I want to keep growing as an investor
Library · Reading path · 8 books
Who it is for
For people who already invest and want to decide better, understand risk and luck, and keep sight of what they invest for.
What you will learn
How to judge decisions by their process, know your biases, separate luck from skill, think about risk and value, and decide what to do with your time and money.
Why this order
First how you decide (uncertainty, biases, chance), then investment judgement (risk and value) and finally perspective: what you do not control, time and how to use money. They are not self-help: each one works on a specific skill.
Deciding under uncertainty
Thinking in Bets
Annie Duke. Reading difficulty: Moderate. Finance level: Intermediate.
Separates the quality of a decision from its outcome: the basis for reviewing your investments honestly.
Biases
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman. Reading difficulty: Demanding. Finance level: Advanced.
The underlying research on the biases behind any money decision. It is dense; it can be read in parts.
Randomness
Fooled by Randomness
Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Reading difficulty: Demanding. Finance level: Intermediate.
How to tell skill from luck in your results and in those of whoever sells you a strategy.
Risk
The Most Important Thing
Howard Marks. Reading difficulty: Moderate. Finance level: Advanced.
What risk really is, how cycles play in and why the price you pay decides almost everything.
Value and margin of safety
The Intelligent Investor
Benjamin Graham. Reading difficulty: Demanding. Finance level: Advanced.
The reference text on price, value and discipline in the face of the market. It reads better after Marks.
What you do not control
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius. Reading difficulty: Moderate. Finance level: Beginner.
It does not talk about money, but it trains something investors need: staying calm about what is not up to you, such as a market fall.
Time
Four Thousand Weeks
Oliver Burkeman. Reading difficulty: Easy. Finance level: Beginner.
Time is limited: it helps you decide what to spend it on and not to postpone life until you have "enough".
Using money
The Art of Spending Money
Morgan Housel. Reading difficulty: Easy. Finance level: Beginner.
Ends with the other half: how to spend what you have built to live better rather than to impress.
What you can skip
If you have already read Thinking, Fast and Slow, skip it: Thinking in Bets and Fooled by Randomness cover the applied side.