Good books for shares and stocks

M

miller

Guest
i am new to the site and i'm looking for some guidance on shares and stocks. i was intending on attending the ticn course but now that i have been on the forum i am recosidering. so i would like to know of some good books or courses that might get me started or at least help me make an informed decision.

thank you for your help.
 
Do a search for existing threads on books about investment. It's also worth starting with the AAM and IFSRA guides to savings & investments linked from the key posts section in the Savings & Investments forum.



Moved from .
 
I have been on this course. Its excellent. Much better than the ticn deal.
www.investlikethebest.com
 
Why exactly do you consider this course to be excellent?
Do you have any vested interest?
 
Hi Clubman,
Of course, I do NOT have a vested interested,( I would have declared it if I had). I have been on the ILTB course, have used the strategies presented and had good sucess.

The strategies presented are well tested and they do not involve day-trading but rather a one year strategy with blue chip companies.

In spite of falls in recent days I am up on the stocks I bought in October.

Good Luck
 
Just think how many excellent books you could get for the 585 euros or whatever the latest cost of the investlikethebest course is! Surely one day is not going to provide you with anything other than a brief overview of investing and this man's investment strategy. Also you would need to invest almost 60,000 euros for this course to be under 1% of your future profits (if any) gone. I must admit I know little about the course but I'd rather buy a few hundred euros worth of books and a nice chair for reading in for the same price. Then join an investment club perhaps ...
 
wow thats expensive!

Read the following two books and you will do well..

'the intelligent investor' by Benjamin Graham

'One up on wall street' by Peter Lynch

good luck...
 
In spite of falls in recent days I am up on the stocks I bought in October.

Markets are still trading higher than they were in October, so that's not surprising.

Just think how many excellent books you could get for the 585 euros or whatever the latest cost of the investlikethebest course is!

Eh, 850 euro now...

Some quotes from the iltb website (italics).
ILTB will show you how to open a stock broking account either with a
traditional or on-line broker...The differences between dealing through a traditional or on-line broker are also taught on the one-day seminar

Fantastic. You really need to pay money for info like that.

Our 1-Day Seminar will teach you:Stock market terminology - the nuts and bolts of the industry explained.

Try investopedia or even wikipedia.

How you can get the power of compounding to work for you.

The magic of compound interest? Weren't we taught this in primary school?

The benefits of averaging into the market so you do not commit all your resources near an interim or long-term peak.

Wow, that's mind-blowing.

We Demystify the Stock Markets!

Beware of salesmen and exclamation marks.
 
Excellent post Charttrader!
I must say I was dumbfounded that people were willing to pay that kind of money for one day... As you say wikipedia, or for the non-internet based, the business section of the local library and you'll find out lots about the ideas of compounding and pound cost averaging.

I hadn't managed to ferret out the curriculum.

Looks like money for old rope.

Regards,
Gearoid.
 
Re: Invest Like the Best

I have read the points made on this site in the past about ILTB (Invest Like the Best), the Irish-based stock market training company I myself established in 2005. Rarely have I had the time to reply. But I find myself with some time today.

It is understandable that people will ask whether one should 'pay the price' for ILTB's 1-day seminar, which by the way is €695 and not €600, although two people booking together can get it for the latter figure. I would just point out that ILTB runs Free Workshops in Dublin and outside, and for those who are curious you will get to meet myself and hear what our 1-day seminar has to offer before commiting a penny. You can't lose by listening for an hour. Few of us can learn in a vacuum and I myself am eternally grateful for the great investment books written. From those books, I have distilled several 'time-tested' approaches to investing in the stock markets - UK, US & Irish - that any one can follow.

