Greatest Hits of Investing Books

I want to keep this short and sweet, so here is a very abbreviated list of some of the best books I have ever read about investing.

1. Clifford Pistolese. Using Technical Analysis.

If you could just read one book about investing this would be it - reading stock charts isn't as hard as you think. Mr. Pistolese unlocks the meaning of charts - in just a couple of days you'll see meaning in charts that is beautifully logical.

2. Any book about candlestick charts. This is another useful addition to reading stock charts based on centuries old Japanese rice futures.

3. Michael Perino. The Hellhound of Wall Street: how Ferdinand Pecora's investigation of the Great Crash forever changed American finance. This book gives you a sense of history so you won't be the turnip that fell off the truck. Learn Wall Street accounting gimmicks and old stock pump tricks. I wrote earlier about this book here.

4. John Kenneth Galbraith. The Great Crash. A great book for investigating normalcy bias. Does that stock price look strong? What if you knew it was trading for the same amount fifty years ago? How people are slow to react to crises because there is not a crisis at this very second.

5. Active Value Investing by Vitaliy Katsenelson. Easy to read book about determining value in a stock. Good sections about appropriate P/E levels for a company, determining a company's resistance to competition, basic primer on discounted cash flow analysis and more. Sort of an updated version of Benjamin Graham's classic book about value investing.