Books

CEO’s Message – NOTE: I have read a lot of books lately and am in the process of updating this list.

All the books below are books that I have read and thought they were very valuable reads. Unlike other sites that market any book, I have read every book below and think they are excellent publications.

I am categorizing them into different topics. I am constantly reading new books and updating this page so check back frequently.

Value Investment Books

The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel (Revised Edition) By Benjamin Graham. The “Bible of investing” . Warren Buffett has stated this is the best investment book ever written. This is a must read for all value investors

Security Analysis: Sixth Edition, Foreword by Warren Buffett By Benjamin Graham. This is a more comprehensive book of “the bible of investing”. This is the newest edition with commentary from some of the leading value investors of our time.

Fooling Some of the People All of the Time, A Long Short by David Einhorn. Book on Einhorn’s short of Allied Capital, but gets a great deal into his investment style.

The Interpretation of Financial Statements By Benjamin Graham. Good short book by Graham explaining how to read financial statements.

One Up On Wall Street : How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market By Peter Lynch. This book and Beating the street are must reads for investors. Great for beginning investors, since he uses simple words to explain the concepts behind his method of investing.

Beating the Street By Peter Lynch. Another great book which details methods Lynch used over the years to outperform the market. If you want to know Lynch’s investment style I suggest you read both books

John Neff on Investing By John Neff. Great book by one of the best money managers of all time. Neff walks you through his years as a fund manager and explains in detail the rational behind his stock picks.

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings ByPhilip Fisher. Another book Buffett considers a must read, written by his mentor Philip Fisher. Although, the investment concepts Fisher uses are hard and time consuming, I think anyone would benefit from learning his style of investing

Contrarian Investment Strategies – The Next Generation By David Dreman. Written by the original contrarian David Dreman, this book is a simple explanation of investment strategies that can achieve very high returns. This book also explains investor psychology and the Herd mentality that exists on Wall Street.

The New Contrarian Investment Strategy By David Dreman. Another great book by Dreman where he goes into detail about investor psychology and why you should avoid the “hot stocks” of the day

The Little Book That Beats the Market By Joel Greenblatt. Written by an investor who possibly has the best investment record of all time. Greenblatt explains two simple criteria that investors can use to obtain excellent results. He even has a wesbite that helps you implement the ideas in the book and put them into practice for your portfolio.

The Little Book That Still Beats the Market (Little Books. Big Profits)books (updated version of the book).

You Can Be a Stock Market Genius: Uncover the Secret Hiding Places of Stock Market Profits By Joel Greenblatt. Although the titled seems haughty, the content of the book makes the title 100% correct. Greenblatt tells you how to invest in obscure investments with very high returns including spin offs, arbitrage, recapitalizations, and bankruptcies. This is a must read for any serious investor.

The Big Secret for the Small Investor: A New Route to Long-Term Investment Success by Joel Greenblatt

The Little Book of Value Investing By Christopher Browne. Written by recently deceased, famous value investor. Great small book that covers value investing and some tips on foreign investing. The book is alone worth buying for chapter 16.

Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful InvestorBy Seth Klarmin. This book is now out of print and costs several hundred dollars. Rumor is that Klarmin regretted writing the book since it revealed many of his investment secrets.

The Dhandho Investor: The Low – Risk Value Method to High Returns by Mohnish Pabrai. Book is written by famed value investor Mohnish Pabrai. He describes a method of investing where you invest in simple companies where the odds are heavily in your favor and there are low risks. This book is good advice for investing or even running a business.

Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond By Bruce Greenwald. One of my favorite books. It explains the different styles of value investing according to Greenwald. This book is a must read for any serious value investor.

Value Investing: A Balanced Approach By Martin J Whitman. Legendary investor Whitman explains what value investing really is using an approach that is slightly different than Graham. He writes in sophisticated language, but his words are golden . Whitman favors the assets more than earning powers and therefore puts a higher emphasis on book value than on earnings(past or future).

The Aggressive Conservative Investor By Martin J Whitman. Another great book by Whitman he mentions many things it is important for any investor to know. One of them being that there are many conflicts of interest within a corporation between shareholders, management, controling shareholders, unions etc. He also discusses GAAP accounting rules, both of his books are most reads for serious value investors.

The Warren Buffett Way, Second EditionBy Roger Hagstrom. Excellent book which explains in simple language how Warren Buffett values businesses and choose his investments.

Do-It-Yourself Investment Analysis: Practical Guide to Life Cycle, Fundamental and Technical Analyse s by james burgauer. Good books for beginners to learn basic fundamental analysis and how to understand different financial ratios commonly used by investors.

