Investment Books

Asset allocation, risk, diversification and rebalancing. Pros/cons of hiring a financial advisor. Seeking advice on your portfolio?
FinEcon
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Re: Investment Books

Post by FinEcon »

MALDI_ToF wrote:Although not a book, I like reading Buffett's annual letter to shareholders. Great information in there on investing in general and he is a great writer so they make a good read. And it is free and available on his website.
Bad idea unless you are rather dedicated. Get the book Lessons for Corporate America so the content is edited for relevance and grouped in a logical manner. Much higher return on your time. Trust me, I speak from experience. I read the letters first, then the book becasue there was no book back then.
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Re: Investment Books

Post by MALDI_ToF »

FinEcon wrote:
MALDI_ToF wrote:Although not a book, I like reading Buffett's annual letter to shareholders. Great information in there on investing in general and he is a great writer so they make a good read. And it is free and available on his website.
Bad idea unless you are rather dedicated. Get the book Lessons for Corporate America so the content is edited for relevance and grouped in a logical manner. Much higher return on your time. Trust me, I speak from experience. I read the letters first, then the book becasue there was no book back then.
I will have to take a look at that book…thanks for the reference. :)
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Re: Investment Books

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Anyone read "Three Simple Rules to Investing"?

Wade Pfau's has a bit of info here http://wpfau.blogspot.ca/2014/06/book-r ... es-of.html

The book says almost everything is nonsense including -

Investment strategies with mathematical-sounding names like “quantitative strategies,” “smart beta,” and “four-factor model” ( or three factor Farma French) —like other investment strategies that are not quantitative—don’t produce superior investment performance, except by chance.

Slicing and dicing into value and small cap
In certain cases rebalancing actually adds risk
The widely cited result that individual investors in mutual funds underperform by several percent a year because they time the market irrationally and poorly is wrong.

The end result of the theories of Nobel laureates in finance is that the most efficient portfolio is one that mirrors the whole market, a total market index fund.
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ghariton
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Re: Investment Books

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BRIAN5000 wrote:The end result of the theories of Nobel laureates in finance is that the most efficient portfolio is one that mirrors the whole market, a total market index fund.
That describes my approach -- buy and hold index ETFs. I try to get close to world market cap weighted, but some corners of the market are too expensive (some frontier markets) or I don't have knowledge and don't intend to learn (commodities).

No rebalancing -- I let the index manufacturers do that for me. Risk is controlled by the allocation to RRBs.

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Re: Investment Books

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I don't have knowledge and don't intend to learn (commodities).
I've read in at least one place maybe more that a world index with a dash of commodities is the way to go. Wouldn't an index like XIC give you that dash of commodities without even trying, at least oil & gas and materials? (but raising financial a the same time)
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Re: Investment Books

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For about 99% of the investing books I have bought, after reading them my thought was "the juice was not worth the squeeze."

One exception was "Expected Returns - An Investor's Guide to Harvesting Market Rewards" by Ilmanen. ISBN 978-1-119-99072-7. If you were even half-awake during university stats class, it is quite readable.
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Re: Investment Books

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Innovia wrote:For about 99% of the investing books I have bought, after reading them my thought was "the juice was not worth the squeeze."

One exception was "Expected Returns - An Investor's Guide to Harvesting Market Rewards" by Ilmanen. ISBN 978-1-119-99072-7. If you were even half-awake during university stats class, it is quite readable.
Then you have not read the right ones.
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Re: Investment Books

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FinEcon wrote: Then you have not read the right ones.
I think it's more likely that my bar is higher than yours.
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Re: Investment Books

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Innovia wrote:
FinEcon wrote: Then you have not read the right ones.
I think it's more likely that my bar is higher than yours.
Possible but not probable. More likely we prefer different subject matter. I don't consider that book an investing book, it's more of a financial economics treatise for non economics trained practitioners. Suggesting it to a group of DIY investors is speaking to the wrong audience. I've been here long enough to know there are a handful of FWF members who would like that book but they are academics.
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Re: Investment Books

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FinEcon wrote:there are a handful of FWF members who would like that book but they are academics.
Yes, I liked it a lot -- and I'm not even an academic. :wink:

I think that the main value of the book for me was learning what doesn't work. Useful to keep me on the straight and narrow...

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Re: Investment Books

Post by cannew »

Taggart wrote: 12. The Single Best Investment by Lowell Miller
13. The Investment Zoo by Stephen A. Jarislowsky
Since when it comes to Canadian stock investing, I'm really a dividend growth investor at heart, the last two books are important to me. I just try and keep it simple, don't get too fancy, and with a little luck thrown in, I may do well. So far, so good.
2nd that!! Dividend history & Dividend growth.
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Re: Investment Books

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I haven't read it yet but this is a free PDF from CMS. Canadian MoneySaver Special Edition Young Money

Looks like a collection of articles for starting out.

https://www.canadianmoneysaver.ca/special-edition/
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Re: Investment Books

Post by Taggart »

If you click on Bernstein's New Books at efficient frontiers he has a free download called "If You Can" which is targeted to the young investor.
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Re: Investment Books

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Taggart wrote:If you click on Bernstein's New Books at efficient frontiers he has a free download called "If You Can" which is targeted to the young investor.
Is this still available to copy free? - I don't see it :(
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Re: Investment Books

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Bill's book If You Can was discussed previously in Bill Bernstein - Free E-Book (for Millenials)
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Re: Investment Books

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George$ wrote:
Taggart wrote:If you click on Bernstein's New Books at efficient frontiers he has a free download called "If You Can" which is targeted to the young investor.
Is this still available to copy free? - I don't see it :(
George:

Below the book "If you can", you choose from one of three formats. Acrobat, Mobi, or Kindle.

