Posted: 6/4/2012 4:31:50 AM EDT
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I've been lurking here, posted once or twice. I've seen some recent threads with newbies wanting to know what to
invest in. Other members mentioned books and research. My question is can the more experienced members share what the good books to get are and good websites for information. I know there are a ton of books, I just hate to get a bad one. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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The "For Dummies" series of books are really good at covering the basics of how investments work and what all the numbers, terminology means. They're a great starting point.They have a generic Investing for Dummies, as well as Stock Investing for Dummies, Real Estate Investing for Dummies, etc.
I like "The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing" as a good book regarding the basics of stock picking and stock market fundamentals. Ken Fisher has several great books, and IMO, everyone should read "Markets Never Forget, but People Do" and/or "Debunkery". Both of these books challenge common myths and misplaced investor sentiment with actual data and market history. |
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My question is can the more experienced members share what the good books to get are and good websites for information. http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_133/1321708_Investing_for_the_beginner_.html&page=1#i33801662] http://seekingalpha.com/ http://morningstar.com/ by the way, the following M* thread has some excellent technical analysis (T/A) and outstanding input from folks who know what they are doing. 
http://socialize.morningstar.com/NewSocialize/forums/p/305420/3251803.aspx#3251803 each month's T/A thread will end at the end of that month, and a new one will be started for the current month. so then go here, http://socialize.morningstar.com/NewSocialize/asp/AllConv.asp?forumId=F100000026 and find the new thread called "T/A {month 'yr}". ar-jedi |
http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Main_Page You "speculating or investing"?
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ZeroHedge.com All you really need to know. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/global-economic-collapse-dummies This. Investing is trying to grow your wealth. I stopped attempting that when I figured the game is rigged against the little guy (see the Bernie Madoff interview in New Yorker). I'm into wealth preservation. |
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ZeroHedge.com All you really need to know. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/global-economic-collapse-dummies This. Investing is trying to grow your wealth. I stopped attempting that when I figured the game is rigged against the little guy (see the Bernie Madoff interview in New Yorker). I'm into wealth preservation. The market is not rigged against the little guy. Those that claim it is are those who don't understand how markets work and what drives equity prices. How do you explain a consistent 10% long term market return if the market is rigged? How can you explain predictible, consistent valuations over time that are directly tied to company earnings and growth? Those returns are not exclusive to big investment firms. Anyone who simply invests in an indexed mutual fund, or a diverse stock portfolio can match the returns of the top names on Wall Street. The people who claim that the market is rigged are almost always the same people who have gotten burned on short term trading because they made a poor decision. OP, take everything you read on Zero Hedge with a grain of salt. It's basically a tin foil conspiracy blog that makes outrageous assumptions and claims by using distorted or irrelevant data. There may be a kernal of truth in the information you read on there, but for the most part, it's just hyperbole. |
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ZeroHedge.com All you really need to know. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/global-economic-collapse-dummies This. Investing is trying to grow your wealth. I stopped attempting that when I figured the game is rigged against the little guy (see the Bernie Madoff interview in New Yorker). I'm into wealth preservation. The market is not rigged against the little guy. Those that claim it is are those who don't understand how markets work and what drives equity prices. How do you explain a consistent 10% long term market return if the market is rigged? How can you explain predictible, consistent valuations over time that are directly tied to company earnings and growth? Those returns are not exclusive to big investment firms. Anyone who simply invests in an indexed mutual fund, or a diverse stock portfolio can match the returns of the top names on Wall Street. The people who claim that the market is rigged are almost always the same people who have gotten burned on short term trading because they made a poor decision. OP, take everything you read on Zero Hedge with a grain of salt. It's basically a tin foil conspiracy blog that makes outrageous assumptions and claims by using distorted or irrelevant data. There may be a kernal of truth in the information you read on there, but for the most part, it's just hyperbole. a long time ago, in a place far away before Al Gore invented the internet, Markets would behave in a logical manner. If times were good, the market would reflect increased earnings with increased portfolios, safe havens like PMs would retreat. During bad times, when risks were abundant, stocks reflected these risks, safe havens like PMs would rise. Market up, safe havens down. Market down, safe havens up. Now, when every grandma and four-year old is online and super-computers rule, everything moves in tandem. Market up, PMs up. Market down, PMs down. other than the occasional Black Tuesday or Spain bailout, this is the new norm. also, why is gas moving lower during the summer of 2012? don't fuel prices ususally rise at the start of summer? if you can explain this to me - <eta: or some good reading that will explain this> I would appreciate it. |
