Top 5 Investing Books that You Should Know | Stock Market Investing

The Money Game by Adam Smith

The book was first published in 1968 and is considered way ahead of its time. This is one of the lesser known books on investing. Personally I picked up this book because Paul Samuelson called it a modern classic. And I must say he was right. The book has a different approach when compared to other books on investing. It focuses on the psychology behind investing. I have heard Warren Buffet say again and again that Investing is simple but not easy. To be honest I never understood that before reading this book.

The Intelligent Investor By Benjamin Graham

Honestly no investing books list would be complete without this book.

The book begins with a preface from Warren Buffett.
And ends with this line from Benjamin Graham: To achieve satisfactory investment results is easier than most people realize; to achieve superior results is harder than it looks.

The book was originally published in 1949 and because of this, you may find something difficult to understand. For this I would suggest reading Jason Zweig's commentary after each chapter to get the present day context. Most of the times, it will help you to understand the original content much better.

Graham in every right is the father of value investing. An according to him.

Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger by Charlie Munger

Warren Buffett said that Charlie Munger had moved him from buying fair companies at a wonderful price to buying wonderful companies at a fair price.

This book probably provides you the greatest insight you can have on the thought process of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. I can sum up the book in one sentence, and that is Be wise, dont fool yourself, and make the right decisions. But I would recommend reading the whole book.

One Up On Wall Street: How to Use What You Already Know to Make Money in the Market by Peter Lynch

The book can be summed up in three points:

1. Invest Fundamentally
2. Know what you own and why you own it. Invest in what you know and not in what's hot.
3. Don't believe the professionals

Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders Warren Buffett

This is actually not a book but a collection of all the annual letters written by Warren Buffett to Berkshire Hathaway share holders.

Now you can either buy this book or read these letters online on the Berkshire Hathaway site.

Note: the book has only Letters till 2014. For letters after 2014 you have to visit the Berkshire Hathaway website.

The best practice I would suggest is to read one letter a day.

Warren Buffett himself has not written any book. These letters are all that we get from him.

What makes them great is that the letters start from 1965 and you can clearly see Warren Buffetts thought process while he was building Berkshire.

In a 2010 interview with Becky Quick of CNBC, Warren Buffett said the dumbest stock he ever bought was Berkshire Hathaway.

Its quite interesting to see how he turned his mistake of buying Berkshire Hathaway into his biggest success.

These letters require repetitive reading and constant thinking. You may agree or disagree on certain things but the most important thing is that you have to understand.