Ongoing work - PPTs summarizing books that I have read/currently reading

Hi Guys,

As I was discussing with Nelson in PCA thread, I have started creating PPTs summarizing the salient points from the various books that I have read/currently reading. Please bear in mind that this is an ongoing slow work, and completed PPTs will be transfered to completed folder.

Please give me your positive/negative feedback by going through the PPTs (not a single PPT is complete as of now :frowning: ).

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Thanks for taking the collaboration initiative. And keep it up! Thereā€™s this side of you which is really admirable. ! wish more folks show as much initiative as you do. will check in a few daysā€¦just back!

At the same time, some brotherly adviseā€¦

Why do I keep getting the feeling you are reading too many books. Which means that you do have quality time available. But the Flip side is you are not going deep into any one stock, read as many ARs - you are neglecting the practical side of things that will also teach you a lot - what can be ignored, and what cannot, what are the most important things to quickly zero in onto, and the like - most importantly develop that ā€œfeelā€ - guys like Hitesh and Ayush are famous for. the more churning you do - at a sufficiently deep level - the more feel you will develop. No shortcuts will work here:)(

I know you are capable of much faster progress!!For someone who loves to read (I assume you do) - I am accusing you of taking the easy way out:)))- not doing enough of hard work, that will eventually pay much more.

-Donald

@Subhash,

Great initiative Subhash.

@Donald,

This amazing and untiring willingness to help others is what separates you and couple others from the crowd. Considers myself to be fortunate to be part of this forum.

@Donald @Atul

Thanks for your encouraging words.

@Donald,

I love reading books, I have a mini library at my home (100+ unread books, 100+ read books). Plus some 100+ e-books to choose to read. I am a book-loving maniac.

These days in addition to reading book trying to make note of them, so as to give something to this forum, from which I have immensely benefited.

And thanks for your reading AR part. This year will try to read last 5 year of ARs for 3-5 companies. That is my target.

Subash

Making notes is one of the best way to retain and recall the good points from any books. Earlier when I read books, failed to make any summary or notes, but now I do it regularly. I was and still an avid reader of books and I am happy if I can get only one new idea from the book or if it enables me to understand existing idea better. Let me share three things which I have learnt over the period of time

  1. I am sure you must be doing this, but what becomes more interesting is to compare and contrast thinking process of various investors on same point say diversification or position limits.

  2. I am not underplaying books, but after reading Howard mark shareholder letter vs his book and similarly Tweedy, Browne shareholder letter vs book published by Christopher Browne ā€œLittle book of value investingā€, reading these free letters though very time consuming are much better than reading 10 books at the same time. These letters take us to the particular market conditions under which their investment thinking was developed. Read original letter than summary.

  3. Try to buy some stocks based on the books which you read, so that it becomes more intense process. I am not saying that after reading every book you must buy some stock, but some books like security analysis or shareholder letter like Howard Mark or Tweedy Browne will allow you to pick up some themes to play with.

Done with summarizing around 8 letters of Howard Marks. I am going way slow than expected. You can view the same from

http://art-of-mental-modelling.blogspot.in/2013/02/howard-mark-memos-v01.html

Hope folks get benefited from my effort. Do give me your positive/negative feedback.

1 Like

Book Review :: What works on wall street Ć¢ James P. OĆ¢Shaughnessy

http://art-of-mental-modelling.blogspot.in/2013/02/book-review-what-works-on-wall-street.html

excellent work one subhashā€¦

Nice work Subhashā€¦Even I love reading booksā€¦simple love itā€¦though my this habit is comparatively new and have finished only 9-10 books in last 1 yearā€¦I am currently reading Howard Markā€™s - The most important thingā€¦and your summary captures most of the pointsā€¦

And I completely agree with T Anil Kumarā€™s viewā€¦reading the original letters/memos would give us better understanding of the market conditions which prevailed during that time and what made these renowned investors did what they didā€¦but it requires patienceand timeā€¦and with full time employment it becomes tough, atleast for me.

Thanks Anil for your feedback.

I thinking being full time employed in non-finance company, and not doing a MBA are 2 boon for me. Deciding what/when to buy for 10-20 stocks shouldnā€™t require much time, when forum like valuepickr exists. By not doing MBA, I donā€™t have to unlearn the greek sounding soviet-chicago school of finance. I learn things that works, not what is fashonable to assume, and write papers.

