Homework can be found in the "Recommended Reading" section of our FAQ. I've pasted it at the end of this comment for your convenience.

If there was one book most worth reading I would argue it's Smarter Investing by Tim Hale. It gives you all the basic grounding that you need to know in an easy-to-digest manner.

Another good source for information is www.monevator.com, though the writers are very opinionated and not great fans of people in my profession.

You could potentially seek financial advice, and pay a fixed fee for some recommendations, or even pay Hargreaves Lansdown directly for advice (they offer telephone-based advice for a fee), but at your level of savings the costs may be disproportionally high.

Recommended Reading

Books about investing

Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham

This book was written by the father of "value investing", and the mentor of Warren Buffett, who is widely accepted to be the world's most successful investor.

It was originally published in 1948, but Ben Graham updated it periodically over the years, and it stands as true today as it ever has.

Beating the Street - Peter Lynch

Published in 1994, this is arguably showing its age more than Intelligent Investor. Either way, valuable reading from one of the best managers of money in the past few decades.

Naked Trader - Robbie Burns

Subtitled "How anyone can make money trading shares", this is an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek account of one financial journalist's attempt to quit his job and make £1,000,000 using a short-to-medium term trading strategy. Not very scientific, but an interesting counterpoint to the previous recommendations.

Smarter Investing - Tim Hale

The ultimate counterpoint to attempting to "beat the markets" - after spending 15 years working in active fund manager, Tim Hale concluded that the best outcomes for most investors in most situations would be a simple portfolio of "passive" investments (that is, funds which attempt to track a market, rather than outperform it). This style is favoured by the likes of Monevator, and many of the subscribers here.

Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder letters - Warren Buffett

Not a book, but a series of essays over the years from the world's most successful investor. Makes interesting reading! Notably, the 2014 letter (not published in the above link but published here in abridged form) implies that he now feels most investors would be best served by low-cost trackers.

The Financial Times guide to investing - Glen Arnold

A great starter guide, going from the very basics (why businesses need shareholders) to more in-depth explanations of different types of investment, and step-by-step guides on how to execute trades.

First of all, thanks for sharing. Code & idea implementation sucks, but it might turn into a very interesting discussion! By admitting that your trade idea is far from being unique and brilliant, you make a super important step in learning. This forum needs more posts like that, and I encourage people to provide feedback!

Idea itself is decent, but your code does not implement it:

• You want to holds stocks that are going up, right? Well, imagine a stock above 100ma, 50ma, 20ma, but below 20ma and 10ma. It is just starting to turn down. According to your code, this stock is labeled as a 'rising stock', which is wrong.
  
  
• SMAs are generally not cool. Not cool due to lag of 1/2 of MA period.
  
  
• Think of other ways to implement your idea of gauging "going up stocks". Try to define what is a "stock that is going up".
  
  
• Overbought/oversold part. This part is worse. You heard that "RSI measures overbought/oversold", so you plug it in. You have to define "Overbought/oversold" first, then check if RSI implements your idea of overbought/oversold best, then include it.
  
  
• Since you did not define "overbought / oversold", and check whether RSI is good for it, you decided to throw a couple more indicators on top, just to be sure =) That is a bad idea. Mindlessly introducing more indicators does not improve your strategy, but it does greatly increase overfit.
  
  
• Labeling "Sell / Neutral / Buy " part. It is getting worse =)) How did you decide what thresholds to use for the labels? Why does ma_count and oscCount with a threshold of 0 is the best way to label? You are losing your initial idea!
  Just because 0 looks good, you decide that 0 is the best threshold. You have to do a research here. You'd be surprised by how counter intuitive the result might be, or how super unstable it might be=))
  
  
• Last but not least. Pls count the number of parameters. MAs, RSI, OSC, BBand + thresholds for RSI, OSC + Label thresholds ... I don't want to count, but I am sure it is well above 10 (maybe 15+?). Now even if you test at least 6-7 combinations of your parameters, your parameter space will be 10k+ of possible combinations. And that is just for a simple strategy.
  
  
• With 10k+ combinations on a daily data, I can overfit to a perfect straight line pnl. There is no way with so many degrees of freedom to tell if you overfit or not. Even on a 1min data!
  
  The lesson is: idea first. Define it well. Then try to pick minimal number of indicators (or functions) that implement it. Check for parameter space. If you have too many parameters, discard your idea, since you will not be able to tell if it is making/losing money because it has an edge or just purely by chance!
  
  What is left out of this discussion: cross validation and picking best parameters going forward
  
  Recommended reading:
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Building-Winning-Algorithmic-Trading-Systems/dp/1118778987/
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Statistical-Learning-Prediction-Statistics/dp/0387848576/

That is the best argued opposing point I’ve seen on Reddit to date.

I’m pretty sure it’s actually a valid argument, so Kudos.

This brings us to the definition of Liberty and the question of what we want America to be in a very direct fashion. (It also supports the studies that say that the right has a strong disgust response compared to the left. I’m boring sexually, but I’m not grossed out by people who are LGBT whatever. I’m sad about abortion, but I don’t have an overwhelming feeling of revulsion about it. And I honestly think many people do.)

If you get the time, check this blog post out. It’s just a few hypothetical scenarios that outline the shape of an actual Liberty, supported by the creator of the Zeitgeist of Liberty that was still hanging in the air when America was founded. (Thomas Burke)

The author goes out of his way to offend both the left and the right in his conclusions, and in my opinion, it’s quite a clever frickin’ piece. What would you frame Liberty as instead? I can understand being anti-abortion, but consenting adults’ sexual rights I have issues taking away. And I love God, but I’m no fan of Christian Dominionism in the government.

You might also appreciate The Book of Why. If I understand what you’re implying, it’s that the left has done a successful cultural intervention that has made their views go more viral, kind of a fake it until you make it type deal. This is the math behind interventions and counterfactuals “what ifs”. I do believe the Zeitgeist of gay sex has found purchase, particularly with girls, in the past 10 years (but girls are beautiful, that’s not particularly shocking), but I haven’t found the same to be true of men. Maybe it’s because I’m an ugly dude and nobody wants to hit on me lol. Also, no doubt, women and minorities still want equal rights. And I’m fine with that.

The neat thing about the math of interventions and counterfactuals is we can know, mathematically, what causes what in the near future, and will not be constrained by our weak logic and intuition.

(Another interesting mathy area is IRL (inverse reinforcement learning), which can uncover true motives and rewards. It’s an offshoot of the field of active AI, but can apply to any decision making entity- a rat, a human, a company. I personally believe the GOP party is scamming its constituents pretty hard. Covering greedy corrupt motives with the language of another cause. If that is the case, this is the kind of algorithmic technique that could lay that bare.)

And other elements of the left, culturally, aren’t really that viral. No one loves abortion. I personally find the practice of using it as a first and last measure of birth control to be abhorrent, like wear a condom, get a shot, get an IUD, do something. (pull out!)

But I think making it illegal brings a whole host of evils alongside it, too. And just means the whole thing will go underground, and become more damaging to its survivors.

I’m going to stop there. Sorry for the novel.

Real estate has the benefit of being equity that can yield you a pretty high income and you can shelter your earnings from taxes by incorporating. (Think rental property - the property has value but it also yields rental income) Of all the rags to riches stories out there, most people seem to do it with real estate.

A good portfolio of dividend-bearing stocks is a great source of passive income. Investment earnings are only taxed at 15% so you get to keep most of it but you have to build a large investment (read: hundreds of thousands of dollars) before you'll get returns that you could live on.

I've never considered franchising or other types of business ownership but most millionaires own their own business, so keep that in mind.

I have a feeling you would LOVE Rich Dad, Poor Dad. It doesn't get a lot of love for useful content, but it presents a really good way of looking at money a bit differently that has stuck with me for a long time.

