What is your top 3 business/finance/investing books you've read?

[Munger_Disciple]

19 minutes ago, CorpRaider said:

I really like John D' Rockefeller's letters to his son, but that's probably a lot of recency bias.  But that was a smart mfer though.

 

Thanks for this recommendation; just ordered it. 

Edited August 14 by Munger_Disciple

[Spekulatius]

My favorites:

Thinking fast and slow (Kahnemann)

Fooled by Randomness (Taleb)

Intelligent investor (Graham)

You can be a stock market Genius ( Greenblatt)

 

Cautionary take:

Education of a Speculator (Niederhoeffer) 

 

 

[Spooky]

On 8/11/2024 at 3:31 AM, schin said:

I'm actually surprised people didn't mention some of Annie Duke's books or Morgan Housel's books.

 

Thinking in Bets is A+++ material for me. Please share if you have anything similar. If I had to choose my top investing books not counting Buffett letters / Nick Sleep letters:

 

1. Phil Fisher, Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits: Amazing. I tell my friends if they are only going to read one book on investing this should be the one. It's got it all.

 

2. Poor Charlie's Almanac: RIP Charlie. His wisdom was / is unmatched. 

 

3. William Green, Richer, Wiser Happier: A nice book which discusses the investing philosophies of some great investors.

 

 

 

 

[HubbadaPow]

Lots of great material on this thread.  Here are some of mine:

 

Capital Returns

Investing Against the Tide - Anthony Bolton

Competition Demystified - Bruce Greenwald

[schin]

On 8/19/2024 at 10:43 AM, Spooky said:

 

Thinking in Bets is A+++ material for me. Please share if you have anything similar. If I had to choose my top investing books not counting Buffett letters / Nick Sleep

@Spooky - It doesn't delve into probabilities, but Howard Marks and second-level thinking and the Capital Account/Capital Returns has that Annie Duke vibe for me.

[schin]

On 8/17/2024 at 9:40 PM, Spekulatius said:

My favorites:

Thinking fast and slow (Kahnemann)

Fooled by Randomness (Taleb)

Intelligent investor (Graham)

You can be a stock market Genius ( Greenblatt)

 

Cautionary take:

Education of a Speculator (Niederhoeffer) 

 

@Spekulatius - I like Greenblatt's book too.  Do you have feel the Magic Formula has influenced your investing style? Or your closer to the Graham?

[schin]

10 hours ago, HubbadaPow said:

Lots of great material on this thread.  Here are some of mine:

 

Capital Returns

Investing Against the Tide - Anthony Bolton

Competition Demystified - Bruce Greenwald

 

@HubbadaPow - Capital Returns/MRO letters was really good. I didn't know about Nick Sleep's connection with MRO. I have not read Anthony Bolton, but definitely will look into it.   

 

Seems like I'm overlooking great UK investors like Terry Smith, Anthony Bolton, Nick Sleep, etc.

 

I know about Nick Sleep and has casually tracked Terry Smith... I might need to focus more great UK/EU investors.

[schin]

On 8/19/2024 at 10:43 AM, Spooky said:

3. William Green, Richer, Wiser Happier: A nice book which discusses the investing philosophies of some great investors.

 

I really enjoy William Green's episodes on "We Study Billionaires" podcast.

[schin]

On 8/3/2024 at 3:27 AM, winjitsu said:

Does Capital Accounts book exist anywhere to purchase? Read Capital Returns a few months ago and it was great.

Mine:
Greenblatt You Can Be a Stock Market Genius

Greenwald Competitor Demystified 

Kahneman Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow

 

@winjitsu - I've seen copies on eBay for Capital Account.

[schin]

On 8/3/2024 at 7:37 AM, Irv72 said:

I'm just reading Fabric of Success by James Emanuel. Would recommend it to any investor, because it gives many examples of what quality management is about.

 

There are many great value investor letters, beside Nick Sleep.

@Irv72 - Great list of books. I have not read Fabric of Success, but is it similar to Outliers by William Thorndike or Jim Collins' books - Good to Great?

 

Are there certain value investor letters outside of Buffett and Nick Sleep that you recommend? 

[brobro777]

I always liked Made in America by Sam Walton and My Own Story by Bernard Baruch

[Parsad]

My 3 Books:

 

1.  Intelligent Investor & Securities Analysis - both by Ben Graham...read either or read both!

2. Buffett's Letters to Shareholders...should be core reading for all business/finance schools!

3. Margin of Safety - Seth Klarman...without using a margin of safety, it's all for nothing!

 

And I'll give you a 4th...you'll never expect it...Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki.  I can't stand the guy, and somehow he's turned into a moron, but the book opened my eyes to putting my money into cash flowing assets and how we categorize ourselves into various occupations.  It's a great book when someone, usually a novice investor, asks you about investing and finance...or for young teens/adults entering college or the work force.

