Title: 25 Investment Classics

Reader: This book is for all beginner investors and traders.

What you will learn: The book title reads Investment Classics which is true, as most of the books recommended were written decades ago. I have read many of the books listed and recommend a handful in our list. For beginners, I recommend sticking to the books that teach you how to select stocks and skipping the books on stock market history and behavior.

About the author: Leo Gough is a financial journalist and a private investor in the UK. He is also the editor of Taipan, a newsletter on direct equity investments in emerging markets.

Title: The Money Masters

Reader: This is a good beginner investment book.

What you will learn: It's important for each investor to develop their own investment philosophy and methodology. This book will expose you to great stock investors and you will learn their philosophies, styles.You should try to connect with one style and then learn more about the particular philosophy and methodology of the investment style. The common thread of each investor is they have their own investment philosophy, methodology and they stick to it. In the conclusion of the book gives some very good stock picking advice.

About the author: John Train founded Train, Smith Investment Counsel. He is an investor and author of many books and has contributed articles to many financial and investment publications.

Title: Market Wizards

Reader: For beginner investors.

What you will learn: Although I don’t agree with and haven’t heard of some of the investors/traders in this book I believe it is always important to learn from successful investors and traders. The Money Masters includes only stock pickers who are mostly value, long-term investors while Market Wizards includes short-term traders, including commodity traders as well as stock investors. Again, the common thread of many successful traders and investors is they master a discipline and stick to it. As a new investor/trader try learn about as many strategies and disciplines as you can and then focus in on one and master it. The book is written in an interview format.

About the author: Jack D. Schwager is the Managing Member of Market Wizards Funds, L.L. C. Prior to Market Wizards Funds, he did futures research for 22 years for some of Wall Street’s leading firms.

Title: Investment Titans: Investment Insights from the Minds that Move Wall Street

Reader: This book is for the beginner-intermediate investor.

What you will learn: Again, more exposure to some of the best investment minds and money managers. Peter Tanous is an investment consultant who analyzes and recommends money managers for institutions and wealthy individuals. He conducts interviews some of the best equity money managers and academic individuals who shape investment strategies and thought. The money managers include value, growth and momentum investors. The conclusion of the book discusses devising a personal investment plan.

About the author: Peter J. Tanous is President of Lynx Investment Advisory, Inc., a registered investment advisor. Peter Tanous was formerly with Smith Barney as a Director and member of the Executive Committee.

Title: Product photo Investment Gurus: A Road Map to Wealth from the World's Best Money Managers

Reader: This book is for the beginner-intermediate investor.

What you will learn: Again, more exposure to some of the best investment minds and money managers. Peter Tanous is an investment consultant who analyzes and recommends money managers for institutions and wealthy individuals. He conducts interviews some of the best equity money managers and academic individuals who shape investment strategies and thought. The money managers include value, growth and momentum investors. The conclusion of the book discusses devising a personal investment plan.

About the author: Peter J. Tanous is President of Lynx Investment Advisory, Inc., a registered investment advisor. Peter Tanous was formerly with Smith Barney as a Director and member of the Executive Committee.

Title: The New Investment Superstars: 13 Great Investors and Their Strategies for Superior Returns

Reader: This book is for all investors and traders.

What you will learn: What makes this book different than, Wizards and Money Masters is that it includes a more diverse group of investors and traders which includes alternative asset and hedge money managers as well as the traditional equity portfolio managers.What you can learn, especially now is to diversify your portfolio with non-correlated assets using market neutral strategies. Investors are learning that there are other strategies besides a buy and hold strategy of stocks.

About the author: Lois Pelz is President of Infovest21, an information services company serving the alternative asset management industry.

Title: Product photo Stocks for the Long Run : The Definitive Guide to Financial Market Returns and Long-Term Investment Strategies

Reader: Whether you’re investing for your IRA or your day trading account. This book is for all investors and traders.