Let me start off by saying your comment made my day, thank you. Also, if I could give some encouragement, it'd be that understanding market sentiment for commodities isn't something that comes naturally to anyone. I spend a lot of time online at night researching - kind of became a hobby. I'd highly recommend getting a Seeking Alpha account and putting gold ETFs on your watchlist to get articles on gold. Read anything that's written by Avi. I've learned an immense amount from him. (I also like Taylor Dart.) What you just said about 'the economy doing great so gold would do bad' is a pretty common mistake. Don't take any "truths" on gold as a certainty. Sometimes it moves inverse the SP500, sometimes it moves inverse the dollar, but not always. It's not a hedge. It crashed alongside the SPX during 2008. It's pretty correlated with the Yen and inflation expectations, but knowing that won't really help you in the long run. Fundamental analysis will only get you so far. People will use news to explain price action after the fact, never before - because it doesn't work.

"Gold moved $10 today because Trump tweeted something mean about China." BS... there's always news going on. You can know everything about global economies and still not be a successful gold trader. But basic technical analysis and market sentiment will get you pretty far. I look at the CFTC report (https://www.investing.com/economic-calendar/cftc-gold-speculative-positions-1618) for a reference on how people are positioned. See how in August gold was at one of the highest net long positions ever? Red flag.

As for technical analysis, I watch plenty of YouTube chartists. If you want to think like a technician, you have to listen to them. Lastly, I love this book (https://www.amazon.com/Charting-Technical-Analysis-Fred-Mcallen/dp/1456468693/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1483683042&sr=8-3&keywords=technical+analysis+of+the+financial+markets) too. It's not dry at all, and was a great starting point. Happy trading.

Do you mind a quick story?

I was a triple finance major. My university offered a series of courses that allowed me to get degrees in corporate financial management, commercial bank management, and investment science & portfolio management. They taught me that "if you crunch all the numbers, you can definitely get the 'right' answer for what a stock is worth."

I served as the president of the investment club for 2 years - we had $500k in real money and we had beat the S&P by over 2% every year since the fund started.

Here's the BIG part they missed (so much for a finance degree I guess).

Timing... is... everything.

I had bought NuSkin enterprises personally sometime early in the year. I think I roughly doubled my money and figured it was a good stock, so it should be bought. Not having been taught that timing matters, I recommended it to the investment club. Needless to say, it was NOT a good buy... at least, not at that price.

The club lost a little money on it but I learned a valuable lesson. Timing matters.

My friend went to Chicago to be a technical trader and I became a financial advisor. Eventually I learned that 'trading' was not a sin, even though it was taboo in school. Buy a good stock at a bad price - bad trade. Buy a terrible stock at a bargain - moolah!

I think it's great that you're trying to get a foundation for investing, but keep in mind that investing IS really about timing. Sure, you can crunch the numbers, but if you can't look at a chart and say "it's not a good time to buy" then it's all meaningless.

Try THIS BOOK or find something like it. It's important to be able to read price charts and not just to crunch numbers. In fact, if you get good enough at reading the charts you won't need the numbers. Other people can calculate them and leave their footprints in the price charts for you to follow.

Then, of course, pick the book that interests you the most in your series. Then the one that interests you 2nd most. If you get bored with one, put it on a shelf and come back later.

There is no truth in those books, only stories - you make the truth in your own mind based on what you will perceive reading them.

Best of luck.

I have a pretty comprehensive list of value investing books, articles, blogs, and podcasts on my blog. Haven't updated the book list in a while, but probably enough to get you going.

I'd also strongly recommend Stephen Penman's Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation. I think it's FAR superior to the Damodaran stuff, but to each his own.

I also find VIC, Berkshire & Fairfax, and fund shareholder letters to be great resources as well for learning how professionals approach valuing a company. Here's a bunch that I've saved over the year.

It actually does use indicators, and those indicators predict trends.

Mathematical models: I have only studied indicators. In the beginning of my project, I tried to create my own indicators using parametric equations, but it wasn't working. I couldn't get the algorithms to produce results better than random backtests. So I moved from that into real indicators.

Books:
The Ultimate Day Trader
It was the most helpful when I was getting started and learning about indicators. It taught me how trading was done, and it introduced the typical algorithmic trading like MACD crossovers, bullish convergence/divergence. It may be too much for beginners. As a warning, reviewers on Amazon don't think highly of the book.

I had to learn a lot on my own through trial and error and the occasional google search, so I The Ultimate Day Trader is the only book that I fully read.

Building Winning Algorithmic Trading Systems
Gives a lot of good information in getting good backtest results, and the steps an algorithm should have to pass in order to be traded with.

Algorithmic trading: Winning strategies and their rationale.
Currently reading this, and it starts off basic, like most books. It talks about look-ahead biases and that sort of stuff. It also talks about the different backtesting software and programming languages. I'm only on page 40/200, and it looks like it gets more complex.

I also have a few books on options, but those don't have to do with algorithmic trading.

> I am fairly ignorant on the different options available to me as far as investing goes, but that's what investment companies are for, isn't it?

Absolutely. We have a financial advisor that keeps a close eye on our money, and he's more than earned his pay. But I think it important to educate yourself enough to develop a functional BS detector. Otherwise, you won't know what to expect in different market conditions and will have a tough time picking an advisor.

We got in with our guy nearly ten years ago because he maintained the value of his clients' portfolios in the dot-com crash while still delivering good returns during market upswings.

I'd recommend interviewing a couple of advisors before picking one. Don't be shy to ask how they get paid. Many of them get commissions based on selling particular financial products. Get up and leave as soon as you hear that. Others are limited to selling a particular set of products. That would also make me nervous. Part of the reason we picked our guy is that he takes a flat commission off the value of our portfolio (originally 1%/year, now around 0.75%) and can get us into all manner of financial products including options, commodities, etc. We primarily hold mutual funds and individual stocks, though.

> but if people who are making moves on Wall Street do what they have done recently, there is no guarantee that my retirement fund will have any value by the time I'm ready to draw on it. My dad has been investing in his retirement for decades, and in the last two years, it lost $50k in value.

There's no sure thing. You have to do something with your money and realize that holding cash has its own set of risks, particularly now that we have a madman with printing press in charge of our central bank.

FWIIW, our portfolio value dipped in 2008/2009, but we were fully recovered in value by mid 2009. We recognized the housing bubble for what it was and stayed out of that sector. My parents were blindly turning over their money to a manager who had them heavily invested in Fannie and Freddie. They lost a couple hundred large in the 2008 crash, and it's not coming back.

> Do you have any advice on where to start learning without having to spend every hour after work piddling with it?

Four of my favorites include One Up on Wall Street, Fail-Safe Investing, The Black Swan, and How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes. The first book talks about picking individual stocks (gave me the confidence to load up on AAPL back when it was trading under $100/share), the second about structuring a portfolio for growth while still playing defense, the third about common fallacies and hubris, and the last about what drives an economy (particularly useful for recognizing bubbles).

Is this at all helpful?

Pyramid scheme recruiters know who to target: anyone who's young, naive, or struggling with money. I know at this point that's pretty much an entire generation's worth of people in Vancouver, but don't underestimate the power of desperation.

Here's a quick cheat sheet to figure out if the new person you just met is a pyramid scheme/MLM recruiter:

• They may call themselves a life coach instead of a mentor. Or if they're really delusional, claim to be entrepreneurs/business owners and decline to be specific.
  
  
• They really believe in dressing for success, so regardless of situation, the most ambitious scammers are always perfectly groomed and wearing something more suitable for a night at a high class lounge. Men will be in flashy suits and wingtips, while women will be in cocktail dresses and heels. Of course, not all of them dress like this -- it can also range from smart casual to business casual. If you're a new immigrant to the country and a very nice, "rich-looking" white guy offered to share the secrets of wealth with you, are you going to turn him down?
  
