Reading for Investors

Balancing the Books

Summer Reading for Investors

Nine must-read investment books selected by a wide range of Wall Street thinkers.

By

Gene Epstein

Updated May 27, 2017 

 

 

Robert Connolly for Barron's

 

Barron’s asked eight notable investment professionals to recommend books that they think all investors should read—and why. The picks include a prescient 100-year-old book on investor psychology, an out-of-print classic on value investing, two Warren Buffett–related tomes, and two books on index investing.

Abby Joseph Cohen
Senior investment strategist and president of Global Markets Institute, Goldman Sachs, and Barron’s Roundtable member

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, by Peter L. Bernstein

“This book has a permanent place on my physical bookshelf. A classic work, it puts modern portfolio theory and sophisticated options pricing in proper historical perspective. Bernstein shows that much of the pioneering work in today’s understanding of risk, both its measurement and management, began about eight centuries ago.”

Martin Fridson
Chief investment officer, Lehmann, Livian, Fridson Advisors, and co-author of Financial Statement Analysis: A Practitioner’s Guide

 

Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor, by Seth A. Klarman

“The positive message of Margin of Safety is that forces such as regulation and institutional investors’ behavioral quirks churn up excellent value for patient, painstaking investors. Klarman presents case histories involving securities that were priced too low—and not only in hindsight—offering credible explanations for those market inefficiencies. Most valuably, he points readers to the sources of future bargains, highlighting 

such categories as complex securities, rights offerings, spinoffs, and financially distressed companies.”

 

Out of print; lowest price on Amazon.com: $902.60.

 

Jon Hartsel
Portfolio manager, Donald Smith & Co.

Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist, by Roger Lowenstein

“I’m far from being a Warren Buffett acolyte, but this book is the reason I attended Columbia Business School and entered this profession. It’s one-half fascinating biography and one-half methodical examination of value investing through the lens of Buffett’s evolution from ‘cigar butt’ investor, as Buffett called it, to purchaser of quality businesses.”

Burton Malkiel
Professor of economics emeritus; senior economist, Princeton University; and author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing

 

Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor, by John C. Bogle

“A succinct and readable guide to help investors implement an intelligent investment program using indexed mutual funds.” 

Mohnish Pabrai
Founder and managing partner, Pabrai Investment Funds

Poor Charlie’s Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger, a collection of speeches and talks by Charlie Munger, vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway

“I try to reread it every year, and each time I could swear I read stuff I have never read before. Just ‘The Psychology of Human Misjudgment’ speech in the book has multiple lifetimes of wisdom. It’s better than several college degrees.”

Meryl Witmer
General partner, Eagle Capital Partners; Barron’s Roundtable member; and board member, Berkshire Hathaway

The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing, by Benjamin Graham. 

The Money Masters, by John Train

“These two books, read during the summer of 1983, changed the direction of my professional life. In those days, the efficient market theory was all the rage, so I was more interested in getting into less-efficient markets like real estate. Reading The Money Masters, I was thrilled to learn how investors like Buffett and Phil Fisher could find companies that trade for a significant discount to their intrinsic value.”

Ed Yardeni
President, Yardeni Research

The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan, by Sebastian Mallaby 

“Mallaby covers a lot of ground, since Greenspan was chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors from Sept. 4, 1974, to Jan. 20, 1977, and Fed chair from Aug. 11, 1987, to Jan. 31, 2006. There’s plenty for investors to learn about how policy makers influence financial markets, and how these markets affect their decision-making.”

Felix Zulauf
President, Zulauf Asset Management, and Barron’s Roundtable member

One-Way Pockets: The Book of Books on Wall Street Speculation, by Don Guyon

“Based on research into the behavior of clients of a Wall Street brokerage firm, the author shows how mass psychology can help drive a stock up as well as down. We learn that investor psychology goes through different stages, from fear and desperation at a market bottom to greed and complacency at a top. In today’s markets, mass psychology plays a role in price trends to a greater degree than is commonly thought. That’s why I find Guyon’s framework to be useful in analyzing market cycles.”

First published in 1917, One-Way Pockets is still in print. 

People are not afraid of failure, they are afraid of blame. —Seth Godin



Source: http://www.barrons.com/articles/summer-beach-reading-for-investors-1495858880?mod=bol-social-tw