Everyone has their own point of view - some believe you can learn from a book but the truth is few can. Human nature is to learn by experiencing and doing. I freely admit ILTB is not focused on traders (although someone who wants to trade the markets can learn an enormous amount from us). For investors, I can shorten the learning curve by years. But the best way to find out about ILTB for yourself is to go along to one of the workshops. Mizen Head and others has given positive feedback, which should not be dismissed so quickly. ILTB's seminar is the only stock market seminar on offer in Ireland that has gained industry validation by way of approval from the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Eagle Star & FBD Insurances. One does not get such validation easily.

Finally, to respond to Charttrader, Smiley, Gearoid, Miller and Clubman and others who constantly dismiss what we offer....I invite you all to a Free Workshop!!! Be open minded..it's how we learn. You and anyone else who has an interest can book yourself on to one of the many workshops we run at www.investlikethebest.com . I will assure you of one thing - we are the same side..trying to make investing easier.
 
It is understandable that people will ask whether one should 'pay the price' for ILTB's 1-day seminar, which by the way is €695 and not €600

Indeed, it is understandable. BTW, your website says 850 euro, not 695.
 
Re: Invest Like the Best

Rory Gillen said:
Few of us can learn in a vacuum and I myself am eternally grateful for the great investment books written. From those books, I have distilled several 'time-tested' approaches to investing in the stock markets - UK, US & Irish - that any one can follow.
Click to expand...

Rory Gillen said:
Everyone has their own point of view - some believe you can learn from a book but the truth is few can.
Click to expand...

I'm confused Rory. Are you saying you can distill the great books and give a one day training course based around those principles, whereas we mere mortals don't have the wit to read the same book for a tiny fraction of the cost?

Just playing devils-advocate here ;-). I may just go along to one of your free seminars, as I'm open minded... just sceptical and unconvinced that a 1 day course could ever teach you what reading five or six appropriately chosen texts would.

I know people are cash rich and time poor these days so I suppose you'll always have a market...
 
To Charttrader, yes the standard fee is e850 but this is discounted to e695 at Free Workshops where the vast majority of seminar attendees come from.

To Gearoid, it's my own view that that majority of people who pick up an Investment Classic find it difficult to either follow the message or implement it. Sometimes this is because of a lack of experience, sometimes because of a lack of confidence. ILTB has gone well beyond teaching what is in the Investment Classics to providing real, easy-to-follow but, critically, 'time-tested' approaches that all can implement. For example, it took me years myself to fully appreciate and implement the knowledge that lies within 'The Intelligent Investor' written by Ben Graham. Perhaps you yourself have a good deal of experience but I think you'll agree not everyone has.

I'll leave it at that, my only message is that people should keep an open mind and if questions are asked about ILTB then it might be helpful for them to know that we run Free Workshops where, like all adults, they can choose.
 
Rory Gillen has made a contribution to a debate on another thread, where the question of dollar cost averaging was being debated. In it, he said that "The comment made earlier that 'The returns from dollar cost averaging are most likely to be less than a lump sum invested' is mis-leading and most probably plain incorrect" (it was Rory who chose to highlight that passage BTW, not me). He then goes on to give the "correct" answer.

See full thread at http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=49429&page=2

Unfortunately, it is Rory who is ''plain incorrect'', as made clear on the thread.

Everyone gets things wrong - even stockbrokers and benevolent harbingers of stock market education like Rory. I mention it here because Rory's seminar apparently dwells on the godsend that is DCA. He has written glowingly on its benefits in the past, in Irish Times articles as well as in AAM.

Considering that he wholeheartedly recommends it to clients who have paid the best part of a grand for a one-day seminar, I thought it relevant to bring up the issue here.

What's the story Rory? Are you not aware that DCA has been proven to cut people's market returns? Or do you choose not to tell them? If so, why? In a nutshell, are you the duped or the duper?

Assuming the former is the case - your reply on the aforementioned AAM thread seemed full of genuine if misguided conviction - I suggest you check out the subject more fully. Once you've seen that the benefits of DCA are more psychological than financial, perhaps you will say as much to future iltb customers. Until you do so, your seminars face a pretty big credibility issue.
 