  
• They often work in pairs -- dating/engaged/married couples. It projects a more trustworthy image to their target. They'll share their personal histories (where they're from, how they met each other, etc.)
  
  
• If you do go for coffee with them, they'll greet you with a hug (and you'll get another one at the end of the meeting before you leave.) I know it's weird to point out, but every pyramid scheme meeting I've ever spectated/eavesdropped on does this for some reason. A cheap method of building rapport, I suppose. It creeps me out because it just oozes fakeness.
  
  
• They'll ask if you've ever read any of Robert Kiyosaki's books, specifically Rich Dad, Poor Dad and The Business of the 21st Century. If not, they'll generously offer to lend you a copy. The Go-Giver and Pro-Sumer Power are also books they try to peddle, but definitely not as much as the first two. Basically any motivational/self-help/finance book or audio tape they suggest is a red flag.
  
  
• They'll never say the name of the scam company they work for in the first meeting. They realize the stigma attached to "Amway", "Primerica", "Herbalife", "World Financial Group", or "ACN". They want to hook you on first. It'll be much easier to convince you that all the bad things you hear or read about online about Amway are lies if you've chosen to drink the kool-aid on your own free will.
  
  
• They'll try to impress and talk about flying off to attend conferences in pseudo-exotic places. My cousin's an audio tech and he gets hired to work a shit ton of MLM events at hotels in Vancouver.
  
  But seriously, when in doubt, just use google.

No offense taken, although I am not sure communication went across on this one. I don't expect a return on commodities. They're volatile, but 50 years down the road, like most currencies, I'd expect them to retain some value. How much is uncertain, and it's not going to be the part of my portfolio that I expect to grow steadily.

Diversifying with indexes sounds like a good idea to compensate for the fact that I am best suited to evaluate a tech company's capabilities, and not so much other domains.

I'm just disappointed that you would tell me to stop researching and instead leaving me with the simplest of options when I want to put in the effort to learn the underlying concepts and mechanics of the markets and start doing sensible investments. I learnt my current profession by myself, reading books and creating my own projects, and it just happens that I'm now dabbling in finance, and if I happen to start liking it in the end as much as I like it now, it will surely end up more than just a side learning experiment.

If I'm not ready to invest, as you seem to mean, I won't do it right away. But some day, I will do it.\

NB: I'm currently reading this: http://www.amazon.com/Investments-Zvi-Bodie/dp/0073530700/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398779011&sr=1-1&keywords=investments+9th

Should you know other academical (i.e. not opinion pieces at this time of my learning, cause everyone's got one) books that may help me, I'd be happy to know about them.

I like Kevin Davey's book = https://www.amazon.com/Building-Winning-Algorithmic-Trading-Systems/dp/1118778987/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Kevin+davey&qid=1558288403&s=gateway&sr=8-1

​

Don't really know your level, but what I like about his book is that he is honest and shares an actual trading strategy of his. Lots of good advice in there about the process he follows.

We've all seen those backtests that promise super high compound annual growth, the trick is getting that kind of result on a market that your algo hasn't seen before. Out of sample validation is key.

• The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham
  
  
• Security Analysis - Benjamin Graham
  
  
• The Interpretation of Financial Statements - Benjamin Graham
  
  
• Financial Shenanigans: How to Detect Accounting Gimmicks & Fraud in Financial Reports - Howard Schilit
  
  
• Applied Value Investing - Joseph Calandro
  
  
• Analysis for Financial Management - Robert Higgins
  
  
• Margin of Safety - Seth Klarman
  
  
• Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings - Philip Fisher
  
  
• One Up On Wall Street - Peter Lynch
  
  
• Beating The Street - Peter Lynch
  
  
• The Essays of Warren Buffett - Warren Buffett
  
  
• Snowball: Warren Buffett and The Business of Life - Alice Schroeder
  
  
• Buffett Beyond Value - Prem Jain
  
  
• Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond - Bruce Greenwald
  
  
• You Can Be A Stock Market Genius - Joel Greenblatt
  
  
• The Little Book That Beats The Market - Joel Greenblatt
  
  
• The Big Secret for the Small Investor: A New Route to Long-Term Investment Success - Joel Greenblatt
  
  
• Reminiscences of a Stock Operator - Edwin Leferve
  
  
• Fooled By Randomness - Nassim Taleb
  
  
• The Black Swan - Nassim Taleb
  
  
• Poor Charlie's Almanack - Charlie Munger
  
  
• Rediscovered Benjamin Graham - Janet Lowe
  
  
• The Theory of Investment Value - John Burr Williams
  
  
• Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger - Peter Bevelin
  
  
• Security Analysis and Business Valuation on Wall Street - Jeffrey Hooke
  
  
• Value Investing: Tools and Techniques for Intelligent Investment - James Montier
  
  
• Investment Valuation: Tools and Techniques for Determining the Value of Any Asset - Aswath Damodaran
  
  
• The Dark Side of Valuation - Aswath Damodaran
  
  
• Financial Statements: A Step-by-Step Guide to Understanding and Creating Financial Reports - Thomas Ittelson
  
  
• Buyout - Rick Rickertsen
  
  
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion - Robert Cialdini
  
  
• Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes: Lessons from the New Science of Behavioral Economics - Gary Belsky
  
  
• The Warren Buffett Way - Robert Hagstrom
  
  
• The Most Important Thing - Howard Marks
  
  
• Competition Demystified - Bruce Greenwald
  
  
• Accounting For Value - Stephen Penman
  
  
• Distressed Debt Analysis - Stephen Moyer
  
  
• Bankruptcy Investing - Ben Branch
  
  
• The Vulture Investors - Hilary Rosenberg
  
  
• Creating Value Through Corporate Restructuring - Stuart Gilson
  
  
• Distress Investing - Martin J Whitman
  
  
• The Aggressive Conservative Investor - Martin J Whitman

Hey, we graduated at the same time! As long as you keep paying extra towards your high-interest loans first, you will pay them off quickly. One thing that will allow you to pay off your loans even faster is to change your repayment plan to 25 years instead of the standard 10.

This sounds counterproductive, but what this will do is dramatically reduce your minimum monthly payment. I did this and my monthly payment went from $500 to $260. However, I still pay the full $500 (plus some). Now, I am able to force $240 of the original $500
minimum payment to my loans with the highest interest rates.

This only works on federal loans because the interest rate will not change. Call your loan servicer and ask about a 25 year FIXED repayment plan. They will try to get you on an income-driven repayment plan, but don't do this as your payments will change as your income does. You want the 25-year fixed payment. I had a friend that tried this, but for some reason, his loan servicer would not let him do it. I think that your income and debt balance have some influence on whether or not you can get on the 25-year plan.


Another thing that you can do to retain more of your income is to rework your car insurance. You are on the right track by not paying it monthly. This saves you some premium as you pay for it all at once. To get the cheapest rates, you should buy a policy that lasts a full year (not 6 months because your rates can increase 2 times per year as opposed to 1). You should also get a $1,000 deductible. Most people have $500 deductibles. If you get a $1,000 deductible, you get put in a lower risk pool and will have a lower premium to pay. Just be sure that your emergency fund could take a $1,000 hit instead of a $500 one if you get in a wreck. Make sure that you also have good coverage like 100/300. Don't ever get the state minimums as this is not enough coverage and you will get sued to cover everything your insurance fails to pay if you are in an accident.

Another thing that you should do is read these 3 books. It sounds like your debt is under control and you are already familiar with Dave Ramsey (you are ignoring his snowball method for the much much much much much better avalanche method). So your debt is under control and will be paid off in a few years. What happens then? You should read these three books now, so you can set up your future today:

"The index card" by Harold Pollack.

