Next Reading List: Beyond the Basics

I am done with reading “The Dhandho investor” and almost halfway through “The little book that beat market”. Loved both, pretty much reinforced some of the my key investment philosophies, which were in my mind but not much pronounced.

1). Head I win, Tail, I don’t loose much, is same as investing in companies with low downside risk, and higher upside risk. If you invest in such companies, you are very less likely to lose money and have a better sleep, which again boils down to Prof Bakshi’s return per unit of stress, which I am very big believer of.

2.** Few bets, big bets, infrequent bets**, is similar to having a concentrated bet. I slightly disagree with him. When you are not very much sure about certainty of bets, then makes sense to forage to a diversified portfolio. As and when you develop conviction, make sense to prune it to make a concentrated portfolio. This what I call a foraging-pruning approach to portfolio building.

3). Magic Formula investing : I love it, because it is very similar to PEGY table that I used to make in my initial days. But what I feel is that one need to add more constraints to the formula to get better result. (i.e use of last 3yr average ROE, 3Yr ROE > 20, preferably midcap, zero/low D/E ratio, zero/low share pledging, decent cash flow, last 1yr/2yr stock price performance).

I feel “The little book that beat market” is the book one should gift to someone who doesn’t have much idea on stock market.

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Found bunch of investing related resources in the net.

http://myclass.peelschools.org/sec/12/17301/Default.aspx

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HI All,

I told about this website calledhttp://www.khanacademy.org/by one of my colleague from US, this is online tutoring on various subjects specially science.

This gives basic information as well somepracticeexercisesmay be helpful for kids as well.

There is section as well infinanceand economicshttp://www.valuepickr.com/forum/must-have-investing-basics-books/99479466

More info on Khan academy from wikihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khan_Academy

I hope this will everyone

Thank you,

Regards,
Chethan

Puneet,

Donald has his own space in adobe. He has annual reports uploaded there. Probably you can touch base with him to use his space.

Hi,

Ive just finished reading Super Stocks by Ken Fisher( Son of Phillip Fisher). It is truly an amazing book with some very very powerful concepts. I would highlyrecommendit for every one on this forum

Thanks for that… Will get in touch with him for the same.

highlyrecommendit

I too have read it and found it very interesting. Its not a classic shows Ken Fisher in his own element. good thing is he is not hook line and sinker a phil fisher kind of investor. He has charted his own course and probably is more successful than his illustrious dad.

I think one needs to develop his own methods after reading various books rather than stick to one specific investing strategy. I would rate Peter Lynch as top draw in multi pronged approach to investments.

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Charlie Munger seems to be a big fan of Cialdini’s book named “Influence”, which is basically a psychology. Any feedback on it, and how good I find it?

I read influence few years ago. Mr Cialdini explains 5-6 basic concepts used by salesmen (in various guises) extremely well. Some things like reciprocation and starting with a small request and using the instinct to comply are very powerful. I think this book is a must read not only for investors but also people in general to avoid some of the sales traps we are exposed to on a daily basis. I remember recommending to to all my friends for months after reading it.

I read Influence as well and it is really good book. It has lots of humanpsychology related examples as Tarun mentioned. It has examples of how big companies, sales men and real estate agents and other sales professional use sales traps and tricks.It is simply great book and everybody should read.

Subhash - Let me know if you need i will email you the copy.

Dear Friends,

I am attaching below a list (pdf file) of some books, which I have personally found to be veryuseful. This is a list that I typically mail to people who are, knowledge wise in investing / trading, at the beginner to intermediate stage (I am still at dummy stage).

Please note that these are the âbare minimumâ ones that IMHO you need to read. In other words, it is not an exhaustive list. Moreover, I would suggest, that you mark out important passages during your first reading and then read them every year!

Most of these books are available on Flipkart.

I hope you find it useful.

Stock-Market-Books.pdf (15.7 KB)

Mohnish Pabrai’s reading list

http://www.pabraifunds.com/bookshelf_b.html

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http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2013/01/23/one-hedge-fund-aces-essential-investor-reading-list/?utm_campaign=forbesfbsf&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social

that"Dhando Investor"doesn’t understandformat.

1).

2).

3). safetyetc.

Masaladosa" explainthecore value investingideas marketfall

This book has one thing which you hardly find in value investing books- Kelly formula/criterion. Kelly who was in Bell Labs came upwiththe formula to decide the percent of your bank roll you bet on any wager. It is Kelly %= Edge/Odds. This formula promises maximumcompounding(geometric mean) Vis a Vis any other risk management method. Those who are interested in this fascinating invention should read excellent book Fortune’s Formula.

