Essential Books Part I

Hey all:

Finally here are some of my favorite finance books.  Most of these deal more with stocks than options.  Why then are they essential?  Because these books outline methodologies of thinking and analysis. Don't worry I will have some options specific books soon.  I am culling the list of books I have and have read to get the creme de la creme of my personal stash.

I will add more to this list as I read them and/or hear of them.  If you have any comments or know of books to add reach out to me.

Here they are:

INFLUENTIAL BOOK LIST

General Investing and Philosophy Books:

Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki.  This book gives a whole new way of looking at money and education and what you need to really succeed in this world.  Emphasis here is in taking your financial future into your own hands.  Wish I had read this long before I did!  I am more of a covered call and options spread person for cash flow, while the Rich Dad series is a little more into real estate than I prefer, but Cash Flow is king with Mr. K, we just have differing ways to get that.

Rule #1:  The Simple Strategy for Investing in Only 15 Minutes a Week,  Phil Town.  If you only get Rule #1 out of this book it is worth it.  Rule #1 is make money, Rule #2 is don’t lose that money.  Then Mr. Town goes through a methodology for making money in the stock market.  The book is detailed and very good when paired with some of the fundamental analysis books below.  I disagree with his concept of 15 minutes a day, but I do like that fact that he also says you don’t have to be a slave to your computer screen.  If you pair Mr. Town’s ideas with M. Kiyosaki’s MACD methodology you will have a very good stock trading strategy.

Fundamental Analysis Books:

Securities Analysis, 6^th Edition, Benjamin Graham and David Dodd.  This is the textbook Bible of Fundamental Analysis.  Warren Buffett was a student of Benjamin Graham at Columbia.  My MBA mentor earned his Ph.D. under Mr. Graham.  All you wanted to know about fundamental analysis is found in this book.  It is a textbook written for the college level but the info in here is priceless. 

The intelligent Investor, Benjamin Graham.  This is the book that started it all.  This is the root source for the textbook Securities Analysis written with Mr. Dodd.  This has methodology and philosophy and technique all rolled into one.  This is a must have book for stock investing.  When I dip into the occasional LEAP pool I use the fundamental analysis tools and techniques in here to decide what stocks I will LEAP.

Technical Analysis Books:

Getting Started in Chart Patterns & Trading Classic Chart Patterns, Thomas N. Bulkowski.  These two books are great primers on charting and pattern recognition.  It is very technical (sorry had to do the pun!!) in its language as the author works for the CBOE.  Trading weekly options spreads involves a lot of charting work.  Identifying the patterns that are shown in these books are crucial to weekly options spread trading success.