This book tells you everything you need to know about personal finance. It is very simple and you will be ahead of the curve if you read this.

https://www.amazon.com/Index-Card-Personal-Finance-Complicated/dp/0143130528/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1536937178&sr=8-2&keywords=the+index+card

The second book you should read is "Unshakeable" by Tony Robbins. This book covers some of the same stuff in "the index card", but it goes into more depth about how to invest in index funds for taxable accounts, 401k, Roths, and other IRAs. This book can show you how to minimize your fees and help keep your risks manageable. It is a great book for learning how to invest for the long haul (it's not a get rich quick scheme).

Honestly, depending on what your interest rates are on your student loans, you should probably start investing some of your money rather than just paying off loans. Sure it will take you longer to pay off loans, but why pay off a loan today that has a 2-3% interest rate when you could buy into an index fund that will pay you 10% on average? I would aggressively pay down the high-interest stuff (anything above 4%) as fast as possible. Once that is paid off, I would shift some of the money to invest. I would still pay more than the minimum on the remaining loans. Doing this will allow you to take advantage of compounding interest and your net worth will be higher when your loans are paid off. This is where you should stop listening to Dave Ramsey. Ramsey's goal is to get you out of debt as quick as possible. His goal is not to increase your net worth as much as possible. Once you get all your student loans above 4% paid off, your student debt is manageable and will be close to the traditional inflation rate. As long as you keep paying the current minimums, it will be gone by 2025 (sooner if you pay a little extra). But your net worth could be significantly higher if you take a few hundred dollars a month and invest it.

https://www.amazon.com/Unshakeable-Your-Financial-Freedom-Playbook/dp/1501164589/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1536937326&sr=1-2&keywords=unshakeable+tony+robbins

The third book you should read is "Your money or your life" by Vicki robbin. This book is crazy and has a cult-like following on places like the financial independence subreddit. This book shows you how to become financially independent. It has a foundation based on the mindset that "if you always want more, you will never have enough." This book shows you how to make a plan to retire as soon as humanly possible based upon your age, income, and fixed expenses. I have read it and adopted many of the concepts. I don't necessarily plan on retiring early, but I will be secure and able to retire if shit hits the fan, the option will be up to me and not my employer.

https://www.amazon.com/Your-Money-Life-Transforming-Relationship/dp/0143115766/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1536937840&sr=1-1&keywords=your+money+or+your+life+2018+edition

I hope this helps. Good luck!

I'll give you some books to use as a starting point. You want to start out as generally as possible and then follow what interests you. Someone can give you a list of top books, but if they don't fascinate you enough to really dig in deep and reflect on them to sate your own curiosity, you'll just be scratching the surface. I don't care what it is, you can make money anywhere in the markets. So starting generally will help you find out what direction to go.

So, that said, these are the ones I'd recommend starting out with
https://www.amazon.com/Market-Wizards-Updated-Interviews-Traders/dp/1118273052
https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Edwin-Lef%C3%A8vre/dp/0471770884
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1400063515/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0684840073/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0809045990/

Some less conventional ones I really liked
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578645018/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1422121038/

Chaos theory describes some properties that pop up again and again in markets. I really liked this one.
https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Simplicity-Bringing-Order-Complexity/dp/140006256X

I also highly recommend finding a few good books on behavioral investing, just to get acquainted with the common mistakes investors make (how you can avoid them, and how you can exploit them). I don't have a lot here because the books I read are outdated and you can find better. So one example:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470067373/

But in general reading about psychology will help you understand the world better, and that's always a good thing.
https://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psychology-Experience-Perennial-Classics/dp/0061339202

Solid list so far. If you're going to the real advanced value stuff, these are what I'd consider absolute, must reads:

• Accounting for Value by Stephen Penman
  
• Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation by Stephen Penamn
  
• What Works on Wall Street
  
• Quantitative Value
  
• The Manual of Ideas
  
• The Art of Value Investing
  
• It's Earnings That Count
  
• What's Behind the Numbers?
  
  The second Penman book is an actual textbook, but IMO probably the single best valuation book out there. The first one is a summary-of-sorts of the text, but if you have the time and money, definitely get the text.
  
  And as /u/persistencepays posted, the Greenwald, Dreman, and Montier books are all excellent too.

Great, so then you're looking at the following:

Emergency Fund: let's round up to $2000
Retirement: $5500
New Car: $10000 (I'm guessing here)

Which leaves you with $6,500 to consider investing. That's what I'd focus on with your financial advisor. Keep in mind, you generally want to look at investing as a long term play (5 years+) so if you ever feel like you'd need to pull that money out, I'd keep it more liquid and maybe beef up your EF some more. If you're comfortable with not tapping into that money, you can look at crazier things like some of the cryptocurrency stuff floating around (higher risk) or real estate (lower risk). Generally a few good investing resources are Wall Street Survivor (they have a bunch of free online courses), Investopedia (awesome resource for learning about finance) and this book (The Index Card - https://www.amazon.com/Index-Card-Personal-Finance-Complicated/dp/0143130528/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498149260&sr=8-1&keywords=the+index+card).

A good way to look at volume is like pressure. Higher volume = higher pressure. Imagine it like pressure in a pipe. Thus if there the price is increasing, on high volume, the momentum is strong, and it takes a lot of pressure to reverse that momentum - and vice versa (price decreasing on increasing volume, you'll often see the floor drop out).

Note that virtually all modern-day trading indicators are based off price and volume. Back in the day (pre-1950's), price and volume were the primary thing traders looked at (in the absence of the 100's of different trading indicators used today).

If you want to learn more about volume and technical analysis, here are one of the best books on the subject:
https://www.amazon.com/Technical-Analysis-Financial-Markets-Comprehensive/dp/0735200661/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479917231&sr=8-1&keywords=technical+analysis


This is also an awesome book, talking about how a trader in ~1950's used pretty much only price and volume to know what to invest in, an enjoyable read too I'd say (I just noticed the kindle edition is only $1, you should definitely check this book out):
https://www.amazon.com/How-Made-000-Stock-Market/dp/1614271690/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479917478&sr=8-1&keywords=how+i+made+2+million+dollars

The best resource for learning the way he thinks is to read his annual letters to shareholders.

They are available all the way back to 1977 - Here

You can also read the series of books by Mary Buffett (His ex-daughter-in-law). She has some good insights on his methods. - Here

His right hand man, Charlie Muger, also has some good insights in his book - Poor Charlie's Almanack

I don't think simply reading these resources will make you a billionaire though. The long term value approach is as much a test of character as it is about knowledge.

Happy reading!

At risk of oversimplifying, given sufficient high-quality data, correlation implies causation SOMEWHERE.

But correlation by itself doesn't tell you the direction of causation, or even if one variable causes the other. Running the A.C. may be correlated to buying ice cream but one may not cause the other, they may both be caused by e.g. hot weather.

Correlation is necessary, but not sufficient. You also need a good theory and a good experimental design to test the theory.

So, do a random controlled trial, give half the subjects an intervention and observe the results. Since the only thing that determined the group assignment is chance, and the only difference between groups is the intervention, one can reasonably say that any statistically significant difference is due to the intervention.

All other causal paths are severed by the random selection, so the intervention must be the cause. As Sherlock Holmes says, once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.

You may find the intervention of running the A.C. causes a reduction in consumption of ice cream despite positive correlation. (Simpson's paradox https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fb/Simpsons_paradox_-_animation.gif/440px-Simpsons_paradox_-_animation.gif)

In many cases, like smoking, you cannot randomly assign people to groups, tell one group to smoke, and follow them for 30 years. But if you can theoretically derive all the plausible causal paths and control for them with a good experimental design, you can empirically test causality.