Girish

Hi,

highlyrecommendit

** I

** dad.I **

investments.

One of the contribution by Ken Fisher is topopularizeprice/sales formula. Various tests have shown that at least in US the low p/s stocks (as a group) do well over time…some times better than p/b and p/e.

Cheers,

Girish

**

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I wouldrecommendthe following books for the advanced readers:

1). What works on Wall Street (Latest edition)- This is invaluable for people who believe in probability, statistics and data based analysis.

2.Money ball- You should read this to understand the importance of probability, statistics and data analysis. And how data mining and analysis is changing every aspect of human life.

3). The signal and noise: The art and science of prediction by Nat Silver- If you get carried away after reading Money ball and think you got a magic bullet then this book will give you reality check. You will see why every one is not getting rich quick by doing data analysis. Why you should differentiate signal from plain noise in your data. This guy is super star of prediction and the book is very entertaining read. If you are into probability, statistics and data analysis then you will devour this book.

4). Fortune’s formula - You will learn about betting odds, probability, wagering, speculating but mostimportantlyabout great money allocation and risk management system called Kelly Criterion. The book reads like adventure novel. There is Bell lab,gangsters, how MIT professors beat Vegas casinos usingprobabilityknowledge etc in this book. Fantastic.

5). Damodaran on valuation- already mentioned. I enjoyed reading this book - end to end. He is good teacher and writer.

6). Financial statement analysis and security Valuation- This writer is solid in accounting field and darling of wall street. But I have some grouse against him because he has dismissed DCF, DDM etcoutright. He also asks us to project future for only next 2 or 3 years. But if you want solid treatment of some of very good valuation methods and want to understand how equity analysts value companies and arrive at target price then you need to turn to this book.

7). Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies- 5th Edition - From McKinsey consultants. This is highly rated book on valuation. I liked it.

8.Financial Shenanigans- How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports Third Edition by Howard Schilit

9). Quality of Earnings- Same genre as above.

10). Seeking Wisdom- From Darwin to Munger, 3rd Edition- Good book onbehavioralaspects.

11.Your Money and Your Brain - Jason Zwaig

12). Thinking Fast and Slow- Daniel Kahelman - Perhaps THE book on behavioural aspects like our heuristics, biases, irrationality

13). The Wisdom of Crowd- Necessary book for value investors. The book says that the crowds are usually more accurate than experts when they predict the future. Providedcertainconditionsare met. If those conditions are not met then crowds become irrational. Turn into herd or mob.This book will help you understand when you should trust investing crowd and when you should be weary of the crowd. May be after reading this book you will agree that most of the time the crowd/market sets the price correctly. Maybethere is (some times) method in madness when the price drops/rises when news comes out. This book will help you develop healthy respect for majority opinions when certain conditions are met.

Happy Reading!

Cheers,

Girish

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In the latest wealth study by Motilal oswal securities, one book referred was- Value Migration by Adrian J Slywotzky.

Though I read the book before, following the reference from one of the discussion by Raamdeo Agarwal, its reference again in the Wealth study prompted me to re-read t again.

The Book is based on one of the microeconomics investment model referred by Charlie Munger in Elementary Wordly Wisdom. In it C.Munger says “there are huge advantages for the early birds. And when you are an early bird, there’s a model that I call surfing-when a surfer gets up and catches the wave and just stays there, he can go a long, long time. But if he gets off the wave, he becomes mired in shallows… you can expect to profit heavily from at least a few of those opportunities if you develop the wisdom and will to seize them. At any rate, surfing is a very powerful model.”

Companies which really created huge wealth b’coz of this constructive destruction-

Titan Industries (From unorganized jewelry sector toorganized one).

Bharti Airtel (From Fixed line telephony to wireless)

Hero Motocorp(From scooters to bikes)

and most recently,

Astral Polytech(From MS piping to CPVC)

Regards

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Puneet has provided link to dropbox in below thread

http://www.valuepickr.com/forum/must-have-investing-basics-books/208231065

Forgot… Sorry…You need to log in to ‘google drive’ with the above id and password…

I guess most people can afford few 100 bucks for basic and commonly available books when investing in stocks (i.e. a professional money making activity). Why do we talk of ethics from our political leaders and corporate governance from the companies we invest in when we can’t do a basic thing honestly ?

I felt I must say it and said it. @Mods: You could delete this message if its not appropriate.

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