The Little Book of Behavioral Investing: How not to be your own worst enemy (Little Book, Big Profits)ir?t=valueinves08c 20&l=as2&o=1&a=0470686022 by James Montier. Great book on behavior finance and how our brains affect our investment decisions.

The Triumph of Value Investing: Smart Money Tactics for the Postrecession Era by Janet Lowe. You may not have heard of Lowe, but she is the author of 22 books on value investing and audiotapes.

The Guru Investor: How to Beat the Market Using History’s Best Investment Strategiesbooks by John Reese. Examines 10 investment guru strategies including David Dreman, Benjamin Graham, John Neff, Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Joel Greenblatt among others. This is a great book for beginners to get a taste of strategies that beat the market.

There’s Always Something to Do: The Peter Cundill Investment Approach by Christopher Risso-Gill. Great book about Peter Cundill; a great Canadian Value investor Peter’s track record while managing The Cundill Value Fund was 15.2% per annum for 33 years.

Money Masters of Our Timebooks By John Train. Profiles of some of the best investors of our time.

The Little Book of Sideways Markets

Asset Allocation Books

The Elements of Investing By Burton Malkiel and Charles D. Ellis. Great book on personal finance, saving money, asset allocation and a simple way of managing your portfolio.

Value Averaging: The Safe and Easy Strategy for Higher Investment Returns By Michael Edleson

A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing (Revised and Updated)By Burton Malkiel

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (Little Books. Big Profits)By John Bogle

Common Sense on Mutual Funds: Fully Updated 10th Anniversary Edition By John Bogle

John Bogle on Investing: The First 50 YearsBy John Bogle

The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio By William J. Bernstein

The Intelligent Asset Allocator: How to Build Your Portfolio to Maximize Returns and Minimize RiskBy William J. Bernstein

Stock Market Bubbles

Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial SpeculationBy Edward Chancellor
Irrational Exuberance By Robert Shiller

Books On Current Financial Crisis

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machinebooks by Michael Lewis. The newest best-seller by the famous financial author, Michael lewis. Lewis describes a fascinating tale of some obscure investors who shorted the housing market and made a ton of money.

The End of Wall Streetbooks By Roger Lowenstein.

Too Big to Save? How to Fix the U.S. Financial Systemir?t=valuewalk 20&l=as2&o=1&a=0470499052By Robert Pozen. An in depth book about financial reform in various areas including the securitization process, executive reform, accounting issues and much more to reform our financial services industry.

The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It by Scott Patterson.

Mr. Market Miscalculates: The Bubble Years and Beyond by James Grant.

On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System by Henry Paulson.


More Mortgage Meltdown: 6 Ways to Profit in These Bad Timesby Whitney Tilson and Glenn Tongue. This is really two books in one. The first part explains the causes of the housing bubble and bursting of it. It explains the various types of mortgages and the losses it will still lead to the global financial system. The second part of the book is an introduction to value investing and an analysis of six different investments the authors had.
This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly by Kenneth S. Rogoff. This book could also be classified under Stock Market Bubbles category

Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System—and Themselves By Andrew Ross Sorkin

The Murder of Lehman Brothers: An Insider’s Look at the Global MeltdownBy Joseph Tibman

House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street By William Cohan

Fool’s Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a CatastropheBy Gillian Tett

When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Managementir?t=valueinves08c 20&l=as2&o=1&a=0375758259 By Roger Lowenstein.

The Subprime Solution: How Today’s Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It By Robert Shiller

General Stock/ Investment/ Business Books

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Taleb. Although Taleb is a bit arrogant, this is one of the best, and most important books I ever read. It does not surprise me that this book is still a best seller. Taleb popularizes the term “black swan” in this book. A black swan is described as a highly improbable event with three principle characteristics: 1) it is unpredictable; 2) it has a massive impact; and 3) ex post explanations are concocted that make the event appear less random and more predictable than it was. The earthquake that hit Japan in March 2011, is a perfect example of this.

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, another interesting book by Nassim Taleb. Very good, but if I had to chose one I would read the black swan hands down.

The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms by Nassim Taleb. Taleb address more of the philosophy of why humanity makes the decisions to ignore the unknown and make things fit the way that we would like them to.

Stocks for the Long Run, 4th Edition: The Definitive Guide to Financial Market Returns & Long Term Investment Strategies By Jeremy Siegel

The Most Important Thingbooks by Howard Marks. Musings of Howard Marks. The book won wide praise from Warren Buffett, Joel Greenblatt, Seth Klarman, Jeremy Grantham and John Bogle.

