Chapter 4 (from my book)
Investment Books for Fun and Profit
I have read many investment books – some good, some bad, some useful. Like you I was always searching for the ideal investment method that would work on a limited budget. I finally found it in How to Make $1,000,000 in the Stock Market Automatically by Robert Lichello. I instantly realized this was the ideal system. I tried to think of ways to use the system.
This led me to write this book because I felt my ideas could and should benefit as wide an audience as possible. Below are other investment books I recommend for many reasons – knowledge, wisdom, and enjoyment. Starting out I'll recommend a couple of books that quickly explain all investments – alias reference books:
These are the books I recommended approximately 16 years ago and I think they're still good today because they're timeless and been updated. After I've listed all these books from a long time ago, I list some of the latest books I've read that are also excellent.
Successful Investing by the staff of United Business Services
New York Times Complete Guide to Personal Investing by Gary Klott
Here are some other books on investing I enjoyed:
How to Make the Stock Market Make Money for You by Ted Warren
How I Turned $1,000 into a Million in Real Estate in my Spare Time by William Nickerson
All America's Real Estate Book by Carol Janik and Ruth Rejinis
A Treasury of Wall Street Wisdom by Harry Schultz and Sampson Coslow
You only Have to Get Rich Once by Walter Gutman
How I Made $2,000 000 in the Stock Market by Nicholas Darvis
Confessions of a Stockbroker, a Wall Street Diary by Brutus
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre
The Hidden Stock Market (How to Pick $5 Stocks that Can Double in 6 – 12 Months) by Ira V. Cobleigh
Contrary Investing for the 90s, How to Profit by Going Against the Crowd by Richard E. Band
101 Years on Wall Street, an Investor’s Almanac by John Dennis Brown
Beating the Dow by Michael O'Higgins with John Downes
And here are the latest books that I highly recommend, I'm going to walk out to my sunroom and pick them down off the shelf as I save books like a hoarder and I will give you their names and authors:
The Black Swan, the Impact of the HIGHLY IMPROBABLE by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Options for the Stock Investor by James B. Bittman
LEAPs, What They Are and How to Use Them for Profit and Protection by Harrison Roth
Small Stocks Big Profits by Gerald W. Perritt
Investing with Exchange-Traded Funds Made Easy by Marvin Appel
The Match King by Frank Partnoy
Investment Gurus by Peter J. Tanous
The Motley Fool Investment Guide by David and Tom Gardner
Investment Psychology Explained by Martin J. Pring
Contrarian Investing by Anthony M. Gallea & William Patalon III
Winning on Wall Street by Martin Zweig
Where Are the Customer’s Yachts by Fred Schwed, Jr.
Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets by Stan Weinstein
The ETF Book by Richard A. Ferri, CFA
The Panic of 1907 by Robert F. Bruner & Sean D. Carr
Options and Option Trading by Robert W. Ward
Options Trading for the Conservative Investor by Michael C. Thomsett
You Can Be a Stock Market Genius by Joel Greenblatt
Dow Jones-Irwin Guide to Put & Call Options by Henry K. Clasing, Jr.
Four books stand out in my memory as really profound - I list them below with a little commentary:
Wealth without Risk by Charles Givens – an excellent guide for complete financial management that will free up money for investing by giving excellent advice on how to save money and live just as well.
All You Can Do is All You Can Do by A .L. Williams – an excellent "rags to riches" story and blueprint for successful thinking.
Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin – learn to live frugally without decreasing your lifestyle. Shows you how to live on much less and be much happier doing it. Will create a new wonderful lifestyle that will end the rat race of pay raises never keeping up with expenses.
Winning Big with Bargain Stocks by Bill Matthews – this book is mandatory, tells you exactly the type of stocks we want and gives excellent vice on how to pick them.
He also publishes or used to publish a monthly newsletter that was very helpful. Write to or look them up on the Internet:
Bill Matthews, Editor
Matthews and Associates, Incorporated
2549 W. Golf Rd., Suite 350
Hoffman Estates, Illinois 60194
I was born on Friday the 13th a long time ago in a far away galaxy. I went to Catholic grade and high school.
My first published article appeared in the July, 1965 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman magazine for model train hobbyists. I was 17 years old.
I totally confused my parents in New Jersey and went to college at the University of Arizona - had never been further west than Philadelphia. Got a degree in History & Governemnt and started law school. Interrupted by the Nixon lotto when I drafted into the Army in 1970. After two amazing years (in Vol. 2 of my autobiography), I went back to law school. Finished 1 1/2 years of law school (guess I'm a half-assed lawyer) and worked for the City of Tucson in the City Clerk's office. Then weirdly got hired as a Park Ranger out of the blue (also somewhere in the autobiography of 3 volumes.
Then the Park Rangers were disbanded (Jim Ronstadt, Linda's brother needed $250,000 to repair his new wiped out golf course) so I headed to Las Vegas to make my living betting on baseball games (I had a system!) Of that didn't work (see why my autobiography is aptly titled "My Only Crime Was Being Born"?
So I went back to college at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and got a second degree in Accounting.
Since then I have been an auditor with the US Army and now the Air Force written audit reports for over 30 years. I first wrote my book in the 1987 in Seoul, Korea. I have extensively revised and improved my investing book since then. Also I have written my own newsletter showing the best stocks for my book for over 15 years.
I have also written a weekly column for the Talking Points newsletter for over one year entitled Contrarian Corner.