90% of my time spend on equity investing is keeping abreast with latest development of a stock via valuepickr, and reading books. I donā€™t mind reading few books because of lack of time. What I mind most is forgetting what I have learned by reading way too many books. Hence my effort to make ppts on the books that I have read.

patienceand

Book Review - Contrarian Investment Strategies - By David Dreman

http://art-of-mental-modelling.blogspot.in/2013/03/book-review-contrarian-investment.html

Book Review - The Most Important Thing - Howard Mark - v01

http://art-of-mental-modelling.blogspot.in/2013/04/the-most-important-thing-howard-mark-v01.html

Subash,

Thanks for sharing your ongoing work with others. Laudable effort, keep it up. However, the aim while starting thisInvesting Literature: What I am reading Now! Forum

We hope to be able to provide readers with a gist of our current reading, here. Summaries of Concepts; new Insights gained; live examples from the market, discussions & debate are encouraged.

Just providing a pointer to external links, without providing any sort of synopsis - bringing out merits & de-merits, etc. is defaeating the purpose. A Forum is meant for discussion - exchange of thoughts, influencing opinion, inviting critique. This thread started with great promise - I had felt compelled to write-in and congratulate you on the initiative, but now seems to have degenerated into a promotional exercise, adding nothing here for the community.

**Please feel free to discuss **these books that you are reading here. Links are also welcome (to promote further reading/discussion). Only providing Links is being seen as Self-Promotion.

I felt compelled to write-in again, to pre-empt this getting out-of-hand (others emulating the same) and eventually forcing Admin (in a bid to prevent Forum abuse)clamp down on our liberal policies. Please help us keep the Forum the way it is - Value-Addition to the Community, first.

You are free to start a discussion thread on each book (that you have reviewed) and capture the essentials there in a series of posts, perhaps - as I did for the Copeland Valuation Bookhere. The accent can be on practical application of concepts in the book - that invites live examples, discussions & debate, and we can all take away something from the exercise.

-Donald

Thanks Donald for your feedback.

My aim was to help people by summarizing main points of good books that I read. (By habit I make ppt summary, just need upload to docstock, link to blog, and post link to valuepickr once I have something worthwhile to share). Small action, big gain for other I thought :slight_smile:

Somehow it never occurred to me that people will take it as a promotional post. Overly positive feedback from fellow members in this thread might be the prime culprit for the same. Mistake done. No more promotional posting from my blog at valuepickr.

Those who want the same can follow me in the blog itself, use feedly or follow me in twitter.

Hi All,

Currently i m reading ā€œWhat Money Canā€™t Buyā€ by Michael Sandel and ā€œFamous Financial Fiascosā€ by John Train.

Thanks

Ashish

I thought this would be a place full of intelligent successful helpful people. but I guess I was quick in assuming that.

I basically posted a couple of questions regarding the work I am doing based on What works on wall street book. but I guess no body knows anything about it.

btw, I am reading ā€œHot Commoditiesā€ by Jim Rogers now.

Hi Akbar,

I do not see any post with your question in this thread!!!

Regards,

-Subash

Hi Subash,

Its an interesting thread indeed. I am still new to investing and so its very useful.
But I am not able to read the links.
May I request you to invite me
my mail id is kumanan.pri@gmail.com

Regards

Kumanan

I am reading a book called the ā€œThe Secret Life of Fat - The Science Behind the Body`s Least Understood Organ and What It Means for Youā€ - For those who want to understand complex adaptive systems this book is as good as any to understand how fat is connected to many bodily functions and trying to control it creates more problems that it solves. An excess of it creates problems and a lack of it can be life threatening. The direct parallel of this to investing is debt. Debt is much maligned just like fat and many investors view it with cynicism. But just like not all fat is created equal, not all debt is created equal. As the book brilliantly showcases fat is an organ and secrets hormones that keep us alive. A little bit of debt keeps the managers of the company from doing stupid capital allocation decisions that harm the shareholders. As the Prof has said many times in the past , a debt free company is a actually a company that has an embedded high quality bond in it (think Wonderla). There are innumerable parallels to draw from this book to the world of investing. For e.g did you know that bone cells and fat cells share the same mother - they are created from the same stem cells in the bone marrow. Just like debt and equity. This book will challenge all your concepts about fat and if you can make to connections to investing about debt as well. I highly recommend it

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Plz send me invitation to read ur blog