17 Books to

Read to Become
a Top Investor
special report | published December 2014

Intelligent Investor Share Advisor

PO Box Q744
Queen Vic. Bldg NSW 1230
T 1800 620 414
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Share advisor 2

PO Box Q744 Contents

Queen Victoria Bldg. NSW 1230
T 1800 620 414
Welcome 3
F 02 9387 8674
[email protected] Module 1: The business of business 4
shares.intelligentinvestor.com.au Module 2: What value investing is (and isn’t) 6
and why it works
DISCLAIMER This publication
is general in nature and does Module 3: Investing – It’s all in the mind 8
not take your personal situation Module 4: Next steps to investing success 10
into consideration. You should
seek financial advice specific to
your situation before making
any financial decision.
Past performance is not a reliable
indicator of future performance.
We encourage you to think of
investing as a long-term pursuit.
DISCLOSURE As at November
2014, in-house staff of
Intelligent Investor held the
following listed securities or
managed investment schemes:
ACR, AGI, AOG, ARP, ASX, AWC,
AWE, AZZ, BYL, COH, CPU,
CSL, DWS, EGG, FWD, HSN,
ICQ, JIN, KRM, MAU, MIX, MLD,
MQG, NST, NWH, NWS, OFX,
PTM, QBE, RMD, RMS, RNY,
SCG, SLR, SMX, SRV, SWK, SYD,
TAP, TEN, TME, TPI, UXC, VEI,
VMS, WES and WFD. This is not
a recommendation.
 3 Special report

How to become a top investor

There isn’t a university class or TAFE course to make you a great investor. But there are 17 books to read that offer
a fantastic shortcut.

It turns out that ‘talent’ or natural ability is a bit of a myth. No one really The report is divided into four modules. The first concerns the practice
has an innate capacity to be the next Warren Buffett. Or, more correctly, of business, how some companies fail, others succeed and why. The
many more of us have the potential to be a great investor precisely books we’ve chosen are light, entertaining and in some cases, gripping.
because an aptitude for investing, or anything else for that matter, isn’t Regardless of your level of investing experience, you’ll find them enjoyable.
hard coded into our DNA. Consider this a whetting of the appetite.
Practice, at least according to Outlier author Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 The second module broaches the subject of value investing in a light-touch
hour rule, is what matters. Based on a study by Anders Ericsson, Gladwell’s manner, before going a little heavy, but usefully so, and in no way overwhelming.
rule postulates that by allocating 20 hours a week to the attainment of We’ll explain what value investing is, how it differs from other kinds of
a particular skill over a period of ten years (10,000 hours in total), you’ll investing and why it works.
become an expert.
Theory versus practice
The repetition of the task, be it music, sport, hairdressing or cross-dressing, Theory is one thing, practice quite another. Over the years many self-
delivers an accumulated advantage that to the outsider looks like talent described value investors have, at key moments, failed to apply what they
but is in effect the result of regular, thorough practice. knew to be true to their benefit.
Of course, in science, where all knowledge is contingent, this isn’t the You won’t find an explanation for this in any value investing text because it
end of the matter. In a paper entitled, Practice – Is that all it takes to has far more to do with the human brain and how it works than anything
become an expert?, Zach Hambrick and colleagues argue that practice else. This third module, on investing psychology, will fine-tune your mental
accounts for about a third of the explanation for expertise, the remainder skills and help you buy when your brain is urging you to sell, and vice versa.
being explained by a combination of intelligence and working memory.
This is a fascinating area and the books we’ve selected will help you in
When presented with Gladwell’s thesis Paul McCartney made a similar all areas of your life. Quite simply, if you can’t master your own investing
case: psychology, you won’t succeed no matter how well you can value
‘There were an awful lot of bands that were out in Hamburg who put companies and spot opportunities. Although they have superficially
in 10,000 hours and didn’t make it, so it’s not a cast-iron theory. I think, nothing to do with investing, please do not underestimate the importance
however, when you look at a group who has been successful … I think of these books.
you always will find that amount of work in the background. But I don’t Finally, for those that do want to extend themselves, the fourth section
think it’s a rule that if you do that amount of work, you’re going to be covers some advanced topics in the areas of accounting, value investing
as successful as The Beatles.’ and psychology.
This special report does not promise to turn you into the next Warren Unfortunately, there are no courses you can take or programs you
Buffett, or Beatle for that matter. But it will, if you apply what you learn can follow to become a great investor. Gladwell was right in a sense –
from reading the books we recommend over the months and years becoming good at anything takes practice and application. This reading
ahead, make you a better, more successful investor. list of 17 books is perhaps the closest you’ll get to a shortcut.
Repetition, Repetition By calling on the wisdom of expert value investors and business managers,
Obviously, repetition is key. Each time you buy or sell a stock we’d like you and understanding how your brain is wired to make you do what everyone
to examine your rationale for the decision through the various viewpoints else is doing, even when it doesn’t make sense, you’re all but guaranteed
presented in the books recommended. This is your chance to practice to become a better investor.
the skills you’ll learn and get better at them. Take your time, though. There are literally thousands of books on investing
As for intelligence, we’re taking that as read. Surely every subscriber to and business. This short list distills the essence of the very best of them,
Intelligent Investor Share Advisor possesses this trait? And with such giving you a framework for making better, more profitable investment
flattery, at the very least you’ll think you are smart, which is half the battle, decisions and hopefully, some fun along the way. Let’s get into it.
and in expensive private schools far more than that.
The final component – working memory – is really beyond our control, Yours sincerely,
although perhaps not yours. No one should forget the lessons embedded
in their mistakes.
Either way, regardless of your intelligence or recall, practice will improve
your investing performance. That has been the personal experience of
your analytical team. Indeed, many speak of ‘a road to Damascus’ moment Nathan Bell
when reading Ben Graham’s Intelligent Investor or The Making of an Research Director,
American Capitalist when they sensed the penny drop, although generally Intelligent Investor Share Advisor
not before losing quite a lot of money. This reading list is experience, but
a far cheaper version of it.
Share advisor 4