May I recommend "The Book of Why" by Judea Pearl? https://www.amazon.com/Book-Why-Science-Cause-Effect/dp/046509760X

From the sounds of it you have no idea what to do with the money, and have no existing savings or investment plans.

This is not intended as a criticism of you, as I reached my 40's myself with just about no plan.

However, what it means is that this £80,000 is like an immediate thing, and it should be only a component of your longterm savings and investment plans.

I.E. you need to sort out your longterm savings and investment plans first, and only then fit the £80,000 in the appropriate slot(s).

IMO you should put the £80,000 in the bank for the next 12 months. Figure o building a plan by the end of the tax year - be prepared, say, to put it all into action in March 2018.

Use www.bankaccountsavings.co.uk to maximise the interest on your savings for the next 11 or 12 months.

I think the first books you should read are Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Your Money or Your Life. IMO you and your gf should each read one of these books in the next fortnight or month, then swap and read the other. Some people get a lot out of these books, others not so much - read the criticism of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, too, but hopefully within the next 3 months or so you should be able to build an idea of your financial goals. Generally financial goals should support life goals, but it's ok to have financial goals that support open-ended life goals. Might be worth taking a look at Martin Bamford's Money Tree and Martin Lewis' Money Diet (I haven't read them, but one of the sub's mods put them in the sub's wiki, he's a financial advisor and I trust him) then dig into Tim Hale's Smarter Investing.

Read this sub everyday and ask questions about anything you don't understand.

On What to Read


Here are some suggestions on books and websites:


The Millionaire Next Door by Stanley and Danko - https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Next-Door-Surprising-Americas/dp/1589795474


If You Can by William Bernstein - http://efficientfrontier.com/ef/0adhoc/2books.htm


Free version is here - https://www.dropbox.com/s/5tj8480ji58j00f/If%20You%20Can.pdf?dl=0


The Investor's Manifesto. Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon, and Everything in Between by William Bernstein - https://www.amazon.com/Investors-Manifesto-Prosperity-Armageddon-Everything/dp/1118073762


The Bogleheads Guide to Investing - https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Investing-Taylor-Larimore/dp/1118921283


The Coffeehouse Investor - https://www.amazon.com/Coffeehouse-Investor-Wealth-Ignore-Street/dp/0976585707


The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning - https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Retirement-Planning/dp/0470455578


The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio by William Bernstein - https://www.amazon.com/Four-Pillars-Investing-Building-Portfolio/dp/0071747052/


Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey - https://www.amazon.com/Total-Money-Makeover-Classic-Financial/dp/1595555277


Personal Finance for Dummies by Eric Tyson - https://www.amazon.com/Personal-Finance-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/1118117859


Investing for Dummies by Eric Tyson - https://www.amazon.com/Investing-Dummies-Eric-Tyson/dp/1119320690/


The Millionaire Real Estate Investor per red-sfplus’s post (can confirm this is excellent) - https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Real-Estate-Investor/dp/0071446370/


For all the M.Ds on here and HNW individuals, you might want to check out https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/ and his blog – found it to be very useful.


https://www.irs.gov/ or your government’s tax page. If you’ve been reading, you know that millionaires know more than your average bear about the tax code.


https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/comments/7vohb3/money/


https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRedPill/comments/3hzcvn/financial_advice_from_a_financier/


https://www.artofmanliness.com/2017/09/22/4-money-tips-4-personal-finance-legends/


Personal Finance Flowchart from their wiki - https://i.imgur.com/lSoUQr2.png


Additional Lists of Books:


https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Books:_recommendations_and_reviews


https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/books-4/


Subreddits


https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/


https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/ - I would highly encourage you to spend a half hour browsing their wiki - https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index and investing advice - https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/investing


https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/


https://www.reddit.com/r/SecurityAnalysis/


https://www.reddit.com/r/finance/


https://www.reddit.com/r/portfolios/


https://www.reddit.com/r/Bogleheads/


MRP References


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/40whjy/finally_talked_to_my_wife_about_our_finances_it/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/67nxdu/finances_with_a_sahm/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/488pa0/60_dod_week_6_finances/ (original)


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/6a6712/60_dod_week_6_finances/ (year 2)


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/3xw015/how_to_prepare_for_a_talk_about_finances/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/30z704/taking_back_the_finances/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/2uzukg/married_redpill_finances_and_money/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/3637q5/some_thoughts_on_mrp_and_finances/


https://www.reddit.com/r/askMRP/comments/8dwaqt/best_practices_for_finances_within_marriage/


https://www.reddit.com/r/marriedredpill/comments/588e5o/gain_control_of_the_treasury/


Final Thoughts


There are already a lot of high net worth individuals on these subs (if you don’t believe me, look at the OYS for the past few months). This should be a review for most folks. The key points stay the same – have a plan, get out of the hole you are in, have a budget, do the right moves for wealth accumulation. Lead your family in your finances. Own it.


What are YOU doing to own your finances? Give some examples below.

This book is a pretty good place to start. I also like A Random Walk Down Wall Street which is a little less dry. For equities algo trading Flash boys is a good read too.

Also networking is important if you want to make your way into the industry as it's very competitive. It gives tou opportunity to soak up knowledge and advice like a sponge.

I was recommended this book since charting/technical analysis is one of the most trustworthy ways of determining what a stock is going to do next. Other than that, I just went out and bought a couple of "investing for beginners" kind of books.

A good brokerage to start with is an app called Robinhood, which is free of brokerage fees (the fees most places charge for buying and selling stock), and they offer a couple of free day trades per week, if that's something you want to do. Very intuitive app that does a lot of what you want it to. Other than that, Google is your best friend, but invest off your own research and start with safe investments like ETFs while you read up.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely understand you are young and need guidance. I was 17 when I started investing as well.

I can give stock recommendations all day but I can give you two really good pieces of advice right now.

1: Read. Read everything you can. The Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham is the bible of value investing. Warren Buffet himself said that this was the best book on value investing he's read. Read this book. Also, read Rich Dad Poor Dad This was the single most influential piece of literature I've ever read.

2: Be extremely careful who you take advice from. Just because people are older doesn't make them smarter. You want to find people who have exactly what you want for yourself. These people are worth taking advice from. The average person is an idiot, and they all think they know the right way, and yet they all are slaving away at jobs they hate that "don't pay them enough". This could even be your parents or friends. It may be hard to reject their advice. They may not even realize that they don't know what they are doing. Again, you want to learn from people who have exactly what you want.

Goodluck!

If you want to learn more of the stress free trading, look for this book, I always recommend it to anyone. It's a fun, easy and relax way of trading. The guy who wrote that book is a dancer who made millions on stock market while doing the thing he love the most.

Props for mentioning the Permanent Portfolio, but a) where's the cash?, and b) not enough gold.

There are a lot of very smart investors out there who think that gold still has a long way to go. I can wholeheartedly recommend the Permanent Portfolio to anyone and present it as a very stable portfolio, but on some level I expect the 25% gold to make the difference between rags and riches.

Well, it's good that you're starting young and have cash to invest. I would suggest looking at a variety of investing opportunities to diversify and to study it as much as you can.

Here are some great books that could help you along the way:

- The Book on Rental Property Investing: How to Create Wealth and Passive Income Through Smart Buy & Hold Real Estate Investing

- How to Invest in Real Estate: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Getting Started

And for concise, step-by-step information on the basics of real estate investing, I would recommend this short but helpful guide.

​

I started with this book and it's helped a lot--> https://www.amazon.com/Index-Card-Personal-Finance-Complicated/dp/0143130528/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=personal+finance+index+card&qid=1565197060&s=gateway&sr=8-1

It simplifies everything for you. Made me realize I don't need an FA, but if you do need one there are resources in the book to help make sure you choose someone who will actually help you and act in your financial interests. Not all financial advisers do that, nor are they required to.

