A few books I have, what's next?

[DWarrior]

A few months ago, I picked up a few books on stocks and investing in general that I intended to read. Being a poor student, I'm obviously not going to be trading anything except playmoney for a while, but I think it's best to start learning now, instead of taking the route of gambling with like $100, which won't teach me anything about intelligent investing, and will just be a waste of time, as I doubt any portfolio management skills can be gained from throwing $100 at a share of stock and paying $7 in commission with it.

My reading list includes:
* Use The News, Maria Bartiromo (finished)
* Millionaire Next Door, Stanley/Danko (finished)
* One Up on Wall Street, Peter Lynch (finished)

* The Interpretation of Financial Statements, Ben Graham
* Intelligent Investor, Ben Graham
* Security Analysis, Graham and Dodd
* 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, Suze Orman
* How to be a Billionaire, Fridson
* Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, Fisher
* Financial Shenanigans 2nd ED, Schilit
* Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America, Warren Buffett

I started off by reading a few Trump books, but they were mainly inspirational stories rather than any realistic strategies. I then read Rich Dad Poor Dad, which was also thin, but gave me a brief introduction. After reading John T. Reed's long page review of Kiyosaki's book, I realized that I should treat his books merely as inspirational writing, not anything technical. From Reed's essay, I gathered that Kiyosaki's books were just all the other books I have on the list smacked in one and without any of the numbers, kind of like the beginner poker books that just give you advice without really showing you why it is, as opposed to, say, Sklansky's books, that give some mathematical basis.

I read Use The News by Maria Bartiromo, and later found out that the book didn't get great reviews from the public, but the info that was in her book served as a good refresher of the concepts I learned in high school (Financial ratios, etc.)

Next, I read The Millionaire Next Door, and it gave me a more realistic view of what it takes to acquire capital.

Finally, I had just finished One Up On Wall Street, which I thought was very interesting. Lynch's approach seems more old-fashioned, as he totally dismisses trading futures and options and investing in trends (without an edge), which is probably sound advice for people who are clueless.

My next question is, how hard is Security Analysis to read? Should I leave this book for last, or dive into it right away? It is considered one of the fundamental books, yet I'm not sure if starting with the fundamentals is always correct.

In what order are these books best read? (I'm talking more about the investing books, as I'm sure "9 steps to financial freedom" doesn't require much technical knowledge). I'm guessing Essays of Warren Buffett should be left for the very last, as I did with Poker Essays of Malmuth, because it seems like he'd write more "situational" examples, as opposed to fundamental concepts.

EDIT: I'm also under no illusions. I realize that there's probably no +EV way to get rich quick int he market, and these readings are intended to be applied years and years from now, but I think it's best to at least get exposure now, so I can re-read them a decade or so from now and already know most of the information.

[gotme]

Hey mate,

I'm a futures trader from Sydney - I'll help you out with some of this.

Now investing isn't such a great get-rich-quick arena, but a steady reasonable investment in good stocks, semi-speculating (buying low/selling high in the long trend ups/downs) will easily make you wealthy within in 15-20 years if it's done right.

Now first off - don't bother with G+D's Security Analysis. It's more a financial analysis MBA text book, good if you want to be a professional fund manager or research analyst etc - but boring and dry if you're just reading it in your spare time.

Studying Warren Buffett material is an excellent start, these books would include:
- Buffettology
- The New Buffettology (more of an updated copy of orignal)
- The Intelligent Investor (this book got WB started in the stockmarket)
- Other books such as the "Warren Buffett Way", i haven't read but still are good from what i hear - check Amazon reviews.
- Common Stocks, Uncommon Profits - Good book to read after the intelligent investor.
- The books by Peter Lynch should also be read.

Once you've read these, you'll have a pretty good idea of how to analyse the fundamentals of a company.

Next move on to using some technical analysis:
- How to make money in stocks - teaches the CANSLIM method - EXCELLENT (i've made alot from what I learnt with this)

This is about all you need, you should be able to work alot of what's next out from here.

Tip: for investing the 200 day Moving Average with solid fundamentals is very useful.
Tip: A stock's movement = 40% movement of the broad market, 40% movement of the sector, 20% movement of the individual stock. So buy preferably when market and sector are trending upward.

Hope this helps.

[Sniper]

Books by William O'neill and subscribe to Investors Business Daily.

Several Books on trading psychology, top 3 authors IMO - Douglas, Elder and Van Tharp.