I am planning to read the following books in the coming months
– Way of the turtle (great book on trading)
– EINSTEIN : His life and universe (biography)
– The dhando investor – reread (book by mohnish pabrai)
– Security analysis – reread ( value investor’s bible)
– Micheal porter’s – competitive advantage
update 9-Aug
– more than you know (on investing and mental models)
– Black swan – great book by nicholas taleb – a must read
For the past few years, time is more of a constraint than money (in terms of books 🙂 ) for me. So I typically work out the topics where I think I need to learn more. I then find well rated books on that topic and go through it. I do this typically once a year and am able to read 10-12 books every year. I purposely limit my self to not more than 15 books as that would take away time from reading annual reports.
I am looking for good books on the following topics
– Options and derivates
– Accounting
– Accounting standard – US GAAP and Indian GAAP
– Probability
Any suggestion are high welcome
Hi rohiti read “more then you know” very good bookhttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0231138709/bookstorenow600-20and also “influence”could yoy share which anual report do you like regarding information
‘All about Derivatives’ by Micheal Durbin is good. Derivatives being kind of tricky with all the words they use, this book is very good. It’s in a way like how Asimov would’ve written on derivatives. It doesn’t talk a lot about strategies and all, though it does now and then, but it’s good to get a grip on the basics. It’s pretty cheap too as Tata McGrawHill has published it here.’The Accounting Game’ by Darrell Mullis and Judith Orloff is amazing. But you’ve got to order it from Amazon.’Taking Chances’ by Haigh is good on probability. ‘What the Numbers Say’ by Derrick Niederman and David Boyum has a good chapter on probability and you might like the whole book as well.Do you think it’s worth reading Porter’s book? I have a feeling that it wouldn’t give us anything useful.
thanks for the suggestion. ‘more than you know’ is a good book and i plan on reading it. I did not get your question on annual reportssenthil – thanks for the suggestion. porter’s book is a bit academic, and quite dry. but i think it is worth reading it once as it give a structured approach to competitive advantage analysis
For Futures and Options, the book by Robert Kolb is great. There is a fifth edition now with James Overdahl (I have an earlier edition). Check it out.http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/kolb/
Over last few months, I taught myself accounting and accounting standards. Category: getting started==========================For this category, I prefer books which can be read in a day. My favorites are:1) Thomas Ittelson “Financial statements” (Beware: some major typos)2) Benjamin Graham “Interpretation of Financial statements”Category: Intermediate============================I learn only when I actually Do it.Favorites:1) Schaum’s Series “Financial Accounting” by Jae K. Shim and JOel G. Siegel–> I feel I learned the most from this book by working through the examples.2) Damodaran: Corporate financeThough some of the stuff is classic Portfolio Theory and calculations of beta etc, it is useful to know how academics approach valuation. He has number of exercise sets and answers are given for odd numbered exercises.–> Warning: This book required me almost a month of full time effort to work through. First few chapters might be most relevant. Category: Advanced=====================Financial Shenanigans–> Fairly easy to understand if you work through Schaum Series.I have heard a lot about Martin Fridson books but they are way more expensive (5K+) and I have not yet bought it.Category: India and US GAAP difference==========================I found Satish Mathur’s “Understanding balance sheets” quite good. It is well written with some good attempts to liven the topic.All the best,Ravi
Also, I second the recommendation for “more than you know”.In my opinion, for investing success, you need to know more about ‘how our mind tricks us on probabilities’ rather than ‘mathematical probabilities’ per say.Maoboussin has a number of articles on Legg Mason fund website. If you don’t have access to the books, the website articles are quite good too. http://www.leggmason.com/funds/knowledge/mauboussin/mauboussin.aspSome of the articles are a great education in accounting as well.e.g. 23 March 2006 article on ‘Common Errors in DCF models’.
“Futures,Options and other derivatives” by John C Hull
ravi , naidu – thanks a lot for the suggestions.regardsrohit