Module 1:

The business of business

The very first step in becoming a great investor is to understand why some businesses prosper and others don’t.
These four books will do all that and a great deal more.

Can you invest successfully without inherently understanding how a successful business people tell everyone how great they are, and how
business makes money, why it might fail and what it needs to do to you can be too, if only you do as they say.
grow? Possibly. But knowing the answers to such questions makes the Books such as these aren’t brimming with reflection or humility, which
decisions about which businesses and management teams to back far is one reason why you won’t find any of them listed here. The other is
easier. That’s why we’re starting here, on the business of business. that they’re usually dead boring and, to all intents and purposes, useless.
As a publishing category, business books don’t get a huge wrap. Often, These four books are in another category altogether – timeless classics
the pitch is simplistic, directed at naked self-interest; Time is short so that offer intelligent perspectives on why businesses succeed and fail
read this one 40-page book and learn the three secrets of successful in a way that you’ll find entertaining and insightful. There is no better
business management so that next week you can buy a Porsche. way to kick off this reading list.
Others are hagiographic biographies or, worse, autobiographies, where

1. Business Adventures – 12 Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street

By John Brooks

The UK Independent called this book the bible of billionaires, which is only true if by that the journalist meant
Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. In 1991, Microsoft founder Bill Gates asked Buffett for a book recommendation.
He mailed back a copy of John Brooks’ classic, thus turning it into the Billionaire’s Bible.
For the rest of us, this collection of New Yorker magazine articles is utterly
charming. Brooks’ elegant style turns the story of ‘price-fixing in the electronics
market into rollicking scandals’ and his light wit punctures egos with a wry phrase. Commenting on
the founder of a supermarket chain, Brooks wrote he had a ‘gift, of which he may or may not have
been aware, for comedy.’
Despite being written in the 1960s, the book hasn’t aged one bit and the lessons it teaches the
reader are as fresh and relevant today as they were a half century ago. This is a wonderful way to
start out on the value investing journey.
Tip: Although the book went out of print in the 1970s, there are rumours of a reissue in 2014.
As a taster, Bill Gates’ website offers a free chapter here called Xerox Xerox Xerox Xerox.