Also I saw one of your other comments about the house issue -- if you're not making much right now not sure how you would expect to pay off a house that quickly unless I'm misunderstanding your question. Also for side income, a house isn't really a sure thing except in certain circumstances. A huge portion of your investments would become tied up in one asset that could flood, get damaged in a hurricane, etc. Nothing wrong with buying a house for yourselves to live in if that's what you want and can afford it, but sounds like you're getting way ahead of yourself with the decision to buy a house as an investment.

When I was at my best non-neet period, I tried looking into options trading and ignorantly and promptly lost a month's salary. I just simview forex now, and would stay away from options/weekly/binary options in general. I'd also looked at investing as prep for retirement, but of course it's a hard dream and often a joke when one is almost-neet and low income and even for poor wageslavery in general. Just be aware there are a lot of scam ads on news sites, and more often on youtube now for trading and interestingly "flipping houses" is making a comeback. For a good primer on investment, I thought this cheap kindle book was good which was used as a textbook in my online community college intro investment course. (https://www.amazon.com/Investing-101-Essential-Profitable-Portfolio/dp/1440595135/). What I liked about the course and book is that it also covered bonds, municipal bonds, and treasury bills/notes, generally other ways of investing besides just the stock market or at least alternative types of funds for investment. I don't know about crypto, maybe too risky. A few days ago a fund pundit guest on CNBC's "Fast Money" was predicting bitcoin could go higher eventually to 25000 but CNBC is pretty much an after the fact reporting entertainment imo and there are guests with opposing views on it all the time.

My favorite has been The Book On Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner. It's pretty good if you don't know much at all. He shamelessly promote his website every once in a while but I do think it's a pretty good read.

If you're looking for somewhat of a comprehensive textbook, this has quite a bit of information you may be looking for. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0073530700/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1415848966&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40

As other users suggested, you may want to look into basic accounting / financial reporting as well. It puts some of the ratios into perspective and it's pretty essential for someone interested in finance. If you can get your hands on some CFA material, that could help as well.

Wow some people here taking profits with an all time high breakout after nice bullish consolidation + Segwit.

Immediately go to Amazon and buy this book or you won't be a millionaire on this crypto bull market.

https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Commentary-Livermore/dp/0470481595/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501913482&sr=1-3&keywords=Reminiscences+of+a+Stock+Operator

Yes, buy the hard cover cheapo's.

This was my first investing book


https://www.amazon.com/Investing-101-Essential-Profitable-Portfolio/dp/1440595135


Honestly, I hate how every single person when they recommend an investing book to a complete beginner, they forget they’re a complete beginner.



Every book recommended here won’t let you understand practically anything if your an actual 100% beginner. I always recommend the book I listed above, it will literally run you down everything



Economy, stocks(actual explanation of wtf your doing, not overly complicated investing strategy, that while effective don’t help a complete newb in investing) bonds, real estate, crypto etc. each chapter is like 30 pages but the investing one is the longest. It’s a really fun read, 10/10 would recommend

For a 5 year time frame you'd be best with a cash LISA. Skipton are going to be the first to offer it (sometime this month).

http://www.skipton.co.uk/savings/isas/lifetime-isa

For investments look at S&S ISA and/or pension. Invest your money in a global tracker.

Get this book to help you learn more / decide what's best for you: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Results/dp/0273722077

>Things people should be actually be angry or interested in:


>1. News/economic releases being released early to traders


>2. Quote stuffing


>3. Exotic, undocumented order types

I've still got about 100 pages to read in [i]Flash Boys[/i] so maybe they'll be discussed later, but so far I'm surprised by the absence of issues 1 & 3.

I'm with you that early access to news is a different animal than latency arbitrage. The potential consequences are greater and the crowd it preys on is larger and more vulnerable. On a lighter note, it reminded me of the Anne Hathaway crash.

Custom/undocumented order-types are also disturbing, though from my understanding they are more of a problem for the HFT players than regular investors. For anyone interested in learning about custom order-types and the implications, check out the work of Haim Bodek, former HFT trader-turned whistleblower. Bodek was also profiled in Scott Patterson's 2012 book Dark Pools. I highly recommend Dark Pools for anyone interested in HFT - it's a great read and similar writing style to Lewis.

I'm blanking on your second issue though, quote stuffing - could you elaborate? Are you referring to order-canceling?

If you don’t already know the basics of the market (ETFs, bonds, options, order types), I just finished reading this book and it is an easy read that covers all the basics.

I think the Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham is a universal recommendation for investing strategy and fundamentals. It’s kind of a hard read because it can be boring as shit some times- which is why I did an audio book instead. Get a free audible trial and they give you one book free. Use it for that and take notes as you listen would be my advice.

Robinhood is probably the best option for new investors. If you sign up for web portal access it gets better. Especially with small initial amounts you don’t want to be eating up your returns with commission fees.

I've been sponsoring a child in (Nepal, India, Peru, Equador as each child grew up at some point) at Save The Children. You learn a lot from the children's/site leader's letters about different cultures and makes it less of a faceless exercise.

I read Andrew Tobias's book, Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need's chapter on Charity in college and it made me decide right then to make charity a part of my investment plan. I have to say it is something I am proud to have done for every 30 years through good times and bad.

Probably start with something like:

• Mathematical Financial Economics
  
  
  
• Trading and Exchanges: Market Microstructure for practioners
  
  
  
• Building Winning Algorithmic Trading Systems
  
  And then you decide whether you are going to focus on one of the two primary trading strategies (mean reversion or momentum) and focus on that one for a bit.
  
  
• Optimal Mean Reversion Trading
  
• Algorithmic Trading: Winning Strategies and their Rationale
  
  And that's assuming you have the programming knowledge to implement a system that can handle this of course - otherwise I'd go start with C# or C++ until further notice.

try [this one] (http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1118073762)

The cover and title are a little over the top but once you get inside its full of good, solid, fairly conservative advice. Lots of really good explanations of investment principles that you don't need to be a math wiz to understand. (although, if you are a numbers person he has enough depth in the footnotes to keep it interesting)

Wow this is a great list - thanks everybody
I want to recommend a book that absolutely changed my life.
'The only investment guide you'll ever need' by Andrew Tobias. I knew little about finance, and this book, which is maybe a hundred fifty pages long, covers everything you need to know. I read it fifteen years ago in an afternoon and last year I retired early (at 50) as a result of following what he recommended. He writes for the layman and updates it regularly. Wish I'd read it at 18. I know you'll probably ignore this post because finance is boring, but do yourself a favour, check out the reviews on amazon and spend a couple of hours reading it.
http://www.amazon.com/Only-Investment-Guide-Youll-Ever/dp/0156029634

Two excellent sources for any beginning uk investor:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Results/dp/0273722077 - an excellent book on investing in the UK. I cannot recommend this enough.

http://monevator.com/ - good guide to starting investing and more detailed points

The wiki is a great place to start, especially the PRIME DIRECTIVE.



This book is a nice short read that explains things very well.

> You are unlikely to happen upon an investment strategy by sheer luck as effective as those your advisor would use EVERY DAY.

That's why professionals beat the odds. Oh, that's right. They don't. They frequently lose to dart boards. That's because no one (except Buffett, apparently) can actually beat the market.

What on earth could a financial advisor do with $200K that she couldn't do herself for cheaper? If she sticks it into the S&P500 and leaves it, she's going to beat 95% of the professionals out there. What is an advisor going to do for her, other than charge fees to do what she can do at Vanguard.com for free?

Edit: OP, here are some books to read: 1, 2

Yes, there are unique risks to gold like there are to any asset class, and for bullion in particular it is physical theft. If you own property, having it secretly placed in a fireproof safe somewhere within your house is one way, as is storing another portion of it in a safety deposit box or two. If you have significant holdings, you can also investigate allocated storage( https://www.bullionvault.com/gold-guide/allocated-gold ), either domestic or overseas. There is also the possibility of insuring it directly, but maybe an umbrella policy could cover it. One of the anxieties of this holding is minimizing overhead.

