Must-Read Investing Books -- The Seeking Alpha Bookshelf

In time spent as a sell-side research analyst, managing long/short money and then building Seeking Alpha, I've read literally hundreds of investment books.

These recommendations are all personal, so don't treat this as an objective list of what's best. If you think I've forgotten something, please leave a comment with your suggestion below. The links are to Amazon, where you can read more about the books:

Author	Title	Notes
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MONEY MANAGERS' EXPERIENCES
Cramer, Jim	Confessions of a Street Addict	Jim Cramer's experience as a fund manager; best of all his books
Kessler, Andy	Running Money	Running a tech hedge fund in the bubble
Kessler, Andy	Wall Street Meat	Life as a sell-side research analyst
Lowenstein, Roger	When Genius Failed	Gripping account of the failure of Long Term Capital Management
Lynch, Peter	Beating the Street	Magellan Fund Manager's famous book on stock picking
Neff, John	John Neff on Investing	Contains stock diary of the market-beating Windsor Fund
Schwager, Jack	Market Wizards	Readable interviews with top traders and fund managers
Schwager, Jack	The New Market Wizards	Schwager's follow-up; more generic, but still worthwhile
Strachman, Daniel	Julian Robertson	Portrait of arguably the most influential hedge fund manager ever
.
.
VALUE INVESTING
Buffett, Warren	The Essays of Warren Buffett	Excerpts of writings arranged by topic
Graham, Benjamin	Security Analysis	The reference book for all value investors
Greenblatt, Joel	The Little Book That Beats the Market	Value investing handbook by successful money manager
Greenwald, Bruce	Value Investing	Rigorous discussion of valuation metrics
Hagstrom, Robert	The Essential Buffett	Outline of Buffett's views
Lowenstein, Roger	Buffett	Best portrait of Buffett
Whitman, Marty	Contrarian Investment Strategies	Famed value-oriented fund manager on his methodology
.
.
SHORT SELLING
Asensio, Manuel	Sold Short	Experiences of the most famous short seller
Staley, Kathryn	The Art of Short Selling	Case studies in short selling
.
.
INDEXING AND MARKET EFFICIENCY
Baer, Gregory	The Great Mutual Fund Trap	Why you shouldn't buy mutual funds. Ever.
Bogle, John	On Investing	Indexing guru's essays
Malkiel, Burton	A Random Walk Down Wall Street	The case for indexing and against stock picking
Warwick, Ben	Searching for Alpha	Best discussion of market efficiency versus stock picking from an active manager
.
.
INVESTMENT PSYCHOLOGY
Belsky, Gary	Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes	Behavioural economics applied to stock picking
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas	Fooled by Randomness	How to spot the signal in the noise and invest accordingly
Tvede, Lars	The Psychology of Finance	Understanding the market with psychology
.
.
ASSET ALLOCATION
Bernstein, William	The Intelligent Asset Allocator	Asset allocation using index funds
Swenson, David	Pioneering Portfolio Management	Asset allocation and valuation by the market-beating manager of the Yale Endowment
.
.
TRADING STRATEGIES
Altucher, James	Trade Like Warren Buffett	Buffett as a trader, not an investor
Boucher, Mark	The Hedge Fund Edge	Hedge fund strategies; serious but readable
.
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CONTRARIAN INVESTING
Davis, Ned	The Triumph of Contrarian Investing	How to measure investor sentiment
Dreman, David	Contrarian Investment Strategies	Excellent outline of contrarian investing
.
.
LONG TERM INVESTMENT STRATEGIES
Damodaran, Aswath	Investment Fables	Exposure of investment fallacies by respected academic; it's even highly readable
Faber, Mark	Tomorrow's Gold	Slightly rambling argument for emerging market stocks
Fisher, Philip	Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits	The case for long term investing in stocks
Moore, Geoffrey	The Gorilla Game	The case for high-growth tech stocks
Mauldin, John	Bull's Eye Investing	Hedge fund broker on long-short investing; poorly edited but interesting ideas
.
.
OPTIONS
McMillan, Lawrence	Options as a Strategic Investment	The authoritative book on options valuation and investing
.
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FINANCIAL ANALYSIS & VALUATION
Mulford, Charles	The Financial Numbers Game	Careful examination of accounting tricks to look out for
O'Glove, Thornton	Quality of Earnings	How much are companies really earning?
Rapaport, Alfred	Expectations Investing	Stock picking based on what's priced-in
Schlit, Howard	Financial Shenanigans	Financial manipulations to look out for
Shiller, Robert	Irrational Exuberance	Called the market top; methodology is still important
.
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TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
Edwards, Robert	Technical Analysis of Stock Trends	Probably the most popular book on technical analysis
O'Neil, William	How to Make Money in Stocks	Combination of fundamental and technical analysis by founder of Investors Business Daily
Pring, Martin	Technical Analysis Explained	Popular guide to technical analysis

