Moon, Part Two. Anyway, one big winner and two turkeys taught me that I had to learn how to analyze stocks on my own. I read everything I could find. Most was total crap, just as it is today. But some of the books were outstanding and I think they still hold up today. "The Intelligent Investor," "The War For Stock Market Survival," "Conservative Investors Sleep Well," "Securities Analysis" (the textbook expansion of The Intelligent Investor), Charles McKay's classic about Speculation and the behavior of crowds, "Confessions of a Stock Manipulator (not sure about that title) "The Money Game," "The Funny Money Game", many of the Dow Jones Guides, and even Sylvia Porter and Jane Bryant Quinn have some useful ideas, even though I have been abused at Janes' cruel hand in the past. <G> Then there were several books about the wonders of the options and futures markets, which soon became my main love.
Today I would add, "Options As a Strategic Investment," David Dreman's Contrarian books, etc. Also, I cannot exaggerate how useful the hardcore analytic and economic newsletters have been to me over the years. The ones I cut my teeth on are mostly gone now, especially the outstanding ones that were heavy on accounting, but I would recommend current ones like "The High Tech Strategist," "The Tech Review," "The Richebacher Letter," "The Bank Credit Analyst," and even "Value Line." The point is not to agree with all or any of these folks, but to follow their line of thinking and then, with all your resources, including thinking from the other newsletters, try to debunk them. Not that you are trying to prove them wrong, but because you are exercising your analytical skills and playing devil's advocate. You will find flaws in the best of them, but the very best have major arguments that are hard to debunk.
Wharton didn't really teach analysis of companies. They mostly taught Modern Portfolio Theory, which stated that analysis was meaningless as those on Wall Street are already doing it for us. <g> Which is why we have seen three generations of analysts hit Wall Street who haven't got a clue about how to analyze a company. <g> |
