Warren Buffett estimates that 80% of his workday is spent reading and thinking. He is so successful at share markets that he has been the richest man on Earth, twice. And when someone asked him how to get smarter, he said "Read 500 pages ... every week. That’s how knowledge builds up, like compound interest". You should follow his advice and read a lot. But if you are wondering where to start, the books listed below are your best bet.
Think of Kiyosaki's bestseller as a starting point for a new investor/ entrepreneur. This book will teach you how to look at business and investments. Do not use it as a how-to guide, but as a point of departure into an unfamiliar world.
Once you have read Rich Dad Poor Dad, you would be familiar with the ideas behind value investing. Warren Buffett champions this style, and you should definitely read him. But if you are looking for something that applies the principles to the Indian market - you should pick this book up. It focuses on how to make the right decisions - is it the time to buy a stock or to sell, should you churn your portfolio now or just rebalance it a little.
This thin volume is a great companion for any beginner investor. It shines a light on the fundamentals of the stock market and summarizes all the key concepts in an easy to understand manner.
A must-read for new investors who do not have a background in finance. This book demystifies how share market works, in simple language and without using any financial jargon
This is the bible of value investors. A few sections in the book deal with portfolio management and stock recommendations that are now dated. But you should focus on the principles of investments that he expounds. In 1949, Benjamin Graham looked back at the last 49 years of stock market history and found that the principles governing successful investments have remained unchanged. Remarkably, they haven't changed even today. Read and reread this work till these principles become second nature.
This book doesn't present an investing philosophy like One Up on Wall Street does. It does not tell you how to dig deep and uncover signs that a company will do great or fail like Quality of Earnings does. It tells you how Greenblatt earned 30% annual returns over the last 17 years - by investing in companies with high returns and doing so when they were selling at a discount. Those are the very pillars on which the philosophy of value investing stands.
Warren Buffett started out by following Benjamin Graham's techniques: buy stocks dirt cheap and hope the ones that turn around earn enough profits to compensate for the loss-making investments. It worked well, but not well enough. Buffett looked around and found another guru - Philip A Fisher. Fisher believed in buying high-quality growth stocks even at fair prices and holding them for years. The capital invested would compound over these years providing excellent returns. In this book, Fisher lists out how to identify the stocks worth buying. A strategy that Buffett combined with Graham's to form his value investing style.
This book takes a detailed look at how value investing plays out in the Indian share markets. This is a must read for any Indian investor, beginner or seasoned.
A must-read for anyone who wants to learn how the most successful money managers of the last century went about their business. It gives you a peek into Berkshire Hathaway through excerpts from Buffett's letters to his shareholders.
A systematic study of Buffett’s investment principles. It lays out how the joining of value and growth investment styles allowed Buffett to become the most celebrated money manager of the 20th century. It breaks down the strategy in a way that makes it easy to implement in your own investment journey.
A compendium of Warren Buffett's thoughts. Each section takes a quote by the master and breaks down in a no-nonsense manner. This is the book of wisdom for any investor, anywhere.