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ratkin
17-12-2007, 05:08 AM
I will kick off

Contrarian Investment Strategies: The Next Generation by David Dreman

Very good read .Dreman makes a persuasive case here that the financial experts and analysts as well as the average investor are terrible in predicting which way the stock market is going. If you want to beat the market, you need to do the opposite of everyone else, by investing in currently out-of-favor value stocks with low P/E ratios.

The section on suprises in the market is very good. One slip by growth stocks can be a disaster (ccp is a recent australian example of this)
Data shows that over time the low P/E stocks outperm the market darlings.

I can recommend this book to anyone , top read

AMR
17-12-2007, 08:49 AM
I will definitely take a look at that ratkin, my opinion of contrarians is that they are all knife-catchers who get their fingers chopped off or those who jump out of trends early because prices are "too high" and end up holding dogs like TUA.

Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns by Thomas Bulkowski

Share trading is a minus sum probability game but many other TA books have vague phrases like "a double top tends to lead to a drop in prices". This book is backtested for several years and instead contains failure rates of chart patterns, probabilities on how far they will rise/fall, etc. It is very easy reading compared to other TA books, and is also a good reference.

At $100 odd NZD it's quite expensive but if I had known about double tops before I bought into FPH (which had just completed a double top right before I bought in) I would have saved far more. Knowledge is cheap!

whiteheron
17-12-2007, 10:03 AM
It sounds like this just might be what my wife could get me for Christmas, she thinks that I have everything and doesnt know what to get me

I will check it out --- sounds like it may be worth a read

The best knowledge costs in one way or the other (expensive experience or cash)

Mick100
17-12-2007, 08:12 PM
Best book I read this year was -

the winning Invesment habits of waren buffett and george soros

by; Mark tier



Got it from the local library - great book

Hoop
17-12-2007, 08:51 PM
Look up Google books (http://books.google.com/) and type in the print box what book or interest you want, then click the search books button. If you're lucky it may be there in its entirety for you to read, save on file, or printout.

e.g The Essential Buffett: Timeless Principles for the New Economy by Robert G (http://books.google.com/books?id=pZ6W_wgW2ZIC&pg=PA121&dq=the+intelligent+investor&sig=NZllQBin3q2v3FC1KG6K_MbK89I#PPA116,M1)2001 Only pages 122-126 missing (not yet digitised).

Type in Buffett and click search books button ...what a treat..enough there to read for years

Good hunting
Hoop

Hoop
17-12-2007, 09:17 PM
I will definitely take a look at that ratkin, my opinion of contrarians is that they are all knife-catchers who get their fingers chopped off or those who jump out of trends early because prices are "too high" and end up holding dogs like TUA.

Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns by Thomas Bulkowski

Share trading is a minus sum probability game but many other TA books have vague phrases like "a double top tends to lead to a drop in prices". This book is backtested for several years and instead contains failure rates of chart patterns, probabilities on how far they will rise/fall, etc. It is very easy reading compared to other TA books, and is also a good reference.

At $100 odd NZD it's quite expensive but if I had known about double tops before I bought into FPH (which had just completed a double top right before I bought in) I would have saved far more. Knowledge is cheap!

AMR click here (http://books.google.com/books?id=Kk3qTisFC2kC&pg=PT1&dq=Encyclopedia+of+Chart+Patterns+by+Thomas+Bulkow ski&lr=&as_brr=0&sig=zs7Oa_QgxWlRag4tyepcR2dFj8w#PPA35,M1)for Trading Classic Chart Patterns By Thomas N. Bulkowski Thomas Bulkowski follow up book... yep off Google Books ;). It says limited preview but it seems to be all there, (edit...no it not pages 172-351 missing) takes a few seconds longer to download the pages than normal( using broadband), probably due to the graphics.

Deev8
18-12-2007, 02:56 PM
Contrarian Investment Strategies: The Next Generation by David DremanI'll second that, the book is an excellent read. Although it's worth noting that Dreman's new book "Contrarian Investment Strategies: The New Psychological Breakthrough" has very recently been published.

patsy
18-12-2007, 06:57 PM
The Intelligent Asset Allocator by William Bernstein

Snoopy
18-12-2007, 10:22 PM
...by Benoit Mandelbrot and Richard L. Hudson, ISBN 0-465-04357-7, published 2004. Don't ask me where you can buy it, because I had to get my copy from Amazon.

This book is of interest because it brings into finance ideas from other disciplines, in particular the study of turbulence. What does the study of wave profiles gathered by sea ships and the capacity of dams to serve as irrigation feeds for crop growing have to do with the behaviour of markets? In a mathematical sense - quite a lot. And there are practical spin offs which provide insights for investors.

There are lessons to be learned from this book. But they are more along the lines of 'what not to do', rather than a dissertation on some tidy method for 'doing things right'. Partly this is because senior author's Mandelbrot's life work in the term he has coined 'fractal geometery' is still a work in progress. Mandelbrot's ideas are not entirely mainstream. In part I believe this book is written to pique the interest of future generations into carrying on the 'fractal geometery' research line. In Amazon reader reviews, this book is criticised for not providing clear answers. I think this is an unfair criticisim. There is more than enough material there to make you think. And there is no point in tying a whole lot of strands together if they don't naturally 'knot' together. I score this book 8/10.

