| Invest In your Own Stock Market Education | | | | 4) Relative price strength is important " winners |
| Our Thesis: Success leaves footprints. | | | | Continue To Win " |
| If you can read you can prosper by knowing the | | | | F) Hedge Funds |
| keys that made other investors successful. I am | | | | Hedge Hogging, Barton Biggs |
| an advocate of having a growing library of stock | | | | Not only offers insight from the dean of hedge |
| market information. In answer to your email | | | | fund managers but done in a stylistic |
| requests here are a few of the books I | | | | andentertaining fashion. Biggs was ranked one of |
| recommend for your library | | | | the top strategists from 1996 - 2003.Most |
| A ) Analysis for Long Term Success | | | | interesting to me are the insights into the |
| Security Analysis, Benjamin Graham, Dodd - learn | | | | behavior and thinking of clients and their advisors. |
| from the Columbia School prof who taught | | | | Even if you and I never " run money " for the |
| Warren Buffett. Still regarded as the seminal book | | | | moneyed classes the lessons are applicable to our |
| in research and valuation - updated in later | | | | personal accounts. |
| editions. | | | | G) Your Buffett Library |
| This is a book that shows how strict fundamental | | | | These books are the latest in a small library of |
| analysis can be used to find undervalued situations. | | | | material on the " World's Greatest Investor " |
| Graham believed that buying stocks that were | | | | The Snowball - Warren Buffett and The Business |
| markedly undervalued provided a margin of | | | | of Life |
| safety for investors. The present financial | | | | By Alice Schroeder |
| problems have a lot of investors going back to | | | | The candid and open access the author had to |
| the basics about which Graham writes. | | | | Buffett is the reason the book is so informative. |
| Graham stripped the accounts to the bare | | | | Equally interesting is Buffett's transition form |
| minimum to find which companies were severely | | | | Graham's disciple to using Graham's analysis but |
| undervalued in the market. | | | | allowing for growth as a reason to pay more than |
| He believed that this provided a " margin of | | | | Graham's " margin of safety " would allow. |
| safety " that could result in the long term safety | | | | Another book I like is one by his former daughter |
| of capital and then capital appreciation. | | | | -in-law the sets out his investment ideas in a brief |
| The chief elements of performance are: | | | | and easy to read fashion: |
| 1) Profitability - over the long term | | | | The New Buffettology by Mary Buffett and David |
| 2) Stability of earnings - over a ten year period | | | | Clarkfocus on the Buffet Portfolio Stocks and |
| 3) Growth - look for growth among low price | | | | what we can learn from each selection: |
| earnings | | | | Key findings: |
| 4) Financial position - low and manageable debt | | | | 1) Seek a durable competive advantage |
| 5) Dividends - a history of continued and | | | | ( a unique product or service and one that |
| uninterrupted dividends. | | | | consumers will buy consistently ) |
| B) Trading | | | | 2) Historical Date - this keeps Buffett out of new |
| How To Trade in Stocks, Jesse Livermore - | | | | technologies |
| updated by Richard Smitten | | | | 3) The market cycle ( and herd mentality at tops |
| Start with the instructions of the famed Jesse | | | | and bottoms ) offer great rewards for the |
| Livermore who was so dominant on Wall street | | | | patient investor |
| JP Morgan had to get his cooperation in order to | | | | 4) A consistent high rate of return on equity and |
| stop a panic on Wall Street. | | | | capital signal long term profits and capital |
| Interestingly, the lessons of the last century are | | | | appreciation. |
| applicable today. | | | | And a similar review of his investment strategies |
| Livermore wrote of his own experiences in | | | | is detailed in The Warren Buffett Way by Robert |
| Reminiscences of a Stock Operator under the | | | | Hagstrom |
| nom de plume Edwin Lefevre. | | | | H ) To develop your own portfolio |
| Key elements: | | | | Building Your Apprentice Millionaire Portfolio |
| 1) Patience - wait for a clear trading signal | | | | By Jack A.. Bass |
| 2) Cash on hand for use after a signal | | | | My personal favorite - |
| 3) Need for both a market trend and a sector | | | | The watch list system has 12 sectors and a good |
| trend | | | | number of recommendations / top picks in each |
| C ) Commodity Forecast | | | | sector. |
| The New Reality of Wall Street Donald Coxe | | | | It is not reasonable or advisable to buy all the |
| Don was a strategist for the Harris Bank before | | | | selections - but the AMP system is to have a |
| starting his commodity trust last year. A great | | | | good number of recommendations that are on |
| overview of the market and a n intelligent world | | | | your radar screen for a time that the economy |
| view of the market to come. He made the great | | | | and sector dictate a particular sector and basket |
| call on commodities after a tour of the east and | | | | of stocks in that sector will do well. |
| his personal observations of the growth of the | | | | For example: |
| new middle class - in their hundreds of millions. | | | | In the chapter on Uranium / Nuclear Industry only |
| Don Coxe now manages his own commodity fund | | | | Cameco has a current buy recommendation and |
| ( COX.UN). it is currently 30 % cash and he is abull | | | | that is on the basis of a view that the nuclear |
| awaiting a return of a long term bull market in | | | | renaissance is still years away. A review of the |
| commodities. His thesis remains: The millions of | | | | current nuclear industry is set out and the thesis |
| persons moving into the middle class each year in | | | | for sector investment given. |
| the emerging markets will seek the consumer life | | | | The chapter then discusses a series of junior |
| of the west - and that means the manufacture | | | | producers and developers to be " watched " and |
| of millions of homes, television sets etc. that take | | | | purchased as the commodity price and industry |
| enormous quantities of basic materials. | | | | revive. |
| D ) Buy and Hold | | | | It is designed for the investor with knowledge of |
| Stocks for the Long Run, Jeremy Siegel | | | | the stock market and who wants a more |
| Data and history combined to strengthen the | | | | structured approach to developing a portfolio. |
| view that in the long term stocks are the superior | | | | Available direct from The Apprentice Millionaire |
| asset class. The three keys - observation, | | | | Program web site. |
| research and analysis make this book far from a | | | | Knowledge Won't Happen by Accident - Set Your |
| dry thesis -despite the impressive academic | | | | Goals In Writing |
| credentials of Prof. Siegel. | | | | Set a goal of reading a new book a month. In an |
| Ket Thesis - the long term analysis dictates a 70 | | | | age where people actually brag they don't read |
| % holding in equities for all portfolios having a 30 | | | | you can acquire enough knowledge to be an |
| year time horizon. He also sets out valuation | | | | expert in the space of a single year. Follow a |
| ratios to project future returns. | | | | schedule of reading for your own profit - in a |
| E ) Mutual funds | | | | time where people spend more time planning their |
| What Works on Wall Street by James | | | | Christmas card list then their portfolios. |
| O'Shaugnnessy A review of a great number of | | | | I am also an advocate of daily reading of the |
| strategies to give you data and fact based | | | | financial press - but not for investment advice. |
| conclusions as to their usefulness. The past does | | | | The daily press will give you information about the |
| not guarantee the future will repeat the | | | | economy. I believe the direction of the economy |
| successful patterns - but I can assure you that if | | | | gives you a direction of the sectors that will |
| you refuse to learn what worked you are | | | | prosper and the companies that will thrive in that |
| handicapped today. | | | | environment. With the knowledge you acquire you |
| Key Findings: | | | | can read the daily press, financial magazines and |
| 1) Short term results are useless | | | | books to develop a list of companies for your |
| 2) High price / earnings ratios are dangerous | | | | own due diligence and the components of your |
| 3) Large caps are less volatile | | | | own successful portfolio. |