2. Where Are the Customers’ Yachts?

By Fred Schwed Jr

This is the first book anyone should read on finance. Its title refers to the fable about a naïve visitor to New York’s
East river, who asked the question after being shown the yachts belonging to all the most senior brokers and bankers.
The book helps the reader understand that in the aftermath of the 1929 Great
Crash the industry didn’t possess a secret sauce, even if it did encourage
customers to think that way.
Nothing much has changed in the succeeding decades. The secret sauce remains a promotional
mirage. Now as then the finance industry is there to enrich itself first and its clients a long way
second. Reading this book forewarns and forearms you against the shonks and spivs in the industry
and teaches you about the power of incentives. And it’s very, very funny.
Tip: There are three editions of this investing classic. We suggest you try the 2006 version,
which includes an introduction by Jason Zweig and one of the world’s best contemporary
finance writers, Michael Lewis.
 5 Special report

3. Competition Demystified
By Bruce Greenwald

Every investor needs to understand competition – or the lack of it – because it’s the primary determinant of
profit over time. Everything else – innovation, management, marketing – counts for little if competition cannot
be reigned in. This book introduces a crucial topic that too many investors ignore, highlighting the sources of
competitive advantage in easy-to-understand language.
The best part of the book is filled with classic case studies of famous competitive
battles: Apple versus IBM; Pepsi versus Coke; Kodak versus Polaroid. Generals study classic military
battles to learn from the tactics and mistakes of those who came before them. Armed with this
book, investors can do likewise.
Tip: Bruce Greenwald features in two videos from the Gabelli Value Investing Conference.
The quality isn’t great but it might make a nice change from reading for a while. The lectures
run for about 90 minutes each.

4. Enron – The Smartest Guys in the Room

By Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind

Who doesn’t love a disaster movie, wrapped in a crime drama, jam-packed with lessons for investors on dodgy
accounting, crooked management and outright fraud?
Energy giant Enron was a stockmarket darling, a company that could do no wrong to everyone on the outside
whilst doing all kinds of wrong on the inside. This is the story of how a greedy
but intelligent culture produced one of the biggest frauds in corporate history.
Beautifully written, the authors take us through the misdeeds, self-aggrandisement and acrimony.
Contemporary culture tends to venerate rich, powerful business people. This book reveals the
dark side of blue chip ambition, and the flawed personalities that pursue it. As a guide to the
management tricks and personalities you don’t want at the helm of your investments, there is no
better guide.

Tip: If you can’t manage the book, watch the documentary film of the same name, check out
the Fortune Magazine story that first called the company into question, or see this Economist
abstract that explains the frauds and cover ups.

Take-a-break recommendation

Money
By Martin Amis
You’ve earned a break, and what better way to take it than sinking in to the looping chaos of John Self, driver of a purple
Fiasco, ‘a vintage-style coupe with oodles of dash and heft and twang’ and director of ‘controversial TV ads for smoking,
drinking, junk food and nude magazines’, all of which Self uses to hysterical excess?
A laugh-out-loud but sordid tale of the dangers of financial ambition, the New York Times said Money ‘seethes with Swiftian disgust at the
corrupting effect of filthy lucre and the private hell of lonely gratification.’ Consider Amis’ fifth novel as an inoculation against the dangers
of getting too rich, and a fantastically enjoyable read.
Share advisor 6

Module 2:
What value investing is
(and isn’t) and why it works
Value investing is a way of thinking first and acting second. These books will show you the ropes, simply and quickly.

Perhaps you know enough about value investing to expect that, at if you already have some working knowledge, to sharpen and deepen it.
some stage, you’ll be asked to calculate a load of financial ratios to There’s an old saying that value investing is easy to understand but
establish whether a stock is cheap. Well, not here and not now. There difficult to do. This section is about the theory, the easy bit. The next
is something more important to understand. one – on why applying the theory is so difficult in practice – may stretch
At its most fundamental, value investing is a way of thinking, a framework you a little more. So, relax, take a deep breath and dive into some of
for making reliable decisions in a complicated world. The point of the the easiest books you’ll ever read on investing.
following five books is to give you an understanding of that philosophy, or,

5. The Little Book that Beats the Market

By Joel Greenblatt

This is a wonderful introduction to investing, explaining the basics of what makes

a good company. Greenblatt has said he wrote the book for his children to
understand the principles of investing. It works as a great introduction without
the typical jargon strewn across the pages of other finance books.
For that alone it’s worth the money. Read it in two hours and relish the fact
that the author is founder and managing partner of Gotham Capital, which has
delivered average annualised returns of 40% for over 20 years.
Tip: This book is too short for shortcuts. Check out the first few chapters here.

