I'm always keen to lean and am constantly on the look out for useful resources
I'd be interested to hear peoples views on what investment books you would recommend.
What investment magazines you think are useful/interesting?
What's the best newspaper to read or best way to keep generally informed about what is happening economically in a from a business/financial and investment perspective
Any podcasts or YouTube channels?
Thanks in advance
TBM
Some excellent suggestions there. My top three of those would be Thinking Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator - Edwin Lefevre, and Trade Like a Stock Market Wizard - Mark Minervini. They all focus of getting the correct mindset for trading and investing. If the mindset is incorrect, everything else will be incorrect.
Looks like a lot of interesting content to get stuck into, thanks for the recommendation Snowbum
I think it depends on your leaning (small caps, large cap, quality, value etc), time horizon & risk appetite and what you want to get out of the book (general guidance, motivation, learning jargon/technical terms, a fully fledged strategy etc).
I have read many books and some resonate better than others with me...but thats the thing with the markets, there is so many different approaches and they can all make (& lose) money (not necessarily always at the same time). Many people seem to make the distinction of traders vs. investors but really both are speculators, just with different time horizons and risk profiles and there is no clear definitions per se (like what is the difference between a position trader that holds a stock for 12 or 18 months vs. an Investor?). You need to find what works for you and then stick to it - how much time you commit, getting a routine in place and building a rule book and following it. I have probably drifted too much between styles whilst trying to find what works and some of this is from reading too many different approaches.
Books:
Some books I've read below with what you might be able to get from them (almost all of these are older books btw)
I also like the market wizards series from Jack Schwager and the Naked Trader books. There are plenty of other good books out there worth a read but getting something you can actually apply to your approach is probably covered in the above.
Youtube
There is a plethora of stuff on youtube too (a lot is US focused) but some of the channels which I think put out good content are:
1. TraderLion - https://www.youtube.com/@TraderLion - lots of interviews with different traders and investors and their approaches
2. Revere Asset Manamgent - https://www.youtube.com/@revereasset5586 - they do daily videos on their read of the market
3. https://www.youtube.com/@FinancialWisdom - short educational videos and book summaries (Gareth is UK based and is also a subscriber here on Stockopedia)
4. https://www.youtube.com/@crowdedmarketreport - Jason Shapiro (one of the market wizards from Jack Schwager book) covers tidbits about his views and approach (he is a contrarian that uses the COT [Commitment of Traders] data to determine when turns are likely to happen)
5. https://www.youtube.com/@RainKingLLC - John Pocorobba channel (he is an amateur growth investor using CANSLIM) - he puts out some great analysis of the US markets for an amateur though (really detailed and thoughtful)
6. https://www.youtube.com/@IanShadrackInvesting - Ian Shadrack (UK) puts out some decent content on funds and retirement planning
Other websites & tools:
- https://www.naaim.org/programs... - NAIIM exposure index, helps understand positioning in US markets (so you can see its at 99% right now which is the highest level since Oct/Nov 2021 when the markets topped out)
- Tradingview - you can get access free (with some ads) to what is a very good charting tool for stocks (the screener is pretty rubbish). I also use it to track indices, sector ETFs, US market internals (A/D line, net highs/lows, VIX, P/C ratio, Skew, # stocks above 20/50/200 day moving averages etc)
- https://www.marketinout.com/ch... - use this to look at breadth indicators across markets
- https://www.investegate.co.uk/ - use this to look at daily RNS from the London market
- https://www.aaii.com/sentiment...- weekly sentiment gauge on US markets (when used with NAIIM you can look at what investors say vs. what they are doing)
Some good advice here. My picks would be the Financial Wisdom channel on Youtube and Stan Weinstein's book 'Secrets for profiting in Bull and Bear Markets' (Chapter One is all you need to read if you're short of time - it's a masterpiece of simplicity - but the rest is pretty useful too.)
William k, does "Thinking Fast and Slow" get any better? I started reading it but abandoned it after one chapter. He spent 30 odd pages saying the same thing over and over and over AND OVER again. It just struck me as someone taking 30 pages to say something that could probably be explained in a short-ish paragraph.
This book certainly won't appeal to everyone. Yes, there is repetition and it's a bit dense in places. If you're not hooked on the first chapter, it's unlikely you'll be hooked on the rest. It might be worth skipping to the sections on risk aversion and loss aversion which are probably the most relevant for traders and investors. Alternatively check out loss aversion and risk aversion on Google - plenty of short readable summaries.