What you will learn: You will learn about all the many variables that impact stock prices, inflation, growth, interest rates and cyclical factors, etc. You will learn why these variables impact prices and their history and data. This book will help you understand why stock prices move up and down. I believe this is one of the best investment books written.

About the author: Jeremy J. Siegel Ph.D is a Russell E. Palmer Professor of Finance at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Siegel has written numerous articles for academic journals and financial publications. He is widely known as an investment expert.

Title: One Up On Wall Street : How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market

Reader: This book is for long-term serious investors. Advice would be appropriate for IRA accounts and other serious money.

What you will learn: One of the main points of this book is that the average investor has an advantage over big money managers because the individual investor can be more nimble. Another thesis Peter. Lynch makes is that most individuals work in industries where you should have a competitive advantage of knowledge over investment professionals and investors should use that competitive knowledge in their investing. Peter. Lynch also gives lots of good stock-picking advice. This is one of those books that give you enough investment knowledge and tips that will allow you to start investing after you’ve studied the book.

About the author: Peter Lynch is the legendary mutual fund manager of the multi-billion Magellan Fund from 1977 to 1990. He is considered one of the best money mangers in our generation and he also had one of the best track records. These are the type of books that I personally like to read, books written by professional investors who share their experience and knowledge on how they became a successful investor.

Title: John Neff on Investing

Reader: This book is for long-term serious investors. Advice would be appropriate for IRA accounts and other serious money investors.

What you will learn: This book was written by the very successful mutual fund manager, John Neff. He shares his stock-picking knowledge and experience with his readers. John. Neff is essentially a value, contrarian investor and he describes his approach. He goes over many of his successful picks chronologically. Personally, I think this is a very good way to learn about investing by learning from the legends.

About the author: John Neff managed the stellar Vanguard Windsor and Gemini funds for 31 years. During his tenure Neff was able to increase the fund nearly 56-fold and beat the S&P 500 Index by more than 2 to 1. John Neff was not only very good, he was consistent which ranks him in the top tier of money managers of all time. John Neff retired in 1995 and readers are lucky that he wrote about his thoughts and experiences regarding investing in this book.

Title: A Random Walk Down Wall Street: Completely Revised and Updated Eighth Edition

Reader: Good starting book for beginner investors.

What you will learn: This book explains the three disciplines that most investors use, technical analysis, fundamental analysis and the Modern Portfolio Theory. The book also points out the flaws of each discipline and investors are better off in index funds, which is not challenging or fun. I am sure Warren Buffet, John Neff, Peter Lynch, David Dreman and others would disagree with Dr. Malkiel. The book provides some good arguments and the last section does provide good investment and financial planning advice.

About the author: Burton G. Malkiel PhD, is an author and successful professional investor. He is a professor at Princeton University, a former member of the Council of Economic Advisers and sits on the board of several major corporations including several large investment firms.

Title: It Was a Very Good Year : Extraordinary Moments in Stock Market History

Reader: For all investors and traders.

What you will learn: This book highlights the years when the markets experienced above average returns. He describes the historical events and economic conditions that created these "very good years." At the end of the book he does summarize the conditions that create a "very good year" and unfortunately the markets of the early 2000s do not have the ingredients for a good market. You’ll not only learn about what makes for a good stock market, but it’s an enjoyable, fun read.

About the author: This is a really a good book about the stock market written by a bond guy, Martin S. Fridson, known as the "dean of high yield bond market." Mr. Fridson was a Managing Director at Merrill Lynch and a member of Institutional Investor’s All-American Research Team.

Title: CONTRARIAN INVESTMENT STRATEGIES THE NEXT GENERATION

Reader: This book is for the long-term investors. Advice would be appropriate for IRA accounts and other serious money investors.