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a long time ago, in a place far away before Al Gore invented the internet, Markets would behave in a logical manner. If times were good, the market would reflect increased earnings with increased portfolios, safe havens like PMs would retreat. During bad times, when risks were abundant, stocks reflected these risks, safe havens like PMs would rise. Market up, safe havens down. Market down, safe havens up. Now, when every grandma and four-year old is online and super-computers rule, everything moves in tandem. Market up, PMs up. Market down, PMs down. other than the occasional Black Tuesday or Spain bailout, this is the new norm. also, why is gas moving lower during the summer of 2012? don't fuel prices ususally rise at the start of summer? if you can explain this to me - <eta: or some good reading that will explain this> I would appreciate it. That has nothing to do with markets being rigged and everything to do with globalization of our economy and technology that allows information to flow faster. Even just 50 years ago, our economy was significantly more independent than it is today. US stocks were not as widely held by international investors and vice-versa. Markets are more dynamic now, reacting to information all over the globe over a matter of minutes. You now have thousands of additional factors that are influencing US investments all over the world. We may see some factors in the US that drive up stock prices, but the rest of the world is seeing factors that drive US stocks down. Over the long term, we still see stocks perform in the same fundamental way that we always have. The historic P/E of the overall market is floating right around 15, which is pretty much average. Even considering those factors, I think your assumption that all investments move in tandem may not be supported by fact. You're just making a casual observation on the market over the short term past using your own interpretations. I have never seen any data or statistics that suggests what you are claiming is an accurate portrayal of how the market has been moving in relation to other investments. |
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I've been lurking here, posted once or twice. I've seen some recent threads with newbies wanting to know what to invest in. Other members mentioned books and research. My question is can the more experienced members share what the good books to get are and good websites for information. I know there are a ton of books, I just hate to get a bad one. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile Journal of Finance, Wharton, SSRN, The Economist, data books, NBER, FRB papers, website ran by macroeconomists like Brad DeLong, etc. With both investment, medicine, health, and politics, there tends to be very high amount of noise/misrepresentation such that very low SNR(Signal-to-Noise-Ratio) of useful information comes through. E.g., investment secret that others don't know about, secret diet/cancer cure that your doctor don't want you to know, etc. That said, much of info in investment arena is designed for marketing purpose and to get folks excited so that they would think less and spend money more rashly, LOL. Sort of like listening to political pundits, LOL. |
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- there is evidence that starting in late 1990s, global volatility and correlation started increasing
- there is some evidence that in arenas like medicine and investment, when consumers are not well informed, that they are taken advantage of. E.g., if you check recent peer review research, most of the time, long term result of back surgery is not much better than intense rehab despite rising rate of back surgery. In investment arena, most investment, long term, would be beaten by passive, low cost system like federal TSP. - check the holding cost, including turnover/trading/transaction cost, and diversification of a typical portfolio vs. TSP and odds are that TSP will come out ahead. So yes, in general, capital market tend to take advantage of folks and quite often, you have to be so extraordinarily well informed, it's extremely difficult not to be taken in. - gas price: it has to do with dropping demand during recessionary economy, even in summer. I wouldn't read too much into it. - PM/safety: during European sovereign debt crisis, safe money has being fleeing toward US dollar/treasuries but today, most of demand for gold comes from emerging market, most probably due to lack of developed capital market, participation, and general comfort holding PM vs. USD/government bonds/bond funds. - Al Gore claiming to have invented the internet: according to following Snopes.com entry, it's false. Gore never claimed to have invented the web. But military/government did have a hand in it in the form of Vint Cerf/DARPA/ARPANET/etc. BTW, Vint Cerf, who is acknowledged in some circle as one of the "Fathers of the Internet," do believe that Gore deserves some merit for politically supporting technology relevant to information highway as it exists today. there is a mixture of truths and not so true in various statements below, LOL. It's funny and amusing! Quoted:
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ZeroHedge.com All you really need to know. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/global-economic-collapse-dummies This. Investing is trying to grow your wealth. I stopped attempting that when I figured the game is rigged against the little guy (see the Bernie Madoff interview in New Yorker). I'm into wealth preservation. The market is not rigged against the little guy. Those that claim it is are those who don't understand how markets work and what drives equity prices. How do you explain a consistent 10% long term market return if the market is rigged? How can you explain predictible, consistent valuations over time that are directly tied to company earnings and growth? Those returns are not exclusive to big investment firms. Anyone who simply invests in an indexed mutual fund, or a diverse stock portfolio can match the returns of the top names on Wall Street. The people who claim that the market is rigged are almost always the same people who have gotten burned on short term trading because they made a poor decision. OP, take everything you read on Zero Hedge with a grain of salt. It's basically a tin foil conspiracy blog that makes outrageous assumptions and claims by using distorted or irrelevant data. There may be a kernal of truth in the information you read on there, but for the most part, it's just hyperbole. a long time ago, in a place far away before Al Gore invented the internet, Markets would behave in a logical manner. If times were good, the market would reflect increased earnings with increased portfolios, safe havens like PMs would retreat. During bad times, when risks were abundant, stocks reflected these risks, safe havens like PMs would rise. Market up, safe havens down. Market down, safe havens up. Now, when every grandma and four-year old is online and super-computers rule, everything moves in tandem. Market up, PMs up. Market down, PMs down. other than the occasional Black Tuesday or Spain bailout, this is the new norm. also, why is gas moving lower during the summer of 2012? don't fuel prices ususally rise at the start of summer? if you can explain this to me - <eta: or some good reading that will explain this> I would appreciate it. |