Forum Archive Index - May 2001

[Stott <bincqs@ihug.co.nz>]

Brian
One book to add to the list (and mandatory reading at Primary school) is
"The Richest Man in Babylon" by George S Clason - a cute tale with
fundamental rules that have lasted the ages.  It's a quick read, I
recommend it as a starting point, or simply as an evening's read.

Simon

At 22:28 1/05/2001 +1200, you wrote:
>    Gerry and others:   My interest is in ""  and not "" so my  reading
>recommendations contain nothing pertaining to mechanical / technical / 
>trading methodology.   Firstly, a wonderful quote from Charlie Munger:  ""
>I  believe this is hugely relevant when considering your investment
>approach. The  more you read and study the philosophies of the masters the
>better prepared you  are to make informed decisions and take calculated
>risk.   Another quote which I've used ad nauseam is from Sir John 
>Templeton "". It makes so much darn sense to question what the  principles
>and philosophies are of the most successful investors. This is what I  have
>tried to do, and again, as I have stated before, it is incredibly 
>enlightening how many common themes you discover, but more importantly, how
> wonderfully simple these philosophies are.   The first investment book I
>read from cover to cover (and  enjoyed) was "" by  David and Tom Gardner.
>In this book I was introduced to names like Ben Graham,  Philip Fisher,
>Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. So I started reading more  about these
>guys.    Ben Graham wrote what is the classic piece on modern financial 
>analysis, "". Written in the  1930s so not as light hearted as the Motley
>Fools, but still the reference point  of many of the world's most
>successful investors.   The next book was Philip Fisher's "". While Graham
>concentrated on quantitative  financial analysis, Fisher looks more closely
>at the qualitative aspects of a  company, though still covering some
>fundamental financial  indicators.   """", highly recommending the  book.  
>The next logical step was Buffett himself. Brace yourselves  folks because
>there have been a huge number of book written about the man, the  majority
>of which is anecdotal and repetitive. I concentrated on Hagstrom's  "" and
>it's sequel,  "". Charlie Munger,  Buffett's business partner and
>co-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway was quoted as  saying that the latter of
>these two is the best book written on Buffett to  date.   It's also
>interesting to note that Buffett's methods are  largely based on a mixture
>of Graham and Fishers teachings,    Mary Buffett did an OK job with  "" and
>I am finding the  ""     I'm not a big fan of mutual funds but the one book
>that  confirmed what I'd studied in previous literature and which gave me
>confidence  to invest a significant portion of our portfolio in a single US
>mutual fund was  Kazanjian's "". What I found  really exciting about this
>book was that so many of the 18 very successful fund  managers interviewed
>in the book have investment philosophies that follow  similar themes and
>whose roots can be traced back through the teachings of  Graham, Fisher and
>Buffett.    For young people just entering the work place or for those new 
>to investing, a really great read is David Chilton's "". Possibly better,
>if not as well marketed as  "", this book is a simple  introduction to the
>basics of personal financial management.   Finally, offering an interesting
>slant on what the future  might bring, is Harry Dent's "".  Now I'm going
>to be paradoxical here because while I enjoyed and fully  endorsed Mary
>Holm's column recently entitled "" "" are going to have on  world financial
>markets over the next decade. Now as a disclaimer, I'm not  changing any of
>my investments based on this book but I think you'll find it an 
>interesting read and I'll be watching closely to see if the predictions
>come to  pass.   So, somewhat long winded, but these are my 
>recommendations.   Cheers,   Brian   ""           


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