 

Other than that...read as many 10-K's and 10-Q's as you can.  That will improve your accounting comprehension by leaps and bounds over time.  Not sure I've read any accounting books that have helped me as much as just reading financial statements and the notes.  Cheers!

[UK]

20 minutes ago, Parsad said:

And I'll give you a 4th...you'll never expect it...Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki.  I can't stand the guy, and somehow he's turned into a moron, but the book opened my eyes to putting my money into cash flowing assets and how we categorize ourselves into various occupations.  It's a great book when someone, usually a novice investor, asks you about investing and finance...or for young teens/adults entering college or the work force.

 

Same for me, in personal finance theme, though it is almost an embarrassment to recommend author these days:). There is also table and even PC or maybe an online game available. Very good and fun to play with kids, shows why it is sometimes harder to escape 'rat race' for a well earning doctor, than a low earning janitor:)

[73 Reds]

5 hours ago, Parsad said:

My 3 Books:

 

1.  Intelligent Investor & Securities Analysis - both by Ben Graham...read either or read both!

2. Buffett's Letters to Shareholders...should be core reading for all business/finance schools!

3. Margin of Safety - Seth Klarman...without using a margin of safety, it's all for nothing!

 

And I'll give you a 4th...you'll never expect it...Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki.  I can't stand the guy, and somehow he's turned into a moron, but the book opened my eyes to putting my money into cash flowing assets and how we categorize ourselves into various occupations.  It's a great book when someone, usually a novice investor, asks you about investing and finance...or for young teens/adults entering college or the work force.

 

Other than that...read as many 10-K's and 10-Q's as you can.  That will improve your accounting comprehension by leaps and bounds over time.  Not sure I've read any accounting books that have helped me as much as just reading financial statements and the notes.  Cheers!

Those are mine as well.  Others include Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (Jessie Livermore) and the The Millionaire Next Door. 

[Spooky]

8 hours ago, schin said:

 

I really enjoy William Green's episodes on "We Study Billionaires" podcast.

 

Me too, he is one of the best interviewers around.

[UK]

22 minutes ago, 73 Reds said:

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator (Jessie Livermore)

+1

[Jaygo]

5 hours ago, Parsad said:

 

 

And I'll give you a 4th...you'll never expect it...Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki.  I can't stand the guy, and somehow he's turned into a moron, but the book opened my eyes to putting my money into cash flowing assets and how we categorize ourselves into various occupations.  It's a great book when someone, usually a novice investor, asks you about investing and finance...or for young teens/adults entering college or the work force.

 

 

 

 

Cash Flow Quadrant 100%  one of my favorites as well. Its such a simple idea it could probably be 20 pages vs what it is but the idea is you have four boxes that you can fit into. You can technically fit into all of them at once but more likely into one or two. E for emplyee, B for business owner, S for self employed and I for investor.

 

I read this in my early 20's and immediately realized I want a small business to generate proceeds to move into the investing box. So i'm a S for Self Employed but now the snowball has started to roll a bit I am probably 2/3 S and 1/3 Investor as far as income goes. 

 

I really liked John Neffs book on Investing too. Just seemed to jump out to me as obvious easy wins. It has really helped me this past couple years with some large caps that were sold off. 3M, the Smoke co's, Citi, Home Depot ect 

 

I dont want to put WB's letters in since they are not books but obviously grouping investor letters into one category is likely the most valuable reading anyway. Buffetts letters, Chris Bloomstran's for accounting has been amazing, Bezos letters are outstanding too.

 

The final book choice is like picking a favorite child. I just cant. I love biography, macro, investing books and the like so much I cant pick. Ive read 100's - 1000's of books because I have a very boring physical job so just devour audio books all day long like I ply my trade. 

 

The ones that jump out still:

Sunrise about Suncor,

Buffettology ( not because its good, it just turned me on to buffett )

Semour shulichs book,

The 4 hour workweek

Profit first by mike michalowicz

E-myth 

Snowball

Rainmakers

Atlas shrugged

Blue Ocean strategy

Shoe Dog

The Carnegie bio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[73 Reds]

8 minutes ago, Jaygo said:

 

 

Cash Flow Quadrant 100%  one of my favorites as well. Its such a simple idea it could probably be 20 pages vs what it is but the idea is you have four boxes that you can fit into. You can technically fit into all of them at once but more likely into one or two. E for emplyee, B for business owner, S for self employed and I for investor.