6. One up on Wall Street

By Peter Lynch

This is another book that’s hard to beat for beginners, although it takes a different tack. Lynch is a master of
demystifying investing and he explains many of the basic terms and a few slightly more advanced ideas. It’s a
breeze to read and, like most masters of their subjects, makes it all seem so simple.
Lynch’s insight is to encourage ordinary investors to look at the industries they know well and use that information
to build a portfolio. He also made a very encouraging observation, at least for
ordinary rather than professional investors; ‘Actually Wall Street thinks just as the Greeks did. The
early Greeks used to sit around for days and debate how many teeth a horse has. They thought they
could figure it out by just sitting there, instead of checking the horse.’
The Lynch approach is all about checking the horse, whilst looking for the proverbial ten-bagger, a
stock that rises in price tenfold. With over a million copies sold, this is another investing classic that
clearly communicates simple, accessible concepts that work.
Tip: To find out more about Peter Lynch, his investing approach and his track record, take
a look at this profile. Or better yet, read the Masterclass The investment philosophy of
Peter Lynch.
 7 Special report

7. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits

By Phil Fisher

There’s no hiding the fact that this isn’t the easiest of reads. In fact, comparing this book with Peter Lynch and
Joel Greenblatt is like setting the Old Testament against Dr Seuss. But the material is top class and well worth
the effort.
Phil Fisher wasn’t really a value investor in the purest sense. Instead, he used a ‘rifle shot’ approach, meticulously
researching a few promising companies and concentrating his portfolio in those stocks. But Fisher’s impact
and performance as a growth investor was such that Warren Buffett once claimed that he was ‘85%
[Ben] Graham and 15% [Phil] Fisher’.
As the first-ever investment book to make it onto the New York Times bestseller list, Common Stocks
and Uncommon Profits is a mine of investing commonsense.
Tip: Scuttlebutt was a verb invented by Fisher that describes a way to gather information
useful to any investor. It’s one of the ways that Fisher got an edge. If you can’t manage the
entire book, read Chapter Two. Or try our Masterclass special report, The growth investment
philosophy of Philip A Fisher.

8. The Essays of Warren Buffett

By Lawrence Cunningham
There are numerous books on the subject of Warren Buffett’s shareholder letters but this is one of the
best, an ordered collection of 50 years’ worth of material grouped by topic
rather than year. Previous reading lists have recommended working through all
Buffett’s letters but that takes an age, and there’s no way to do it other than
chronologically. This book makes the best of Buffett’s wisdom accessible.
Covering subjects from investing fundamentals to management, the global
financial crisis, risk management, women in business and philanthropy, this is gold-studded advice
from one of the world’s best investors. And unlike most in the finance industry, Buffett can write. His
homespun style glides off the page like treacle from a spoon.

Tip: If you want to check out all of Buffett’s letters to shareholders, plus his partnership
letters back to 1965 and a summary of his investment philosophy, find them at Value Walk
or Berkshire Hathaway.

9. The Most Important Thing

By Howard Marks
Investors operate in a grey area between risk and return. Marks explains why subtle differences in approach
and style can produce remarkably different returns.
Whether you invest aggressively or conservatively, Marks describes what you
need to get right to beat the market, including making sure your approach is
compatible with your mentality, a subject we’ll examine in depth in the next
section. The subject of risk isn’t as exciting as returns, but Marks’ decades of success in financial
markets explains why it’s so important.
Investors can’t expect to do the same things as everyone else and get better results. That insight
seems fairly obvious but, to those new to the market especially, it’s vitally important to understand.
Marks does a first-class job of explaining this under-addressed subject.

Tip: There are a couple of famous people called Howard Marks. One is a value investor as
described above, the other a Welsh author and former international drug smuggler that looks
quite a lot like Keith Richards. Try not to confuse them – it could get you into all sorts of trouble.
Share advisor 8

Take-a-break recommendation

Tulip Fever
By Deborah Moggach
Seventeenth-century Amsterdam is a city in the grip of tulip mania. Sophia’s husband Cornelis, an ageing merchant,
has grown rich from this exotic new flower. To celebrate, he commissions a young artist to paint him with his young bride,
which turns out to be not such a great idea. The painter and the young girl take a gamble that propels their lives towards a
thrilling but tragic conclusion.

Module 3:
Investing – It’s all in the mind
Experienced investors will tell you that their greatest mistakes and victories had their genesis in the brain, not the
balance sheet. These books will teach you how to master investing psychology.

Understanding the theory of value investing is all very well; putting it addressing the panoply of psychological biases that orientate our brains
into practice is another issue altogether. Our brains are wired to make towards financial failure.
us feel deeply uncomfortable when we depart from the herd, whether You can learn as much as you like about the process of investing, but without
psychologically or physically. Humans search for safety in numbers butthe courage and psychological wherewithal to buy cheaply when others
you can’t produce above-average returns from doing what everyone are selling, to avoid bubbles when the foolish are making easy money, and
else does. To succeed in investing, you have to depart from the herd. to manage the dominant emotions of fear and greed, it doesn’t amount
The section is all about learning how to do that sensibly, along with to much. So let’s prepare the human brain for the process of investing.