This book has good info: https://www.amazon.com/Permanent-Portfolio-Long-Term-Investment-Strategy/dp/1118288254/

As does this forum (early topics in particular): https://www.gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum/index.php

I like "The Permanent Portfolio: Harry Browne's Long-Term Investment Strategy" by Rowland & Lawson. This is a defensive strategy. Couple of good points: first of all it's light reading (for me anyway). Couple of hundred pages in a fairly big font. It's also pretty practical and supported by a forum with nice people. Furthermore it's a comprehensive strategy which includes the building as well as drawdown phase.

What I don't like is that the authors no longer participate in the forum, and that the strategy involves bonds. Which is great but with the crazy EU bonds situation, it's not easy to set up a European permanent portfolio.

All things considered still definitely a plus though.

https://www.amazon.com/Permanent-Portfolio-Long-Term-Investment-Strategy/dp/1118288254

Check the Permanent Portfolio by Craig Rowland. It will guide you through the most secure investment strategies with historical data and the reasons why they have always outperformed a strategy only focused on stocks or other single investments.

Best of all, once implemented it requires very little work and no brokers need to be involved.

Don't daytrade or even trade at all or you will probably lose it all quickly.

Instead just put it all in Jan 2018 $16 AMD calls and wait.

Then just sit back and go read the book, How I made 2 million in the stock market, while you watch that 50k go to 100k and then 150k.

You get rich by making a few correct, longterm but concentrated bets and I just gave you your first and best.

Please do not pay for anything. All public information is available to you to trade successfully. Before going through any course online, I recommend this book.

https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Commentary-Livermore/dp/0470481595

I also wrote a few bitcoin articles on trading on my blog.

https://www.amazon.com/Charting-Technical-Analysis-Fred-Mcallen/dp/1456468693

Read this book. Go to tradingview.com for free charting. Learn how to trade options (calls and puts). Invest all $1000 into calls on a stock you think will raise OR all $1000 into puts on a stock you think will fall. PROFIT $$$$$

I really like the podcast Death Sex and Money. They have a lot of resources online about beginning to deal with a lot of these issues. For example they just had a two part episode about student loan debt and the different ways people are dealing with them. Here's a link to their back catalog.

I listen to a load of economic and financial podcasts because I find it interesting. There's one book that's been recommended across multiple different ones. Here's an NPR link about the basis for it. It pretty much is that all the best financial advice can fit onto an index card as is pretty simple. Here's the amazon link to the book but you could also probably find it for sale cheap at a used book store or get it from your library.

This is getting on a bit, but still probably the best book you'll find:

The Global Expatriate's Guide to Investing - Andrew Hallam

For what you put into the account, I'd suggest Smarter Investing by Tim Hale.

I have been trading on and off for over 15 years. I found this book in a used book store 2003 and it completely changed the way I traded: How I Made 2 Million Dollars in The Stock Market

I don't tell many people that I trade, but when I do I'm generally asked, "isn't it just gambling?". Well, no, no it is not. If you stick religiously to a stop-loss rule, you will always have enough capital to 'fight another day'.

The concept for successful technical trading is very simple. You are trying to identify perfect setups, which will allow you to buy a stock just as it is starting to rocket upwards. If the setup fails, try to limit your loss as much as possible by selling the minute the stock falls x% below your purchase price.

There are also a gazillion other stock trading "bibles" out there. I would suggest reading as much as possible. However, nothing will force you to learn faster than having money in the market.

As others have noted, with the amount that you are starting with, you will need to move the money to Robinhood to avoid fees.

Good luck.

Retail investors like us, yes even at $10k, are tiny. The tiny amount of shares you sell may be purchased by a much bigger player and sold for a slightly different price within seconds. I wouldn’t worry about it.

A good book about the system and other players: Dark Pools: The Rise of the Machine Traders and the Rigging of the U.S. Stock Market

Not finished with it yet, but so far Judea Pearl’s the Book of Why is really good too. His research and philosophy is extremely unique IMO bec
ause he is a computer scientist by training educated in Machine and deep learning, but a lot of his work has focused on understanding causality. The book discusses why causality is so important and the need for us to solve that problem before we can get computers to pass the Turing Test. IMO extremely relevant to I/Os attempting to blend theory with AI.

https://www.amazon.com/Book-Why-Science-Cause-Effect/dp/046509760X

The 1 comment per hour rule is here

You know whats next

In other news i could really recommend this book , the title is a bit sensationalistic but really good history of algo and electronic trading https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Pools-Machine-Traders-Rigging/dp/0307887189

I would also suggest:

http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1118073762

Word-for-word the same advice, but as an added bonus goes into some basic math and history to back it up!

There's a book by the same name. I thought it was a good read, but I read it out of interest, not so much looking for technical knowledge.

The top one without a doubt is:

https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Commentary-Livermore/dp/0470481595

You'll be happy you read this one.

Thanks.

This book seems to have lots of information on why this portfolio is beneficial. Am still reading it.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Permanent-Portfolio-Long-Term-Investment/dp/1118288254

It mentions exactly what you have stated. It also compares it with the 60/40 portfolio.

Try Fail-Safe Investing by Harry Browne, gives you all the main parts of a safe portfolio. Where to stick your money and most of it will be safe in any economic situation.

Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation is the go to accounting book for valuation.

In consideration of your 3 points, however, I would encourage you to skip the financial narratives (as they are time sinks) and go straight to the investing concepts. Read The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success as a start; then if you feel that's the kind of thing you're looking for, feel free to ask for more recommendations.

As for the intuition behind the methods, you really just have to think a lot about WHY things are the way they are, and not just HOW. Just read widely and keep at it, it's not going to happen overnight but knowledge compounds and you'll eventually get there. The fact that you're even asking this question would make me consider you for an interview if I was in a hiring position.

Highly recommend reading Poor Charlie’s Almanack by Charles Munger. The book has amazing investing and business/life advice that’s worth more than $5000 especially to someone who is 19.


Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger, Expanded Third Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1578645018/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_KqsKDbEA638G9

I would read this book.

Really great advice.

https://www.amazon.com/Permanent-Portfolio-Long-Term-Investment-Strategy/dp/1118288254/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=permanent+portfolio&qid=1567914372&s=gateway&sprefix=permanent+portfolio&sr=8-1

Get your hands on a copy of the Financial Times Guide to Investing. It's a great place to start.

The most commonly recommended one is Smarter Investing well worth the read

this is a really good read:

https://www.amazon.ca/Permanent-Portfolio-Long-Term-Investment-Strategy/dp/1118288254

at a 4% withdrawal rate having 5ish years of expenses in cash/bonds is not a bad plan

Munger also wrote an excellent book.

Also, get a copy of Rich Dad Poor Dad (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rich-Dad-Poor-Robert-Kiyosaki/dp/1612680003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409136346&sr=8-1&keywords=rich+dad+poor+dad) - I wish I'd read this when I was younger, might give you a new perspective...

I just started reading this book, The Book of Why by Judea Pearl.

\> Pearl's work enables us to know not just whether one thing causes another: it lets us explore the world that is and the worlds that could have been. It shows us the essence of human thought and key to artificial intelligence. Anyone who wants to understand either needs The Book of Why.

I first heard about him from a Sam Harris interview. There are a few talks by Pearl on youtube also.

Ultimately the answer is "We don't know. Therefore God exists." LOL. Sorry. Bad joke.

There does seem to be a difference between the quantum level and our macro or "emergent" level where we live and think. At least that is what we experience.

\> I meant a reason as in if it happened in any other way it potentially wouldn't be better than it is right now.

