Reading list for investors

James Montier of Dresdner Kleinwort came out with a great letter recently. In it, he provides his recommended reading list as Investing 101.

The list includes classics like Graham and Dodd's 1934 edition of Security Analysis, Chapter 12 of Keynes's General Theory, Kindelberger's Manias, Panics and Crashes, and John Burr William's Theory of investment value. I've read all of these and found them very illuminating.

In the modern category, he includes Greenblatt's Little Book That Beats The Market, Taleb's Fooled by Randomness, and Dreman's Contrarian Investment strategies. Once again, I've read each and really benefited.

In his psychological section, he suggests a bunch of books I haven't read, but am very interested in such as Keith Stanovich's Robot's Rebellion, Tim Wilson's Stranger to Ourselves, and Thomas Gilovich's How we know what isn't so. Gilovich's title is enough to get my brain going.

His final category is hidden gems and also includes several books I haven't read, yet. This includes Phil Rosenzweig's Halo Effect, Robert Haugen's The Inefficient Stock Market, and Jason Zweig's Your Money and Your Brain. Halo Effect is particularly interesting because it covers how people characterize things as good based on a general impression and then mistakenly attribute favorable details based on their general impression. Before reading the book, I already know this is a great description of what goes on in financial markets every day.

His letter goes into much more detail about the books and why Montier recommends them.

Nothing in this blog should be considered investment, financial, tax, or legal advice. The opinions, estimates and projections contained herein are subject to change without notice. Information throughout this blog has been obtained from sources believed to be accurate and reliable, but such accuracy cannot be guaranteed.