So i’m a final year Finance student, primarily interested in Equities/trading stocks. So far i’ve read The Intelligent Investor (Graham) and One up on Wall Street (Lynch), which have helped me tremendously in my personal portfolio. So now i’m looking to read either Security Analysis 1940 2nd Edition (Graham) or Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits(Fisher). Which should i read first? (No, i won’t read both at the same time).
Both books are nearly unreadable IMO and are very boring. The better use of time would be to use the same amount of time for case studies on stocks that worked and then understand why they worked.
Second one but I’d look around for a copy of Margin of Safety by Seth Klarman over those 2 though if your’e interested in value investing.
Heh yeah, selling for $1000, and not available in libraries. I’ve tried. I’ve tried. No luck.
^ pirated versions are available online. Not that you should look for them. It’s good but not $1000 great.
^why is it so expensive
Nah man, i’m not a ebook kinda guy.
Lol it’s expensive because (1) It’s written by Seth Klarman (billionaire hedge fund manager) (2) The book is not in print anymore. Demand and supply dictate that the price of the book go up. 
Fishers book is probably better, but I’ve never read it…klarmans book is boring. The first two you read are good. I would read greenblatts book.
^ how to be a stock market genius was a good read, I enjoyed his writing style
bromion, where should students find these “case studies”? Do they need some subscription to Harvard Business School, etc., is there some compilation book they can buy, or is there some online resource?
I would recommend finding a basic stock screening program and looking for stocks in a particular industry of interest (or any stock, for that matter) that has gone way up over a multi-year period and then try to understand why. This is free, and a student would probably learn more from getting under the hood and looking at an actual case study than they would from reading a book. After doing 100+ case studies then it might be worth reading the books, in my opinion (although the Fischer book is still nearly impossible to read, the man badly needed an editor).
Why is NFLX up? Why is TSLA up? What can you learn from these? Look at the numbers and try to reverse engineer it. This is more helpful than the CFA textbooks or any investment book you can find. Most of the answers are not in books.
This only applies to someone with a degree / basic understanding of finance and investing. If someone is starting from ground zero, a basic corporate finance and accounting text book would be the best place to start IMO. I have never done the HBS case studies so I can’t comment on those.
^Thanks I’m gonna actually forgo the books and follow your advice.
Read this book. Crappy title, great book. Easy and quick read, applicable, will give you a good overview of how many event driven managers look at the world. Also, dismissing Klarman’s book cuz you are not an “e-book” kind of guy is pretty short-sighted…it is more philosophical than tutorial but a good chance to get in the mind of one of the worlds best investors and good way to maybe shape yours.
You’ve already read a couple good books on how to pick stocks. Now you should read a book on how to act like a buy-sider:
So…are you interested in equity analysis, or stock trading?
The answer I would give you depends on your answer to this question.
Change your options. Market Wizards or Reminiscence of a Stock Operator
Im looking to build a personal portfilio using fundamental analysis/ value investing. So I didn’t mean trading stocks as in day trading, but rather a buy and hold strategy. That’s what I meant…
Im looking to build a personal portfolio using fundamental analysis/ value investing. So I didn’t mean trading stocks as in day trading, but rather a buy and hold strategy. That’s what I meant…
Lol Sweep, I’ve actually read that book, borrowed it from a friend.
Amazon is offering a $11.06 gift card if you trade in your copy of Margin of Safety.