SNOOPY

FarmerGeorge
23-12-2007, 10:11 PM
Being a farmer means having plenty of spare time to read. Some of my favourites of the past twelve months which are relevant to this forum are:

Fooled by Randomness
(which contrasts nicely with):

Freakonomics
The Undercover Economist

plus Malcolm Gladwell's 'Blink' and 'The Tipping Point'. These two are a bit overdone in the media but one which is a little older and less populist (but no less accessible) is 'Critical Mass: How one thing leads to another'.

However I agree 100% with KW above, Jason Zweig's commentary in The Intelligent Investor seems a little dated with so may references to the dot-com meltdown but is definitely my number one investing book: I even keep a copy in the tractor to flip through a chapter when I'm taking a break.

shasta
23-12-2007, 10:45 PM
I've taken "The Aggressive Investor" away with me, seems to be a great read so far.

Any of the books on Warren Buffett are IMO essential reading, & i totally agree with KW, "The Intelligent Investor" is a MUST have book, no matter how experienced you are, or how long you have been in the markets.

I've read my copy many times over...

winner69
24-12-2007, 08:26 AM
.....less populist (but no less accessible) is 'Critical Mass: How one thing leads to another'.



Jeez George .... thats pretty heavy reading but very enlightening

If you liked that you could be interested in the work of Paul Ormerod, in particular "Why Things Fail .... and how to avoid it"

I've reread his books several times

Merry Christmas

FarmerGeorge
24-12-2007, 03:18 PM
Winner, thanks for that. I'm also looking at 'popular madness and the delusions of crowds' which I have been meaning to read for ages and another one called 'when genius failed' which is supposed to be pretty good. I might pick up 'why things fail' at the same time. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time for reading right now as University study (and fixing the water troughs: it's a tough summer) is getting in the way.

AMR
15-01-2008, 04:21 PM
Another recommendation : "Active Investing" By Alan Hull. It would be a great book for those with limited sharemarket experience and having been burnt by passive strategies. Hull outlines a simple trend following system which is designed to get you into a stock shortly after it starts trending up and out soon after the trend bends.

winner69
15-01-2008, 04:44 PM
Another recommendation : "Active Investing" By Alan Hull. It would be a great book for those with limited sharemarket experience and having been burnt by passive strategies. Hull outlines a simple trend following system which is designed to get you into a stock shortly after it starts trending up and out soon after the trend bends.


Sounds like this guy Hull took lessons from MacDunk ... why buy the book

AMR
17-01-2008, 08:56 PM
Oh dear...you really have it in for him don't you!

Reviewing another book : The Gorilla Game - Picking winners in high technology by Geoffrey Moore.

Moore discusses the difference between companies that fall by the wayside in high tech industries (Borland, AMD, etc) and companies that grow to dominate their respective industry (Microsoft, Oracle, Intel) and how to spot the "industry gorillas" at an early stage.

A good guide to analysing companies such as Rakon, Xero, etc

Lizard
19-06-2010, 08:26 AM
Just came across the Valuation Handbook:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0470385790/ref=pe_606_16003380_pe_ar_t1

Would like that for my birthday...

Found a review on it which covers a few of the main points - probably not too much new in it apart from the use of valuation information for automated trading strategies. But might reinforce a few things. And also good to see what the pros are using so as to look for their blind spot.
http://69.175.2.130/~finman/Publications/JAF/2009/Rogers.pdf

Jaa
20-06-2010, 12:55 PM
Just finished "Making Money on the New Zealand Share Market" which the local library had several copies of. Last published in 2001 most of it still very relevant and covers a wide amount of FA and TA topics as well as a history of various NZ companies and business people.

Otherwise I really enjoy business biographies, books written by business leaders on how they grew/saved/destroyed their companies. I find real life anecdotes and stories helps one spot great businesses or ones going through a turnaround.

"Family, Village, Tribe - A History of Flight Centre" which somebody on ShareTrader recommended was a cracking read as was Larry Ellison's book, "Softwar". The boring bits of these books are usually when the writer talks about what they do with all their cash! In Larry's case it was all the America's Cup and surviving the Sydney to Hobart race which was interesting by itself.

Others I have read and recommend:

"Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Inside IBM's Historic Turnaround" by Louis V. Gerstner
"Dot.Bomb" about ValueAmerica and the Dot.Com bubble
"DisneyWar"
"Dirty Tricks" - about Branson's battle with British Airways
"The Chocolate Wars: Inside the Secret Worlds of Mars and Hershey"
"Stealing Time : Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Collapse of AOL Time Warner"
"Toy Wars: The Epic Struggle Between G.I. Joe, Barbie, and the Companies that Make Them"

I have quite a few of these on my bookcase if anyone wants to swap.