Best books about stocks

[bob2007]

Tell me your favourite / most insightful book / website on long term investment stocks.

I'm a newbie at stocks and intend on investing 2 g US. At this rate, commission is only gonna be less than 1% of my investment, is that an acceptable amount? (I don't have much money to start investing).

[adios]

There are so many bad ones that IMO not reading any would be a better alternative than selecting one at random IMO.

The Equity Risk Premium (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0471327352/qid=1052896594/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-4547061-6482556?v=glance&s=books)

Ignore totally the reviews on Amazon as they're wrong and worthless, seriously. It basically explains the theory on why the stock market should increase in value over the long run.

There is another book coming out that looks interesting on this subject.

The Equity Risk Premium: Research and Practice (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0195148142/qid=1052896594/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-4547061-6482556?v=glance&s=books)

Investment Valuation by Aswath Damodaran (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471414883/qid=1052897232/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-4547061-6482556)

A comprehensive book that gives the underlying principles about valuing securities including stocks and bonds. Personally I would try to understand the fundamentals behind placing a value on companies. We've had some really good discussion in the past on this forum regarding this subject.

Dr. Damodaran's website is also interesting:

Dr. Aswath Damodaran's Web Site (http://www.damodaran.com)

One other book that looks interesting which I haven't read by Dr. Damodarn:

Investment Philosophies: Successful Investment Philosophies and the Greatest Investors Who Made Them Work (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471345032/qid=1052898008/sr=2-3/ref=sr_2_3/102-4547061-6482556)

Well that's more than two so I'm sure others will have different ones. The Damodaran books cover the topic of accounting a little bit, but I'd definitely become familiar with financial statements and accounting if at all serious about it. Just my take as I'm sure others have far different ones.

[Wildbill]

These are higher level books, read only one of them, but I think this guy wants some easier reading to start out. Anyone and everyone should read Bill O'Neill's book "How to Make Money in Stocks", without a doubt a book for the masses. Not the easiest thing to comprehend or to put into perfect practice, but it teaches something upfront that I think many people miss out on by focusing too much on Warren Buffett. Fact is the most money in stocks is made by those short powerful moves. In the short run momentum and sentiment are everything, in the long run then value and sustainable business models are key.

[GeorgeF]

"A random walk down wall street" is the best first book to read. by Malkiel

other books I liked.
"intelligent investor" - Ben Graham

"fooled by randomness" - taleb

websites:
free
www.berkshirehathaway.com (http://www.berkshirehathaway.com) - letters to shareholders
www.andrewtobias.com (http://www.andrewtobias.com) - when he talks about finance
www.pimco.com (http://www.pimco.com)
www.prudentbear.com (http://www.prudentbear.com)
www.economist.com (http://www.economist.com)
www.bloomberg.com (http://www.bloomberg.com)
$
www.fallstreet.com (http://www.fallstreet.com)
www.realmoney.com (http://www.realmoney.com)

[Ashe]

Fun investment reads: "Liar's Poker" & "Pit Bull". (You might learn something here, but their mostly entertaining.)

I'm a Warren Buffett fan, so an influential book to me was "The Warren Buffett Way" even though it's pretty boring. His letters to shareholders might be good to learn from, but be warned, Buffett sometimes says one thing and does another.

I found that a good, basic website to learn from is the education section of Yahoo Finance. They can teach you some basics on stocks, bonds, and options, as well as other areas of personal finance. Consequently, I use Yahoo Finance as the starting point for all my stock research. They have good tools, profiles, links, and up to date news on most stocks, but their message boards suck.

I used to visit the Motley Fool (Fool.com) when I first started investing too. I learned a lot here, but then they started to charge a membership fee, so I no longer belong. Their message boards were really helpful too, but I'm not sure if they still are.

2 grand isn't a lot is jump in the market with. My advise to you would be to invest in an index fund or a DRIP first, just to get your feet wet. You also might want to consider opening a Roth IRA.

You can read up on DRIPs, index funds, and IRAs at Yahoo Finance.

Best of Luck,
Ken /forums/images/icons/smirk.gif

PS. My online broker is Ameritrade.

PPS.
Good DRIP sites are Equiserve.com, Amstock.com, and Melloninvestor.com

I use Vanguard.com for almost all my mutual fund activity. They charge the lowest fees in the industry, and the allow you to purchase funds directly through their website using direct deposit once you are set up. They have my Roth IRA.

[Ashe]

Also, if you're interested in any magazines, Money magazine is good for beginners. Once you have some experience, I like Smart Money and The Economist. I hate Forbes... it makes me wanta puke all over some yuppie scumbags. Being part yuppie myself, you can see my problem with this. /forums/images/icons/smirk.gif

[Wildbill]

Just personal opinion, but my goodness do I hate Money magazine. I guess there is a crowd for it, but too many of their articles seem to be written for really dense people. That and the fact that about 30% of their articles every issue seem to be about retiring. That gets so old, how many different angles on retirement can you get???