I have looked at stock investing for dummies, but need a few more to check out and the ones I’ve seen are a bit more advanced for someone who has no background on the subject.
wow thanks for all the input. so are all these books good for a total idiot? I’m more of a computer and science oriented person and don’t know the first thing about economics and investment type stuff. My dad was explaining to me about stock options and puts and all these other nonsense and I was just staring blankly.
Books I have learned from:
Beginners should read: Andrew Tobias, The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need
Everyone should read: Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor — get the new edition with notes by Jason Zweig
Burton Malkiel, A Random Walk Down Wall Street (not that I totally believe the efficient market hypothesis, but it’ll make you take big claims with a grain of salt)
Philip Fisher, Common Stocks
Anything by Peter Lynch — start with One Up On Wall Street
Almost every book about Buffett. Start with The Essays of Warren Buffett or The Warren Buffet Way or Buffettology. Also books by his partner Charlie Munger.
Joel Greenblatt, The Little Book that Beat the Market
Joel Greenblatt, You Can Be a Stock Market Genius
Pat Dorsey, The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing
David & Tom Gardner, The Motley Fool Investment Guide
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P.S. squeeg, I saw your followup. If you’re worried about the books we’ve mentioned being overly complex or technical, the only ones I’d worry about in that respect would be the Security Analysis book by Graham, and secondarily possibly the Intelligent Investor by Graham and Burton Malkiel’s.
Certainly the Tobias, Lynch, Greenblatt, Dorsey and most of the Buffet-related books are all very accessible even to the novice. Read Tobias first, it’s older but still fun and still accessible and relevant — plus it sold millions of copies, so you can find it used and save $.