Thanks. It has been sitting on my pile of half read books and I wasn't sure if I would bother trying to finish it. I'll have a read of the chapters you suggest and if it still hasn't hooked me it can go to the charity shop.
Cheers
Just reserved it from the library, probably will be a few weeks before I get it. Reviews are generally good, have thought about reading it in the past but then forgot about it.
Thanks for such a comprehensive response and the raft of recommendations and links, that's amazing! It was particularly helpful the context you gave as I think what I am struggling with the most is trying to decide where to start. I'm trying to work out what's a good starting strategy to cut my teeth before refining style to suit personality.
Hello googlyeyes, the naaim and aaii websites you posted are going to be very useful to me - thanks for those recommendations.
They reminded me of another book that I forgot to mention :-
What Works on Wall Street - Martin Zweig
I track a range of Zweig indicators. Although some of the indicators described in the book no longer work due the gradual shift in Fed regulatory policy, I still find the discipline of tracking them to be invaluable in formulating a macro view.
I would echo a lot of the suggestions on here already, but be aware some like Minervini and O'neil are more skewed towards shorter time frames. More trading than investing.
One I haven't seen mentioned which I really enjoyed is Free Capital by Guy Thomas. It's 12 interviews with ISA millionaires. All with different approaches but obviously UK based. I enjoyed that more than Richer, Wiser, Happier (which seemed to be mostly you get rich by being a fund manager and taking a fee, rather than self investing).
If I really had to recommend the one that I think would make the most difference to the most people, it would be Secrets for profiting in Bull & Bear markets by Stan Weinstein.
To illustrate the difference in markets, Jim Slater's famous quote "elephants don't gallop", applies to the UK, it does not apply to the US market, this year alone several large caps have increased considerably NVIDIA (NSQ:NVDA) is up around 150%, despite a recent pullback, Tesla (NSQ:TSLA) up 100%, Apple (NSQ:AAPL) +50%, Microsoft (NSQ:MSFT) +40%, many others have doubled or more.
UK small caps have faired poorly over the last 2 years. Many authors of the books listed below, talk about timing the market or sectors. Then Warren Buffet ignores the markets and averages down, which is contrary to what others recommend.
Yes some are short term, such as Minervini. I found Weinstein to be longer term, although he does have 2 different strategies, one is more for traders.
Then Warren Buffet ignores the markets and averages down, which is contrary to what others recommend
If you run a concentrated portfolio and are happy with the operational performance, this makes complete sense. I do the same, to a more limited degree, and with less success.
I am very much in your camp BnB. If the company is performing but it is not recognised in the share price I am happy to add. Also if a company's shares are unduly depressed by market sentiment or transient issues again I will add.
For example I have recently added to Volex (LON:VLX) Wickes (LON:WIX) and Palace Capital (LON:PCA) , TT electronics (LON:TTG) and Harbourvest Global Private Equity (LON:HVPE) . I have also been drip feeding money in to NextEnergy Solar Fund (LON:NESF) .
Volex (LON:VLX) I have held for 3/4 years; its recent results were very positive and the acquisition of Mucar Ticaret, the manufacturer of wiring harnesses for off road vehicles looks a really good fit. It is the largest holding across the family ISAs that my wife and children are happy for me to run.
Wickes (LON:WIX) is a new holding bought after the recent trading up date.
REITS such as Palace Capital (LON:PCA) and to my mind several infrastructure, alternative asset and listed private equity trusts have been sold off too aggressively.
There are always risks and the above shares may well get cheaper, but I think they are cheap now based on the information available.
I am an admirer of Howard Marks who stated that success in investing depends on buying well and also of Peter Lynch who when asked what not to buy said that he avoids the hottest stocks in hot markets, a case in point today, Nvidia, perhaps..
Hopefully my reading of the 'runes' is in the right ball park
Two of the best books on investing I’ve read in recent years are:
Good discussion here.
Lots of mentions of minervini’s first book ‘trade like a stock market wizard’, but his follow-up ‘think and trade like a champion’ is also a very good read. It does repeat a lot of the principles from the first book, but also adds more detail on when to sell.
Bill O’Neill and weinstein are also very good for anybody looking to avoid holding stocks that just keep dropping…. We’ve all been there and it’s not nice.
Super Stocks by Ken Fisher discussing PSR & PRR values. Nice section where he compares PSR values of shares in the 1929 crash and discovers that high PSR values companies such as IBM never really did crash.