Note: All links are to Amazon.com. If you buy there, Seeking Alpha gets an affiliate fee without it raising the price to you.

Comments

[Jo Treggiari:]

Dave,
I'd like to send you a copy of the book, The Single Best Investment, by money manager Lowell Miller. It's a great, informative read.
Let me know.
Thanks,
Jo

2006 Sep 12 02:09 PM

[David Jackson:]

Hi Jo, only just saw this. Will you email me at davidajackson at gmail dot com so I can send you my address?

2006 Dec 14 07:30 AM

[Timothy Sykes:]

David--

I'm a big fan of your writing--you inspire and educate so many and that's exactly what I'd like to do with my upcoming book, An American Hedge Fund. I'd love to send you an advance copy for possible inclusion in the above list.

The hedge fund industry is now a $2 trillion industry and yet, due to industry regulations, the general public knows little about them. This needs to change and that's why I've written, "An American Hedge Fund," due to be published on October 1, 2007. I promise this not the typical boring finance book!

My claim to fame is that I turned $12k into $2 million trading waaaaay too many microcap stocks from 1999-2002, created a hedge fund, became the #1 Short Bias Hedge Fund from 2003-2006, starred in the TV documentary Wall Street Warriors (500 airings now!!), and began appearing regularly on CNBC all before the age of 25.

This is no BS "How To" book--its the true story of a hedge fund created from scratch. People need to realizes the hedge fund industry is not just about billion dollar blow ups and huge funds created by investment professionals who are already wealthy. My 'Rocky'-like story will surely inspire generations to come to take part in our true national sport, finance.

If you like it, I'd love to print a blurb with a mention to your site on the inside or back cover and hopefully you could post a review around press time in October.

2007 Jun 19 03:52 PM

[User 106822:]

Tim Sykes:BadTrader/WorseW...
I read his book and found his story boring and meaningless. Book is NOT worth $19! Sorry Tim but book is NOT a Classic!

NOTE: Sykes/Cilantro Hedge Fund Lost -36% since Jan2006!

2007 Sep 13 10:35 AM

[Long-Short Guy:]

I guess if you can't manage money you go into the book writing business. What is it they say -- "If you can't do it, teach it"?

2007 Dec 20 09:27 AM

[trader58:]

I love reading all these Monkey Blurps, they keep reminding me to stick to my discipline because there is no end to the money to be made from the overconfident and uneducated, just ask any successful trader.

2008 Jan 13 01:49 AM

[Timothy Sykes:]

Oh I can do fine as evidenced by my 40% return over the past 5 months, my strategy simply isn't scalable and so it's better for me to teach it to smaller investors/traders. PS You haters can say whatever you want, I've got a few dozen reviews comparing my book to "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator", read it and weep!

timothysykes.com/book/

2008 Apr 02 05:18 PM

[Sierra:]

What is the price range for each book? 40? 50 dollars? I'm pretty sure they're good books, but the price is another factor.

May 20 02:45 PM

[Pinky:]

Anyone ever hear of something called the "fallacy of the sage"? With something as big and with as many players as the market, there are bound to be a few chumps that manage to guess right a high percentage of the time on sheer luck. Its statistically predetermined. Read Sykes' book if you want to "learn" the market from exactly one of those people. Or you could get a real daytrader education. Check out livestream.com/watchpi... during market hours to watch a real live trader who doesn't "sell cds because my trading system isnt scalable". Learn how to trade like a pro by not listening to people only looking to bilk you out of money for instructional cds and books.

Jul 06 11:53 PM