Charttrader - For the record, 'Dollar cost averaging' is well understood to be the most effective way of dealing with stock market volatility. That was simply my point, no more complex than that. No one was arguing, and certainly the earlier contributor's question was not asking, whether a lump sum invested at a point in time would do better should the markets rise. It's self evident that that is the case - but few of us know when we are investing a lump sum whether the markets will continue to rise or not - averaging in helps mitigate the risk. I'll leave it at that. You will get more views and more balanced discussions if you keep the replies less personal.
 
For the record, 'Dollar cost averaging' is well understood to be the most effective way of dealing with stock market volatility. That was simply my point, no more complex than that.

Sure, it mitigates against volatility, but you said more than that. You said that a particular statement - 'The returns from dollar cost averaging are most likely to be less than a lump sum invested' - was "mis-leading and most probably plain incorrect".

Thankfully, you now appear to be implicitly acknowledging that it was not, in fact, "plain incorrect''.

I'll conclude with the words of another poster from the original thread;

Considering that you advise people about stocks this is one hell of a statement to make. The long term trend of stock markets is up (otherwise why would you invest?) so DCA will always provide a poorer return over the longer term than lump sum investments.

The SSIA scheme was a five year investment, which is not a sufficiently long period of time for stock market investment. I can only hope that you follow charttrader's advice and add the facts regarding the underperformance of DCA over the longer term to your seminars.
 
I think you are being unfair to RG. Some people can read books and apply the strategies therein, others can’t. From my professional experience, there are people to whom you can give a guideline, etc. and they will follow it; and there are others who require hands on guidance. If RG’s course provides such guidance to people who can’t work from books, it’s not a rip off, and is to be welcomed. €695 is not a lot for a day’s training, and it’s not like the TICN that takes 5% of the investment. If someone goes to one of these courses and decides he / she is not an investor, he / she has spent money wisely, as he / she will save money otherwise lost on the markets. If someone attends the course and then becomes a successful investor, so much to the better. He / she personally gains by making money, and we all gain as that person is contributing to the efficient allocation of assets by the market. The fact that somebody could have achieved the same by self study is neither here nor there and doesn’t make the course a rip-off – some people just do not have the discipline for self study and its subsequent application. If RG were offering a ‘miracle way’ of investing I’d be suspicious, but I don’t think he is. (Please note I’ve no connection with RG; but unless the guy is peddling miracle investment strategies, I think you should cut him some slack).
 
Hi PMU,
I don't think I am being unfair.

What I picked up was that much of the seminar was the dissemination of well know techniques documented in widely and cheaply available books.

I think RG has said that himself.

All I'm saying is try read the books first. The Benjamin Graham and Peter Lynch books are available from the public library if you want them FOR FREE.

If you don't feel you can read a book on the subject and you have the money then fine, but 685 euros at 7% a year return over 20 years will give you .... dum de dum de dum ... 2650.73 euros. Take away tax at 20% and you're still looking at somewhere around 1500 euros profit you wouldn't have. I know it's a bit trite but something to consider. You forego that by heading to the seminar instead of the library.

I understand people might not have the time, willpower, confidence etc.

But... you'll only learn so much in one day, and you'll only on average remember 10% of what RG says. You can always return to the book again.

In the meantime all I'm saying is try do your own research if you can and join a share investment club if you find it difficult to do things on your own.

I just thought the implication most people couldn't read a book on finances was somewhat patronising and a bit of a glib generalisation so I picked up on it.

Gearoid
 
PMU
I have nothing against investment/trading courses. I think some are better than others. The iltb site is very short on detail and is, it appears to me, aimed very much at newbies with next to no knowledge of market matters.

People should read a few books and check out the basics on sites like investopedia, etc, before rushing into any course. Once one understands the basics, it's a lot easier to decide if the information on offer is worth paying for or not. I agree with Gearoid's comment that Rory's thoughts on books are patronising, to say the least.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top