10. Mindset
By Carol Dweck

Analyst Gaurav Sodhi says that Mindset, whilst not about investing per se, is ‘arguably the most impactful book
I’ve read.’ Written by a professor of psychology at Stanford in a style that’s accessible and engaging, the book
is a collection of Dweck’s research and experiments.
She found that people can generally be split into two groups: those with a
‘fixed mindset’, where one believes each individual is born with a particular
ability and intelligence, and a ‘growth mindset’, where these qualities are a reflection of effort and
practice. That’s a simple choice between those that are closed to learning and those that are open
to it, although the separation isn’t quite so clear cut.
Using case studies from Michael Jordan and Lee Iacocca to John McEnroe, Dweck’s practical lessons
on self-improvement and turning adversity into opportunity are vital for any investor that wants to
learn from one of investing’s inevitabilities – failure.
Tip: Dweck hit the headlines in 2007 when she challenged the idea that constantly praising
children wasn’t good for them, which was a huge shock to anyone born after 1990. How not
to talk to your kids explains the argument in detail. Here are the four steps to re-orientate
your mindset to growth and here’s the cheat sheet, via Brain Pickings.
 9 Special report

11. Predictably Irrational

By Dan Ariely

Why do investors tend to underperform the managed funds in which they invest ? Why do we say to ourselves,
‘I’ll sell when the stock gets back to the price I paid for it’? Why does the stock market endlessly seem to
‘bubble and crash’?
Predictably Irrational offers answers to those question, plus a whole lot more. Drawing on behavioural
economics, Ariely’s experiments show us why cautious people make poor decisions about sex when aroused,
why patients get greater relief from a more expensive drug over a cheaper counterpart and why honest people may steal office
supplies or communal food, but not money.
Economics is based on the assumption of human rationality. Ariely makes the point, in many different
ways, that humans are fundamentally irrational. ‘What I do lies between psychology and economics.
I ask questions that economists would ask, but instead of assuming straightaway that people behave
rationally, I just observe how people behave.’
As investing is as much about psychology as it is company analysis, this book will help you improve
how you think about investing and help avert the money traps your brain sets for you. For a different
take on Ariely’s subject matter, Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s business partner, gave a lecture
called The psychology of human misjudgment which you can find here.
Tip: Want to know if you’re in control of your own decisions? Check out Dan Ariely’s TED talk.
If you’re after something more meaty, Dishonesty in Everyday Life and its Policy Implications,
one of Ariely’s (with colleague Nina Mazar) academic papers, is fascinating. And this interview
is a pretty good cheat sheet for the book.

12. How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities

By John Cassidy
Whereas Ariely looks toward the individual for the irrational, Cassidy shows how the agglomeration of individual
irrationality can produce something like the Global Financial Crisis.
The difference between Cassidy’s account and many others is the grace
and st yle of his prose, and the set ting of contex t. As the Roosevelt
Institute explains, ‘Cassidy’s book is sor t of like Economics 101 writ ten
as a New Yorker ar ticle.’ Free from complicated graphs and bewitching
terms, Cassidy takes the reader calmly through a stor y about ‘how markets work and fail
using key personalities and illustrative examples.’
If you really want to do well in the sharemarket, you need to be able to spot market failure and have
the courage to act when you find it. Cassidy covers the ground in an highly illuminating manner.

Tip: The New York Times review of Cassidy’s book is here and the far shorter Business Week
version is here. For a taste of Cassidy’s writing style, Google has this detailed excerpt.

Take-a-break recommendation

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

By Michael Lewis

Anything by Michael Lewis is worth reading, from Liar’s Poker, his first hand account of being a young trader at Salomon
Brothers, to Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt, a tale on how high frequency traders rip everyone off, one small sliver of a cent
at a time.
But our pick from the Lewis collection is this one, on the oddballs, misfits and pure-bred eccentrics that had the wit to spot the US housing
bubble and the courage to make a killing out of it. If we had to pick one easy-read book on the financial crisis, laden with lessons for value
investors, which all the characters in the book are, in one form or another, this would be it. You won’t be able to put it down.
Share advisor 10

Module 4:
Next steps to investing success
Now you’ve got the basics under your belt, this next selection, including a few investing classics, takes your skills to
the next level.