What you will learn: All investors should eventually adopt and formalize an investment philosophy that makes sense to them.This book explains the contrarian philosophy, strategies and its valuation metrics. Contrarian investing is buying stocks that are cheap and out of favor. I was surprised that the author also covers the psychology of contrarian investing and why it works. Most books do not cover the psychological aspects of investing, this one does. You will be able to start investing using the contrarian approach after reading and understanding this book.

About the author: David Dreman is the Chairman and Chief Investment Manager of the Dreman Value Management which has approximately $7.6 billion under management. Mr. Dreman is also writes a column for Forbes magazine. Mr. Dreman’s long-term track record is impressive although like many stock investor, his performance in the last couple of years were weak but he did but most indexes on most money managers. He did have an excellent 2000 and his returns trounced most money mangers in that year. Mr. Dreman epitomizes contrarian investing.

Title: Product photo What Works on Wall Street: A Guide to the Best-Performing Investment Strategies of All Time

Reader: This book is for all investors both conservative to aggressive. Advice would be appropriate for IRA and speculative accounts.

What you will learn: This book is chock full of the many valuation metrics, strategies that investors use such as P/Es, price/sales, dividend, book value, growth. The book describes the metrics/strategies back tests the returns and then writes his observations and conclusions on each. You will learn which metrics and strategies work best proven by their historical returns. The book also covers the metrics that have the worst performance. The reader will be able to use this information to help them in developing an investment strategy and understand the many valuation metrics investors use.

About the author: James P. O’ Shaughnessy is founder and President of O’Shaugnessy Captial Management. O’Shaughnessy is known as an expert in quantitative equity analysis.

Title: Product photo The Warren Buffet Way, Second Edition (Unabridged)

Reader: This book is for the long-term investors. Advice would be appropriate for IRA accounts and other serious money.

What you will learn: This book was not written by Warren Buffet but it does explain Buffet’s evolution as an investor, his investment philosophy and methodology. The book discusses what Buffet looks for in the management in the companies that he invests in, an often overlooked analysis by many investors. One of the great benefits of the book is the appendix of the book where the author lists many of Buffet’s investments and the cash flow analysis that buffest used to analyze these companies. You can understand how and why he invests in these companies. Admittedly Buffet’s style of investing is very conservative and his methodology is rigorous and not a lot of companies fit his criteria but all investors would do well by including some of his analysis into their investing.

About the author: Robert G. Hagstrom is the Senior Vice President and Director of Legg Mason Focus Capital and Portfolio Manager of the Legg Mason Focus Trust.

Title: It's When You Sell That Counts

Reader: This book is for investors and traders.

What you will learn: This book highlights the very important skill of knowing how and when to sell. It covers many aspects of the sell decision, including psychological issues, technical analysis indicators, news analysis, understanding institutional movements. Personally I don’t think it spends enough time on developing price targets, but the concept of knowing how and when to sell is extremely important.We have included several books on stock valuation which should help investors develop target prices.

About the author: Donald Cassidy is a senior analyst of closed-end investment funds with Lipper Analytical Services, Inc.

Title: The Intelligent Investor Rev Ed.

Reader: This book is for the long-term investors. Advice would be appropriate for IRA accounts and other serious money.

What you will learn: The first few chapters try to convince the reader that stocks and fundamental analysis is the way to invest so you can probably skip the first few chapters. The book is a little dated but there are a lot of valuable stock picking tools that never go out of date. Plus there are a lot of examples to learn from. I consider this book Security Analysis-lite. If you’re familiar with accounting and finance skip this book and study Security Analysis.

About the author: Benjamin Graham is considered the godfather of fundamental analysis. He was the former president of Graham-Newman Corp., an investment fund. Mr. Graham taught finance at Columbia and at UCLA. Warren Buffet was a student of Mr. Graham’s and Buffet thanks the lessons from Mr. Graham for his success. This is a book to study and not read.

Title: Investments (6th Edition)

Reader: This book is for the intermediate to advanced investor who is familiar with economics, accounting and finance.

