Probably been asked a million times: What to read?

[1800GAMBLER]

Firstly, i know nothing. Yet i'm in another phase of wanting to learn something totally new to me and see how i take to it. So investments seems next on the list to devote a lot of time to.

I'm going to order, A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-tested Strategy for Successful Investing, there's also A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Best Investment Advice for the New Century, which one? Also what else should i add to the cart? Any good websites for total beginners?

Investments:

I'll have a student loan ~£10k over 3 years, which i wont need but it seems a good idea to take it and invest that since the interest rate is at most 3% and the loan only becomes payable back after university. Also, i may be able to do the same with student overdrafts? The student loan investment would be handy as just a short term investment, as once the loan is due to be paid it would be nice to be able to fall back/have access to the investment then.


Also, excess income investments i'd like to add to each year and keep for long term just as a peace of mind investment.

So summary, general books i should read? Investments i should check out? Books on those investments?

Thanks to everyone in advanced.

[adios]

Well I'll chime in with my standard statement that you should have an understanding in how to value an asset like a stock or a bond so I'd recommend Aswath Damodaran's, Investment Valuation, highly. Of course once you understand how a stock is valued you'll realize that they could and do have some very big fluctuations in price.

[GeorgeF]

At the bottome of the web page is a search feature, search on books.

You might try finding the best library near you and raid their shelves and periodicals room. Root arount the internet for free investment advice.

[Zeno]

I will echo George's post - if you are near or have access to a library, there is usually a lot of good material to be check out or browsed over. They may even have a small section or table with 'investing type material' or magazines etc.

Also, at least for me, setting up some firm monetary goals as to the amount that I invest per year (whether dollar amount or percentage of income) has been very useful. If I invest more fine, but to set a goal and achieve it every year gives a sense of accomplishment that adds a lot of satisfaction to investing.

-Zeno

[hillbilly]

by William J. O'Neil...

this book is so important for all investors to read i actually used the cap key a few times, heh.

as a youngster in the fifties this gentleman lost a few grand in the stock market and was so pissed off he studied the current leading (successful) mutual fund managers of the times and made some startling discoveries that became the basis for his winning stock market system. in a few short years he parlayed a small amount of money into 200,000 and bought a seat on the new york stock exchange, and the rest is history...

in the 80's he founded his own newspaper called "investors business daily". this paper is essential to your stock market success. go to your local newsshop and pick up a copy, you can order a book from there for 10 bucks

best wishes

[scalf]

/images/graemlins/grin.gif right you are about ibd and o'neill

add planets and star formations...by e z cash

lol

gl /images/graemlins/smirk.gif /images/graemlins/diamond.gif

[hillbilly]

hey scalfster, how'd ye like the jobs number???!!!...nice call. the correction is over (gulp, kiss of death, heh.) you heard it here first...bot some safm and crdn last week, and hope to ease into a few more breakouts on monday...one more followthru day with volume would really clinch it.

[adios]

One number doesn't make a trend but it seems to support the "pop" theory as one of the three explanations I enumerated in another post. For now I'm changing my view and supporting the "pop" theory. Even though I like to sell into rallies when at all possible I did a lot of selling on Friday and have a large percentage of my portfolio in cash now. Obviously I expect further weakness in bonds and interest rate sensitive financials. Hopefully they'll get sold to ridiculously cheap prices /images/graemlins/smile.gif. scalf and squiffy will probably be doing just fine here, I may join em /images/graemlins/smile.gif but probably looking for more long term consummer, bio tech, and possibly some tech related stocks.

[BradleyT]

Just ordered this along with Super System and Bob C's Pot & No Limit book (what a combo!).

Thanks for the rec, from most of the reviews on Amazon it sounds like a winner.