Congratulations on making it this far. Believe it or not, you’ve now This next section is all about bedding down what you’ve learned and
acquired the insights and skills to become a successful value investor taking things to the next level. Unlike the other sections, feel free to
[The habits, of course, are up to you – Ed]. read these as and when you see fit.

13. The Intelligent Investor

By Benjamin Graham (chapters 8 & 20)

Now you’ve got the basics down, this one really is worth tackling, especially
when you know that Warren Buffett first read it at the age of 19. If you can’t
hack the whole thing, just read chapters eight and 20. They’re widely believed
to be the two most important pieces on value investing ever written and are
not to be missed.
Chapter 8 uses Graham’s Mr. Market analogy to explain the vagaries of stock prices and how they are
a source of advantage for well researched investors, yet the source of distress and poor decisions for
most people. Chapter 20 is what underpins all successful investing – building in a margin of safety
to allow for the inevitable errors you will make in valuing a business.
Tip: Here’s the cheat sheet for the book, with some interesting background and takeaways. Or
better yet, check out our Masterclass on the man himself, Investing lessons from Ben Graham,
father of value investing.

14. Value
By our very own James Carlisle

In our book Value: The Intelligent Investor’s Guide to Finding Hidden Gems on the Sharemarket, James Carlisle
examines value investing from the ground up, starting by explaining what value
is and why shares are a good place to find it.
James then goes on to explain – in simple terms – the inner workings of
company accounts, with the help of Carlo’s Candles, a 15th Century Italian
candlemaker, before returning to the 21st Century to examine what makes for a ‘high-quality’ business
and why it matters. Finally, he shows you how to combine all these strands with a range of simple
valuation tools to find the ‘hidden gems’ referred to in the book’s title.
Tip: Check out Peter Miller’s full review here, and call 1800 620 414 to buy a copy.
 11 Special report

15. The Snowball The Making of an American Capitalist

Or …
By Alice Schroeder By Roger Lowenstein

The Snowball is now the definitive (but very long) biography of Warren Buffett. Written with his permission
and contributions from himself and his family, friends and business colleagues, Schroeder paints a fascinating
picture of Buffett’s world.
Whilst you may not emulate Buffett’s performance, understanding what made the world’s greatest investor
will help you recognise your own strengths and weaknesses. You’ll be a better investor for reading it, as you
will Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein.
This highly readable and far shorter biography cleverly weaves in a lot of technical investing knowledge
and wisdom whilst describing the origins of Buffett’s investing life and the
development of his expertise. If you had to choose one book on Buffett, try
this one to start before attempting Schroeder’s longer but more recent tome.
Tip: Why not start with our Masterclass special report on Buffett, called
Warren Buffett: The Sage of Omaha? In the end though, there’s really no
way around it – you can’t consider yourself a true value investor without
reading at least one of these books. Sorry.

16. You Can Be a Stock Market Genius

By Joel Greenblatt

It’s a cheesy name for sure, but don’t let that put you off. To be enjoyed by
the more seasoned investor, Greenblatt’s other book covers advanced topics
like investing in bankrupt companies, special situations and distressed debt.
And remember The Big Short, which you finished not so long ago? Well, some
of the characters in that book claimed to use this one as a how-to guide to
profit from the financial crisis. That’s quite the recommendation.
Tip: In this interview with Barron’s Greenblatt explains his magic formula for locking in long term
value, whilst this piece in Value Investor Insight covers the recent shift in his investing approach.

17. Value Investing

By James Montier

As well as discussing the academic evidence confirming the success of value investing, Montier’s main
conclusion is that psychology is the key to successful investing. With enough study, anyone can learn how to
read the financials, learn accounting principles, research regulatory impacts,
understand competitive theory, industry dynamics and so on.
But if you let your emotions and mental biases control you, then all that
knowledge is for naught. The book also reaffirms what most value investors intuitively understand –
that a lot of what is called modern portfolio theory is incorrect.
Tip: Montier explains his seven immutable laws of investing, which is a neat summary of all
the common sense rules of value investing. And this interview with Seeking Alpha will give
you more background and insight into his approach.
Share advisor 12

Intelligent Investor Share Advisor

PO Box Q744
Queen Vic. Bldg NSW 1230
T 1800 620 414
F 02 9387 8674
[email protected]
shares.intelligentinvestor.com.au