 

I read this in my early 20's and immediately realized I want a small business to generate proceeds to move into the investing box. So i'm a S for Self Employed but now the snowball has started to roll a bit I am probably 2/3 S and 1/3 Investor as far as income goes. 

 

I really liked John Neffs book on Investing too. Just seemed to jump out to me as obvious easy wins. It has really helped me this past couple years with some large caps that were sold off. 3M, the Smoke co's, Citi, Home Depot ect 

 

I dont want to put WB's letters in since they are not books but obviously grouping investor letters into one category is likely the most valuable reading anyway. Buffetts letters, Chris Bloomstran's for accounting has been amazing, Bezos letters are outstanding too.

 

The final book choice is like picking a favorite child. I just cant. I love biography, macro, investing books and the like so much I cant pick. Ive read 100's - 1000's of books because I have a very boring physical job so just devour audio books all day long like I ply my trade. 

 

The ones that jump out still:

Sunrise about Suncor,

Buffettology ( not because its good, it just turned me on to buffett )

Semour shulichs book,

The 4 hour workweek

Profit first by mike michalowicz

E-myth 

Snowball

Rainmakers

Atlas shrugged

Blue Ocean strategy

Shoe Dog

The Carnegie bio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I read Atlas Shrugged as a young teen and to this day it remains the best novel I've ever read.

[Irv72]

21 hours ago, schin said:

@Irv72 - Great list of books. I have not read Fabric of Success, but is it similar to Outliers by William Thorndike or Jim Collins' books - Good to Great?

 

Are there certain value investor letters outside of Buffett and Nick Sleep that you recommend? 

I haven't read Outliers yet, and it's been a decade since I read Good to Great, but I would say that Fabric of Success is better than the latter. It's basically a book about what good management and capital allocation mean, from an investor's standpoint. And, unlike Good to Great, I can see this one stand the test of time.

This is what the author says about it: https://rockandturner.substack.com/p/fabric-of-success. There also recent interviews with him on Youtube, such as this one.

 

Examples of good value investor letters? François Rochon, from Giverny Capital. I also like reading Howard Marks's, Guy Spier's and Vitaly Katsenelson's thoughts. This is just from the top of my head. I read a lot of stuff, follow a lot of RSS and Twitter feeds, and tend to use Naval Ravikant's approach where I don't always finish what I start, if it's not good.

 

The We Study Billionaires and the Richer, Wiser, Happier podcasts and transcripts are a good start for learning about smart investors that have historically beaten the market. For those who prefer listening to them, there is an ad-free option on Apple Podcasts for like $3/month. theinvestorspodcast.com is one of the best value investing educational resources I know.

 

Another one is joincolossus.com (Invest Like The Best, Founders, and maybe Business Breakdowns). Again both free podcasts and transcripts.

I'll take those two sites over most investor letters.

Edited August 23 by Irv72

[schin]

15 hours ago, Jaygo said:

 

 

Cash Flow Quadrant 100%  one of my favorites as well. Its such a simple idea it could probably be 20 pages vs what it is but the idea is you have four boxes that you can fit into. You can technically fit into all of them at once but more likely into one or two. E for emplyee, B for business owner, S for self employed and I for investor.

 

@Jaygo @Parsad  I bite the bullet and got Cash Flow Quadrant. I hope it changes my life!

[dwy000]

On 8/22/2024 at 8:10 AM, UK said:

+1

+2. Not a book to make you a better investor but highly, highly entertaining. 

[Parsad]

17 hours ago, schin said:

 

@Jaygo @Parsad  I bite the bullet and got Cash Flow Quadrant. I hope it changes my life!

 

It's a mindset change book.  Won't teach you how to buy stocks or businesses, but will help you focus on areas that will create wealth.

 

Cheers!

[Spekulatius]

On 8/21/2024 at 11:14 PM, schin said:

 

@Spekulatius - I like Greenblatt's book too.  Do you have feel the Magic Formula has influenced your investing style? Or your closer to the Graham?

Both have had an impact. From a stock selection POV, I think I like Greenblatts approach to look at EV/EBIT and ROIC better. I feel Grahams asset based approach does not work as well any more in a world where intangibles become more important.

 

However Grahams teachings about Margin of Safety  and Mr Market are foundational which is why Graham remains very much relevant.

 

Edited August 23 by Spekulatius

[Spekulatius]

On 8/22/2024 at 8:10 AM, UK said:

+1

It’s entertaining but I think it’s close to useless if not downward dangerous for an aspiring investor.

[brobro777]

I read it a while ago but I liked Pit Bull by Marty Schwartz - early days of trading S&P futures