10 must read books for Stock investing

Ten Must Read Investing Books

There are many investing books out there that can help investors expand their knowledge. This list highlights 20 great wall street books every trader and investor should read.

1. How to Make Money in Stocks by William O’Neil

This is a classic by William O’Neil, describing the ins and outs of his CANSLIM system for finding future big winners in the stock market and how to time entries and exits. It combines fundamental and technical analysis and is a good guide for new investors.

2. One Up On Wall St by Peter Lynch

This is an investment classic that will give the individual investor hope. Peter Lynch explains how Wall Street may not be able to find the best investing opportunities from the start and shows step-by-step how the individual investor can find the next ten-bagger.

3. The Warren Buffett Way by Robert Hagstrom

This book sheds insight into the ways and means of the Oracle of Omaha. Warren Buffett’s thoughts are insightful and his methods may yield fruitful rewards for investors with enough patience to learn them, understand them and apply them correctly.

4. Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

This book is a true page turner. It is a breath-taking recount of how a young boy managed to amass one of the largest fortunes by speculating despite going broke a few times in his career. He has timeless advice for investors(“I’ve always made my money from sitting, not thinking”) which will help your trading for years to come.

5. Market Wizards by Jack Schwager

This book is a collection of interviews of a group of successful traders in the 1970s/80s. Their experiences are interesting to hear and traders may draw useful lessons from them. However, some of them were successful only because they were in the right place at the right time. The 1970s were a great commodity bull market and some of them profited from it. Nevertheless this is a classic to read and enjoy.

6. Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb

This book, which would go along well with “The Black Swan”, explains the author’s thoughts about how randomness plays a larger role in our lives than we expect. For traders, this would imply that risks are usually large than we expect. Also, it would mean that some things in the financial world aren’t exactly what they seem.

7. Trader Vic—Methods of a Wall Street Master by Victor Sperandeo

The view the author has is slightly biased in favor of the Austrian School of Economics. Some of his methods are novel—you wouldn’t see them in most books on trading (for instance, his measuring the average length and magnitude of a bull/bear market’s primary and secondary trends, there by gauging the odds for a change in the trend in the market). His views on investor psychology are also interesting to read.

8. Alchemy of Finance by George Soros

This book, along with Soros’s latest book, The New Financial Paradigm explain the author’s theory of reflexivity and how it relates to the market. Though it may not provide a direct system for trading, it is extremely thoughtful and deepens one’s understanding of how the financial markets work. The book may be a bit dense but it is rewarding for those who are willing to finish it.

9. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay

Tulipomania, the South Sea bubble and the Mississipi Land scheme are covered in this book, showing how herd mentality worked to create bubbles in past eras. It may serve as an interesting read as well as a guide for dealing with future bubbles.

10. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip Fisher

This unseeming book is written by Philip Fisher, who Buffett credits with most of his success. In the age of quantitative finance, this book is a must-read for those who want to understand how to inspect a company qualitatively.