The Elements Of Investing (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
Elements of investing is a straight-to-the-point how-to invest book. In this book, the two authors do their very best in dishing out simple advice to investors. Simple, but not easy. Because while the advices are simple, the execution is anything but. This is a great book that would be suitable for investors at all stages of their life as well as investing knowledge. If you're just starting out, I think this will be a fantastic book to introduce you on the mental models to have. For more sophisticated investors looking for technical stuffs, this book may be a huge disappointment as it does not go in-depth about the how-to analysis of a company. The P/E, the intrinsic value, the margin of safety and everything else is not mentioned (even once!) in this book. Then again, if readers subscribe to their investing philosophy, then they won't event need to know all that - readers just need to know about total stock market index funds. I sincerely recommend this book to a just-starting out on your investing journey readers. This will be a good book to have and I believe well-worth re-reading many times over your journey. The good writing is accompanied by well-thought out analysis and useful advice. If you only read one book, ever, about investing, make it this one. A slender volume, I read it today in one sitting. I picked it up on the recommendation of Bill McNabb, the CEO of Vanguard Group. Anyone who's talked to me for more than 90 seconds about finances knows that I am an unabashed Vanguard fan. The author Burton Malkiel is most famous for his book "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" which basically posits that asset prices move randomly and defy prediction. I saw him at a conference recently and was wowed. In "The Elements of Investing" he strives with co-author Charles Ellis to explain investing in a succinct, clear way. The book is modeled after Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style". This is a gem of a book. It strips away all the noise and nonsense out there about investing and boils it down to a few simple basics. One overriding theme: Buy index funds. Don't try to beat the market. You can't. You will lose a lot of money trying. Simple. Elegant. Read it and profit.
What do You think about The Elements Of Investing (2009)?
Short and sweet. I plan to model my investment plan for my savings after their advice.
—steph
The BEST investment book for beginners, by far.
—weikin92
Helped a lot of stocks great book.
—BopLikeIceWeasels