What you will learn: This is a text book which I studied as a first year MBA student. It is a comprehensive book on many investment theories with applications with examples. The book also covers most financial vehicles available to institutions and individuals. This is a book to study and not read.

About the author: Dr. William F. Sharpe is a Professor of Finance, Emeritus at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. He is a giant in the investment and modern portfolio world. He received a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Dr. Sharpe is a founder of Financial Engines, Incorporated, an investment advice and management company.

Title: Security Analysis: The Classic 1934 Edition

Reader: This book is for the long-term serious investors. Advice would be appropriate for IRA accounts and other serious money. Familiarity with accounting and finance is a plus when studying this book.

What you will learn: You will learn how to evaluate a company using its financial statements. You will learn how to analyze a company’s profitability, growth, leverage, resource management, historical and industry comparisons and valuation. If you consider yourself a value and a serious investor then this is a must for your investment library. This is the definitive book for fundamental analysis. This book will teach you how to become an analytical and better investor. This is a book you study and not simply read.

About the author: Benjamin Graham is considered the godfather of fundamental analysis. He was the former president of Graham-Newman Corp., an investment fund. Mr. Graham taught finance at Columbia and at UCLA.

Title: Investment Valuation: Tools and Techniques for Determining the Value of Any Asset, Second Edition

Reader: This book is for the intermediate to advanced investor. This is for the value investor and for your serious money investors.

What you will learn: This is a very comprehensive and valuable book on how to value stocks and assets. The serious investor must learn the skills of how to value a company and a stock. With this book you will learn many valuation models that professionals and investors use to value assets from P/Es to the discounted cash flow model. The book describes each valuation measurement, gives examples and explains how and when to use each measurement. This is a book you study and not read. This is a great resource book.

About the author: Aswath Damodaran is a Professor of Finance at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business.

Title: Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, 3rd Edition

Reader: This book is for the advanced value investor who wants to learn more about how to value a company.

What you will learn: This book was written for corporate managers to teach them how to create value for investors and for security analysts and investors to help them identify and analyze value in a company. Investment Valuation is a much more comprehensive book on how to value a copy as this when focuses in on the discounted cash flow model. This is a book you study and not simply read.

About the author: All three authors are affiliated with McKinsey & Company, the prestigious consulting firm. Dr. Copeland has PhD in applied economics from the University of Pennsylvania, Tom Koller received an MBA from the University of Chicago and Jack Murrin received his from Stanford University.

Title: Corporate Valuation: Tools for Effective Appraisal and Decision-Making

Reader: This book is for the advanced investor.

What you will learn: Learning the skill of valuing a company is a must for the serious investor. This book teaches several valuation processes, their theories and applications with examples. The valuation methods that are taught include the discounted cash flow model, the direct comparison approach, and the adjusted book value approach. This is a book you study and not simply read.

About the author: Dr. Branford Cornell received his PhD. in financial economics from Stanford University. He is a distinguished professor of finance at the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA. Dr. Cornell is founder of Fin Econ, a consulting firm providing financial research on valuation techniques.

Title: Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations

Reader: This book is for growth investors who use fundamental analysis.

What you will learn: Although this book was not written exclusively for investors it does give investors some insights into how to value companies that do not have bricks and mortar, but "intellectual capital." The book suggests some tools for measuring intellectual capital like studying the correlation between research and development and growth, patents, employee education and development.

About the author: Thomas Stewart is a member of the board of editors of Fortune magazine.

Title: The Greenspan Effect: Words That Move the World's Markets

Reader: This book is for the beginner to intermediate investor.

What you will learn: Greenspan has been Federal Reserve Chairman since 1987 and he will probably be leaving in 2006. Every experienced investor knows that they must keep an eye on the Fed and Chairman as their influence over the economy and the markets is powerful. The book covers the basics of the Federal Reserve and its history. The book covers and analyzes some of Greenspan’s controversial decisions, speeches, challenges and victories. Though his influence will wane in the future understanding the Fed and its Chairman is essential for every investor and trader.

