9 Invaluable Resources

What are some of your favorites or classic business and investing books?
Here is a small list in my bookshelf that can accelerate your success.

Contrarian Investment Strategies – The Next Generation (David Dreman): My colleague Louis Basenese mentioned this in his small-cap investing column earlier this week. Like my beloved Yankees, Lou has been knocking the cover off the ball, thanks in part to Dreman, who is considered the father of contrarian investing.

The best analysts work strictly with contrarian research. In fact, They were not even allowed to initiate coverage on a company unless it went against the consensus. This book shows you how and why contrarian investing works.

Understanding Wall Street (Jeffrey Little): This is the first book I ever read about investing. It’s terrific for beginners. Written in an easy-to-understand language, it explains what stocks and bonds actually are. If you’re new to investing, I cannot recommend this book enough.

The Little Book That Beats the Market (Joel Greenblatt): The author is an extremely successful money manager, who shows investors how to beat average market returns with a value investing approach. You can read this in one afternoon, yet it contains as much valuable information as you’d find in most 500-page tomes.

Get Rich With Options (Lee Lowell): If you want to know how to make money with options, learn from the guy who did it and retired in his 30s. Mt. Vernon Research’s resident commodities specialist, Lee Lowell, shows investors the most profitable strategies and tools to use. The second edition of the book is due out in September.

One Up on Wall Street (Peter Lynch): This classic teaches investors how to use what they are already familiar with to make money. Lynch takes a long-term outlook as he guides investors through the analysis process of companies that we interact with every day.

The New Market Wizards (Jack Schwager): Profiles successful traders such as Stanley Druckenmiller, Linda Bradford Raschke and Blair Hull. I like that the traders open up in these interviews, letting readers in on their processes and hearing about their failures just as much as their successes. Schwager does an excellent job of selecting traders in various markets with different trading styles.

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (Edwin LeFevre): No investment book list would be complete without this. Originally published in 1923, it’s the marginally fictionalized biography of legendary speculator Jesse Livermore. It’s believed that Livermore actually wrote the book with LeFevre’s help. Livermore walks the reader through his considerable ups and downs. It’s a fascinating tale and a really insightful look back at market speculation in the early 20th century.

Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets (John Murphy): While technical analysis can sometimes sound very complex, Murphy does a great job explaining the theories and indicators in a simple language. If you ever look at charts, you need to read Murphy’s book first – it’s the bible of technical analysis.

The Secret of Shelter Island (Alexander Green): Once you’ve read all the investing books and amassed a fortune, The Oxford Club’s Investment Director will illustrate why money is not the most important thing in life. A compilation of his popular Spiritual Wealth essays, Shelter Island provides inspirational, whimsical and sentimental stories that remind the reader what is truly important.