I just clicked on acrobat, since I'm on the laptop computer and it came up, no problem.
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Re: Investment Books

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Taggart wrote:
George$ wrote:
Taggart wrote:If you click on Bernstein's New Books at efficient frontiers he has a free download called "If You Can" which is targeted to the young investor.
Is this still available to copy free? - I don't see it :(
George:

Below the book "If you can", you choose from one of three formats. Acrobat, Mobi, or Kindle.

I just clicked on acrobat, since I'm on the laptop computer and it came up, no problem.
Thanks again. George (the other G)
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Re: Investment Books

Post by Taggart »

Globeinvestor

Three good investment books you’ve probably never heard of

by Andrew Hallam

"A Random Walk Down Wall Street is in its 10th edition. It has sold more than 1.5 million copies. It might be the world’s best book on index investing – for Americans. Three great guides on this side of the border are Chris Turnbull’s Your Portfolio is Broken: Who’s To Blame And How To Fix It; Keith Matthews’ The Empowered Investor; and Dan Bortolotti’s MoneySense Guide To the Perfect Portfolio".
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Re: Investment Books

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Taggart wrote:Globeinvestor

Three good investment books you’ve probably never heard of

by Andrew Hallam

"A Random Walk Down Wall Street is in its 10th edition. It has sold more than 1.5 million copies. It might be the world’s best book on index investing – for Americans. Three great guides on this side of the border are Chris Turnbull’s Your Portfolio is Broken: Who’s To Blame And How To Fix It; Keith Matthews’ The Empowered Investor; and Dan Bortolotti’s MoneySense Guide To the Perfect Portfolio".
Funnily enough I was walking through the library the other day and I saw Hallams book on a table. Picked it up and read about half so far. Quite good but also quite Chilton-ish with lots of anecdotes and simplification. Still, a good read.
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Re: Investment Books

Post by Kundan Lal Rana »

Taggart wrote:I couldn't find a Topic Title on this subject, so I made one up.

Happened to see a book on the local library shelf and enjoyed it very much. Never heard of it before, and didn't think much of the title, but sometimes something good comes from the unknown.

You can read the customer reviews at Amazon.

How a Second Grader Beats Wall Street: Golden Rules Any Investor Can Learn by Allan S. Roth.
It seems a great story, straight talking advice. I'm going to grab it. Thanks for sharing this.
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Re: Investment Books

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I strongly recommend Andrew Ang's new book, Asset Management: A Systematic Approach to Factor Investing. It manages to be very readable together with wide coverage of most aspects of financial investing. It includes many results of recent research without the usual off-putting trappings (algebra, econometrics, etc). Rather, he explains what the results are, in clear language, and then goes on to draw out the implications for institutional, and especially small retail investors like us.

For those of us who are intrigued by low-volatility investing, he has an excellent discussion of both the empirical findings and the possible reasons for them. The bottom line, in his opinion, is that the excess returns to low volatility stocks are likely to continue.

He throws in lots of nuggets, almost in passing. For example, when you are working out your asset allocation, based on your total investable wealth, don't forget that the money in tax-deferred accounts is not wholly yours. It is partly the government's. You should adjust accordingly.

There is also a discussion of the merits of selling short in your regular account and going long in your tax-deferred account.

(That is a spin-off from a discussion of optimal location of assets, whether in regular accounts or various kinds of tax-deferred accounts. The discussion is U.S.-based, but most of it is applicable to Canada.)

Anyways, I really enjoyed the book, and I think that I learned a lot from it.

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Re: Investment Books

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ghariton wrote:I strongly recommend Andrew Ang's new book, Asset Management: A Systematic Approach to Factor Investing.
Thanks. Apparently so do the rather distinguished list of blurb writers: Asset Management: A Systematic Approach to Factor Investing.

Large chunks of the book are available online from Google Books: Asset Management: A Systematic Approach to Factor Investing

The official website: Asset Management: A Systematic Approach to Factor Investing
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Re: Investment Books

Post by mlepage »

I spent the day reading Automatic Millionaire (Canadian Edition). Basically, it boiled down to the whole "pay yourself first" thing, automated with preauthorized purchase plans. That's what I already do. But it's a decent book if you haven't set that up yet.
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Re: Investment Books

Post by Taggart »

Just a heads up that there's a new Canadian investment book released. It's called "Market Masters". Copies are on order through my local library system so put a hold on it.

Got the idea from Derek Foster's latest e-mail newsletter.
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Re: Investment Books

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Taggart wrote:Just a heads up that there's a new Canadian investment book released. It's called "Market Masters". Copies are on order through my local library system so put a hold on it.
It's not a good sign when the promoting site says: "Do you want to beat the market, make more money, and achieve financial independence?"

For one thing, there's no need to beat the market to achieve financial independence. Just matching the market (minus a small fee) is plenty enough. For another, beating the market is a negative-sum game, after fees (William Sharpe's theorem).

If it was so easy to beat the market, everyone would do it. But, that's mathematically impossible; the average can't be higher than itself!

Of course, the 24 Amazon reviews are almost all 5 stars, except for a few 4 stars. That's highly suspect. But, it's a good way for the author to make money.

I would classify this book into the "noise" category.
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