a permanent imprint of Lynch's energy, thirst for knowledge, and commitment to hard work; and readers of Beating the Street will likely have a similar experience. In his 1994 follow-up to the similarly well-regarded One Up on Wall Street, the white-haired Fidelity icon manages to motivate without cheerleading, teach without condescending, and elucidate without confounding. The message is both general and practical: Diligence, the willingness to do homework, and intellectual curiosity -- plus a healthy dose of common sense -- are more than enough to get almost anyone started down the road to successful investing. Foolish, indeed.
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5. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
By Philip Fisher
Every investor should read Philip Fisher. He is one of the pioneers of business-focused and focused-portfolio investing. He encourages an investor to consider 15 points that pertain to the quality of the business and its ability to produce profits, rather than focusing on stock price or other market considerations. The 15 points offer excellent criteria for assessing any company, such as the integrity and honesty of its management, but the book has much more to offer than just the points. It also discusses the reasons for investing in stocks rather than bonds, how to find a growth stock, 10 "Don'ts" for investors, and when to sell a stock (hint: almost never, if the job of buying is well done). To me, Fisher is a direct ancestor of The Motley Fool. If I could recommend one book to any investor, experienced or novice, it would be Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits.
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6. The Gorilla Game
By Geoffrey A. Moore
If you're looking for the next Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) or Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), The Gorilla Game could help you. The book, written by a former English professor, an investment banker, and a venture capitalist, explains a framework for investing in young technology companies. Like any good story, the book starts with an explanation of why the Intels (Nasdaq: INTC) of the world are much more valuable than the Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD). Then, using past examples, it shows how you can find strong technology companies before they become official Gorillas. With criteria for Gorilla candidates, 10 rules of how to play the "Gorilla Game," and advice on where to find the information needed to play, The Gorilla Game could be a useful read for technology investors.
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7. Stocks for the Long Run
By Jeremy J. Siegel
This book is invaluable because of a vital point that it makes convincingly: If you're going to invest your money for an extended period of time, your best bet is to invest in stocks. Siegel offers financial market data going all the way back to 1802. He demonstrates how stocks have outperformed bonds significantly over many different time periods. (For example, between 1871 and 1996, stocks outperformed bonds in 94.4% of all 20-year intervals. From 1946 to 1997, stocks returned an annual average return of 12.2%, vs. 5.4% for bonds.) He argues persuasively that long-term stock investing can be safer than saving money at your bank. He also offers insights on the effects of baby boomer investing, addresses market timing and holding periods, and evaluates several investing strategies. This short summary doesn't do the book justice. Check it out for yourself!
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