We seem to be constrained by the arrow of time if we are wanting to change the past. Could past events have been different than they were? I don't think so. I think they are what they are (they were what they were). We cannot change them from our position today and we could not have changed them from our position in the past.

I would also add Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki, yes, it's aimed at an American readership but the principals are still the same.

It doesn't teach you to pick stocks or anything specific like that, but for me it was a real eye opener and educated me about having your money work for you, rather than the other way round.

I day trade for a living.

I follow price action trading principles best espoused in this book

Warning: This book is hard to read, but worth every penny.

that was the book i started with. I read that and Stock Market 101. The second book I read was Charting. Now I'm reading The Intelligent investor and a couple Day Trading books

Just pointing out possible mistakes in my opinion. Your 1st buy was in a strong bearish trend, highly unrecommended, you should have shorted there or waited for reversal signs to buy. Your second buy was in a classic old-school shooting star candlestick which indicates trend reversal, in this case from up to down, you should've also shorted. Your third buy was after a classic double top reversal, which is almost always a short.

If you're dead serious about learning technical analysis I highly recommend this book.

Good Trades!

Two good sources:

• Boglehead Investment Philosophy
  
• Smarter Investing

To add to the suggestions from others, check out Judea Pearl's work summarized nicely for a general audience in his recent book:

The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect https://www.amazon.com/dp/046509760X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_lQsEDbX13385S

He also has a textbook that's more technical.

The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner and The Book on Flipping Houses by J Scott have sections on what you're looking for. They are both Bigger Pockets books and their site is full of information, articles and a forum. In short, it's a lot of work and you'll have to look at a lot of properties to find one that is a good deal.

Dark Pools is another good book http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Pools-Machine-Traders-Rigging/dp/0307887189

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0078025311/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1481139916&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=Stephen+penman&dpPl=1&dpID=51qgSXra6oL&ref=plSrch



Good reading.

The Investors Manifesto was referred to me by my college PFIN professor. I was able to read it cover to cover, in plain English, and it definitely helped me understand the basics of investing.

Let him help himself.

For rentals this is a good overview..

https://www.amazon.com/Book-Rental-Property-Investing-Passive-ebook/dp/B018UTI2DO/ref=nodl_

Matter fact, recommend listening to bigger pockets podcasts too

And if you like that: Poor Charlie's Almanac.

Fail-Safe Investing by Harry Browne. Quite possibly the best $11 you'll spend.

The strategy he mentions isn't sexy, but it works. My year-to-date return is 12%; not much, but I'll take it over the S&P 500's -9% over the same period.

> OP needs to seek out a trained financial adviser.

Don't. Financial advisers are mostly just salesmen, and most sell shitty products with high fees. It's impossible to navigate which ones are good and which ones aren't unless you know finance yourself, in which case, you will no longer need a financial adviser and can invest yourself for the lowest fees (use Vanguard for the lowest fees).

It's really not all that complicated to invest if you play the game of diversification and just try to get the average market return. Trying to beat the market is another game (a game which we who are interested in bitcoin are playing) and takes another level of sophistication.

Just read these two books and you'll know all you need to know to invest your own money well for the lowest fees. That is if you're playing the simple diversify-and-get-average-market-return game.

The Investor's Manifesto: Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon, and Everything in Between

A Random Walk down Wall Street: The Time-tested Strategy for Successful Investing

the only investment guide you'll need is one that's floated around (have a copy but haven't gotten around to reading it)

warren buffet's annual letter probably wouldn't hurt either

I saw this recommended yesterday.

Hace 2 dias nomás me bajé y empecé a leer un libro de intro al charting y al TA. Bajé y ojeé otros, pero hasta ahora éste me resultó el más claro.

El tema de acciones, bonos, forex y demás me gusta. Pero por alguna razón el tema crypto me atrae aún más.

Ahora me pregunto seriamente si no me conviene mandar programación a la mierda, porque vengo sufriendo desde hace rato como un condenado para dar siquiera con entrevistas para puestos de trainee/jr... que por supuesto después terminan en la nada.

La verdad me gustaría dedicarme más de lleno a esto y ganar plata en serio. :)

(perdón por los edits)

This list should give you a good start.

“Day Trading with Short-term Price Patterns and Opening Range Breakout” by Tony Crabel

Trader Vic: Methods of a Wall Street Master

You should probably read most of the books in this link.

Evidence Based Technical Analysis

And for the masochists, Reading Price Charts Bar by Bar

I paid the fee and took the insurance class. It was worth the fee to get the class, even though I never sold a nickel of insurance and walked away from them soon after. Their products are expensive and overpriced. I basically decided that I couldn't sell something I wouldn't buy. They had some really crappy biweekly mortgages too.

Read this: http://www.amazon.com/Only-Investment-Guide-Youll-Ever/dp/0156029634 It's not the be-all end-all (and the author is somewhat embarrassed about the title, but his publisher came up with it), but it is a good start. Also read the Millionaire Next Door.

Then go to a low cost broker (tiaa cref, vanguard, schwab), and start a Roth IRA, throw some money into a 401K. If you are married get some term life insurance. Stay out of debt, and save up some money to buy cars with cash and a down payment on a house.

It's a misleading title: http://www.amazon.com/Only-Investment-Guide-Youll-Ever/dp/0156029634/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266369902&sr=8-1

However, it covers a lot of topics, is only $10, and is easy reading.

The Investor's Manifesto by William Bernstein

http://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Commentary-Livermore/dp/0470481595/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394302876&sr=8-1&keywords=stories+of+a+stock+operator

https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Money-4th-ebook/dp/B004EBT7I2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495183064&sr=8-1&keywords=The+truth+about+money

https://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Investor-Definitive-Investing-Essentials/dp/0060555661/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495183176&sr=8-1&keywords=the+intelligent+investor

https://www.amazon.com/Fail-Safe-Investing-Lifelong-Financial-Security/dp/031226321X/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Harry Browne's must read book on investing.

http://www.amazon.com/Charting-Technical-Analysis-Fred-Mcallen/dp/1456468693/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=413yX1E7rvL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&refRID=0QWDYQZ8CB2FYA9V4KSX

How about these books? have you heard anything about them?

http://www.amazon.com/Trading-Systems-Methods-Website-Wiley/dp/1118043561/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1X0Y2BRSS0H1EWVB5HKC

http://www.amazon.com/Building-Winning-Algorithmic-Trading-Systems/dp/1118778987/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=51eM1r6mrRL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR127%2C160_&refRID=0HJDDFQYBW3A4V6WGXXX

Yep

My boss forces every entry-level employee to read The FT Guide to Investment. It goes from the very, very basics (why a company needs shareholders) to in-depth explanations of different types of investment.

I'm guessing you meant to say Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger.

Richard's Almanac is a great read, but not much of a financial guide. Franklin mostly went bankrupt throughout his life.

You should read building algorithmic trading systems by Kevin Davey
There is tons of information on sizing, risk management, risk of ruin of a strategy and how to automated them

https://www.amazon.com/Building-Winning-Algorithmic-Trading-Systems/dp/1118778987/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2MD5SFTI494L&keywords=kevin+davey&qid=1565714567&s=gateway&sprefix=kevin+da%2Caps%2C217&sr=8-2

​

Note: I am not affiliated with Amazon, I don't get commission on the sales :) but it is still a kick a$$ book

Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

Alternatively, one could just read https://www.amazon.com/Index-Card-Personal-Finance-Complicated/dp/0143130528 , and avoid Dave's notoriously bad investment advice (and hopefully his Reddit cult as well!).

Look into Scott Patterson's - Dark Pools: The Rise of the Machine Traders and the Rigging of the U.S. Stock Market.

It talks about the abuses of the make or take system in stock exchanges.