There’s Always Something to Do: The Peter Cundill Investment Approach by Chistopher Risso-Gill. Great book about legendary, Canadian value investor, Peter Cundill. You can see my interview with the author at the folllowing link-http://www.gurufocus.com/news/125605/interview-with-christopher-rissogill-author-of-theres-always-something-to-do-the-peter-cundill-investment-approach

Benjamin Graham, Building a Profession: The Early Writings of the Father of Security Analysis by Jason Zweig. Zweig puts together old letters of Benjamin Graham, which you likely never have read. The writtings are great, because these articles were previously undiscover. My only complaint is that Zweig is a great author and he should have added more commentary. Instead, the book is basically letters, and interviews with Benjamin Graham, which have not appeared in any other book nor online.

The Little Book That Builds Wealthir?t=valueinves08c 20&l=as2&o=1&a=047022651X By Pat Dorsey.

Distress Investing: Principles and Technique ir?t=valuewalk 20&l=as2&o=1&a=0470117672 By Martin Whitman. Book written about investing in distressed securities by one of the best investors of all time. This book is not recommended for beginners but is excellent for people who  are intermediate or expert investors.

While America Aged: How Pension Debts Ruined General Motors, Stopped the NYC Subways, Bankrupted San Diego, and Loom as the Next Financial Crisisir?t=valueinves08c 20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001JQLN7I By Roger Lowenstein. Great book about the underfunding of pensions by corporations and municipalities across the country. Recommended for anyone interested/concerned about the coming wave of baby boombers.

 

Competition Demystified: A Radically Simplified Approach to Business StrategyBy Bruce Greenwald. Discusses what gives certain businesses a superior position over competitors. One example that Greenwald discusses, is the story of Walmart and how when they had a 1/10 of the revenue of K-mart, Wal-Mart was able to achieve higher operating margins. This chapter alone is worth buying the whole book for. I wrote an article about this specific chapter, which can be found at the following link-http://www.gurufocus.com/news/104511/how-walmart-overtook-kmart-local-economies-of-scale-

globalization: n. the irrational fear that someone in China will take your jobir?t=valueinves08c 20&l=as2&o=1&a=047016963X By Bruce Greenwald. Great book on Globalization. It dispels many common misconceptions people have on the topic.

The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, Second EditionBy Lawrence Cunningham

A Fool and His Money: The Odyssey of an Average Investor (Wiley Investment Classics)By John Rothchild great book very funny
The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Needby Andrew Tobias great book on how to save money and manage finances

The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko Great book about millionaires in America and how they achieved their success. The book will surprise you and teach you some discipline about saving more

 

Accounting

Creative Cash Flow Reporting: Uncovering Sustainable Financial Performanceir?t=valueinves08c 20&l=as2&o=1&a=0471469181 by Charles W. Mulford. This book is not recommended for the beginner. This is an intense book that examines in exhaustive detail how cash flow can be manipulated. Think cash flow can not be fudged? just wait until you get through these 400 pages!

The Interpretation of Financial Statementsir?t=valuewalk 20&l=as2&o=1&a=0887309135 By Benjamin Graham. Good short book by Graham explaining how to read financial statements.

How to Read a Financial Report: Wringing Vital Signs Out of the Numbersir?t=valueinves08c 20&l=as2&o=1&a=0470405309 By John A Tracy. Great book about how to read financial statements.

Financial Statements: A Step-by-Step Guide to Understanding and Creating Financial Reportsir?t=valueinves08c 20&l=as2&o=1&a=1601630239 By Thomas Ittelson. Great book for beginners on reading or even creating your own financial sheets. Highly recommended for people with no knowledge of accounting.

Quality of Earningsir?t=valueinves08c 20&l=as2&o=1&a=0684863758 By Thorton O’Glove. How to read through financial reports, shareholder letters and more. Highly recommended for anyone who analyzes financial statements.

The Art of Short Sellingir?t=valueinves08c 20&l=as2&o=1&a=0471146323 By Kathryn F. Staley. I have never short sold in my life, yet found this book to be great. This book will help you uncover tricks companies use to inflate earnings, balance sheets, and will help you discover cases of outright fraud. Recommended for intermediate-advanced investors.

Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reportsir?t=valueinves08c 20&l=as2&o=1&a=0071703071by Dr Howard Schilit. Great book on reading earnings statements, and cash flow statements and how to watch out for tricks management will try to pull. Dan Loeb stated that the book is a must read.

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