WHERE TO BEGIN IN THE VAST GOLDMINE/WASTELAND OF INVESTING
The stock market is a turbulent cabaret replete with well-heeled salespeople, soothsayers, bogus prosperity prescriptions, piracy, and angel investing (fallen angels?), to name a few things. Yet, as most successful investors will tell you, the stock market can be unpredictable at times. That's part of the fun. Rather than something fundamental, these kinds of unpredictable stocks are frequently the outcome of psychologically overstimulated performance, or just call it the inborn progression of the market, whatever. The market's accessibility and cheap transaction costs drive speedy action, where lies its beauty. The fast pace of work that will never feel like work. If you do it right, it’s an ever-expanding luck of the draw.
So, how do you do it right?
It's critical to not only build a compelling investment portfolio but also to manage it well. Reading about investment can help you develop not only basic knowledge and experience, but also result in greater introspection, self-analysis, and informed choices. Whether you’re an amateur or a stock market aficionado, these top three books on investing can help determine the best financial decisions and develop a strategy that isn't built on risk, emotional heart, or dare I say, unpredictability.
The Little Book of Common-Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns Hardcover, by John C. Bogle.
The best-selling investing "bible" offers new information, new insights, and new perspectives The Little Book of Common-Sense Investing is the classic guide to getting smart about the market. Legendary mutual fund pioneer John C. Bogle reveals his key to getting more out of investing: low-cost index funds. Bogle describes the simplest and most effective investment strategy for building wealth over the long term: buy and hold, at very low cost, a mutual fund that tracks a broad stock market Index such as the S&P 500.
Do you really know what investing is if you don't know what index funds are? In Bogle's book, he discusses his low-cost index fund investment techniques and how to make them work for your portfolio.
A Beginner's Guide to the Stock Market, by Matthew R. Kratter.
Learn to make money in the stock market, even if you've never traded before. The stock market is the greatest opportunity machine ever created. Are you ready to get your piece of it? This book will teach you everything that you need to know to start making money in the stock market today. Don't gamble with your hard-earned money. If you are going to make a lot of money, you need to know how the stock market really works. You need to avoid the pitfalls and costly mistakes that beginners make. And you need time-tested trading and investing strategies that actually work. This book gives you everything that you will need. It's a simple road map that anyone can follow.
If you are looking for a book for beginners, this is it. The beginner’s guide covers everything from the stock market ABCs to all the nitty-gritty missteps. With additional resources to explore different areas of the stock market and investing, Kratter lays the foundation for developing an interest and passion for capitalizing your gains in the market.
A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, by Burton G. Malkiel
With the prevailing wisdom changing on an almost daily basis, Burton G. Malkiel’s reassuring and vastly informative volume remains the best investment guide money can buy. In a time of increasing inequality, when high-frequency traders and hedge-fund managers seem to tower over the average investor, Burton G. Malkiel’s classic and gimmick-free investment guide is now more necessary than ever. Rather than tricks, what you’ll find here is a time-tested and thoroughly research-based strategy for your portfolio. Whether you’re considering your first 401k contribution or contemplating retirement, this fully updated edition of A Random Walk Down Wall Street should be the first book on your reading list.
Malkiel’s hit novel was an international bestseller for good reason. In A Random Walk Down Wall Street, he touches upon basic stock market terminology, long-range investment strategies proven to work, an internationally diversified index of securities, analytical techniques, views on the recent bubbles surrounding cryptocurrency, “tax-loss harvesting, the crown jewel of tax management”, and breakdowns of some of the two most popular investment management techniques: risk parity and factor investing.
The stock market is fundamentally volatile. We’ve all heard the common phrases. “An investment vehicle's prospective profits are connected at the hip.” Or you might have heard, “Market experience trumps market timing.” The stock market grows more volatile as prices vary, and likewise. Constant fluctuation means that prices can swing drastically either way in a short span of time, which happens more frequently than one might imagine. It simply underscores the significance of professional learning and thoroughly acquainting ourselves with the fundamentals of the stock market before diving headfirst into the shark tank.