stock market books

[BlasterBates]

Bollux.

That's a very in depth analysis, that summarises your ability to invest in stock markets.

[ChimpMaster]

JoJo - I also read MW for a long time and yes, they were spot on 80% of the time. They have made some mistakes along the way, but had I followed their advice I would be a lot richer now. For example, they said:

1) Property was going to fall in value 2 years ago.
2) Buy gold when it was rising $500 and upwards. In fact they recommended silver over gold at that point.
3) Move money out of the $ and out of the £, into the Euro or into gold.
4) Buy Japan. Whilst not the best solution, it works a lot better than investing in other markets because the carry trade unwinded, strengthening the Yen, and then the $ broke down, strengthening the Yen further.
5) Buy oil when it was at $60.
.
.
etc...

I really wish I had the courage of their convictions back then!

[Ravello]

Rule One Investing by Phil Town is a decent starting point. It guides you through the basics of analysis and how the markets work.

It is however written with his approach very much in mind, not that, that is necessarily a bad thing but you might want to read a couple of others before deciding on what approach to investment you want to take.

more info: www.philtown.com

[Ruprect]

I admit i know very little but the extreme basics about stocks, shares etc.

I am curious about how it works though and would appreciate if the panel would recommend some books to begin to read up on the subject for a complete beginner..

They've just ripped them all up.

HTH

[Peoplesoft bloke]

To get back to the original question, I recommend 'The Naked Trader' by Robbie Burns

[sasguru]

All nonsense.
As several experiments have already proved, professional investment analysts do no better than a chimpanzee, or children who pick stocks randomly.

What you really need is an understanding of human psychology and past financial panics for which I heartly recommend

"Devil Take the Hindmost - A History of Financial Speculation".

I'm assuming you want to take advantage of volatility in the stock markets, predict the ending of future bubbles and so on.

[sasguru]

But overall aren't these 'experts' little better than monkeys throwing darts at a stock dartboard on average?

Correct

[Alf W]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar's_Poker

[TimberWolf]

"Devil Take the Hindmost - A History of Financial Speculation"..

...

Beginning with the "tulipomania" that gripped Holland in the 1630s
http://www.amazon.com/Devil-Take-Hin.../dp/0452281806

[Iron Condor]

Reminisicences of a Stock Operator.

Written in 1924 it is the greatest trading book ever written about the greatest stock trader who ever lived. Jesse Livermore. Shame he blew his own brains out, poor guy suffered from serious depression and they never had anything to cure it back in his day.

http://www.nowandfutures.com/large/R..._Livermore.pdf


"The game of speculation is the most uniformly fascinating game in the world. But it is not a game for the stupid, the mentally lazy, the person of inferior emotional balance, or the get-rich-quick adventurer. They will die poor."