About the author: David B. Sicilia, PhD., is a consultant, historian and author. Jeffrey L. Cruikshank is a cofounder of Kohn-Cruikshank, Inc. a communications consulting firm.

Title: Product photo Technical Analysis of Stock Trends, 8th Edition

Reader: This book is for the beginner trader and investor.

What you will learn: Before the personal computer, traders and investors developed the skill of reading charts and most traders learned from this book. This is an important book that many investors and traders overlook. It teaches Dow, theory the recognition of major trend reversals as well as identifying intermediate and short-term patterns. It is important to learn the concepts and patterns this book teaches. The book was originally written decades ago and the charts in the book are from the 30s and 40s and the same patterns that you see then you see now, not a lot has changed. Many of these patterns have the same predictive value now as they did then. You study this book and not read it. This book is one of the books recommended by the Market Technicians Association.

About the author: Robert D. Edwards was a naturalist, mathematician and teacher. John Magee an alumnus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was professional counselor in stocks and commodities.

Title: Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets: A Comprehensive Guide to Trading Methods and Applications

Reader: This book is for the beginner to intermediate trader and intermediate investor.

What you will learn: This book will teach you about chart pattern recognition and indicators that have predictive value that you can use for the timing of your buy and sell decisions for your trading and investing. Master the patterns and indicators described in this book and it will serve you well in your investing and trading efforts. This book is very comprehensive as it describes the basics of technical analysis that was developed over a hundred years ago to contemporary indicators that have become popular with the advent of the personal computer. This is a book you study and not read. This book is one of the books recommended by the Market Technicians Association.

About the author: John J. Murphy is President of MURPYMORRIS, Inc. a producer of interactive educational products for technical analysis. He was formerly with Merrill Lynch as a Director Technical Analysis Futures Division.

Title: Technical Analysis Explained : The Successful Investor's Guide to Spotting Investment Trends and Turning Points

Reader: This book is for the beginner to intermediate trader and intermediate investor.

What you will learn: This book is similar to John Murphy’s book although the philosophy of the books and authors are different. John Murphy’s book is a comprehensive text book on technical analysis whereas Pring’s premise is that the market moves in trends and those trends have major turning points that can be profitable. His focus is on the tools and concepts that can help you identify those turning points. This is a book you study and not read. This is also one of the books recommended by the Market Technicians Association.

About the author: Martin J. Pring is the editor of the Pring Market Review and President of the International Institute for Economic Research

Title: Profitable Candlestick Trading : Pinpointing Market Opportunities to Maximize Profits

Reader: This book is for the beginner to intermediate trader and intermediate investor.

What you will learn: In this book you will learn how to identify the profitable signals fast and easily. More importantly, you will learn the psychology of the investment community that formed those signals. You will be amazed at how your investment perceptions improve when you know why a reversal has occurred

About the author: Stephen W. Bigalow possesses over twenty-five years of investment experience, including eight years as a stockbroker with major Wall Street firms: Kidder Peabody & Company, Cowen & Company and Oppenheimer & Company.

Title: High Profit Candlestick Patterns: Turning Investor Sentiment into High Profits

Reader: This book is for the beginner to intermediate trader and intermediate investor.

What you will learn: In this book you will learn the knowledge, that is exhibited in candlestick formations, to well known price patterns dramatically enhances analytical capabilities.  Being able to identify a potential pattern formation, and understanding what candlestick signals are revealing, creates a format for establishing positions at the most opportune times.  This book illustrates how to use the combination of investment patterns and candlestick signals to provide strong and consistent profits.

About the author: Stephen W. Bigalow possesses over twenty-five years of investment experience, including eight years as a stockbroker with major Wall Street firms: Kidder Peabody & Company, Cowen & Company and Oppenheimer & Company.