Peter Lynch

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One Up on Wall Street:
Lynch explains how average investors can use their everyday knowledge to spot investment opportunities before Wall Street. He introduces his "invest in what you know" philosophy, teaching readers to leverage personal observations to find promising companies and how to research them properly before investing.

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Beating the Street:
This follow-up provides detailed stock selection strategies with case studies from Lynch's Magellan Fund management. He shares his "twenty golden rules" for investing and emphasizes hands-on research for individual investors, showing how to apply professional techniques to personal portfolios.

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Learn to Earn:
Co-authored with John Rothchild, this beginner-friendly book covers the history of capitalism, stock market basics, and foundational personal finance concepts. It's designed as an entry point for new investors to understand the financial world and build wealth over time.

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Guy Spier

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The Education of a Value Investor:
Spier shares his transformation from a Gordon Gekko wannabe to a thoughtful investor. He details his journey after a famous lunch with Warren Buffett, explaining how he developed his investment strategy and ethical framework. The book focuses on creating the right investment environment, building good decision-making habits, and learning from mistakes.

 

Howard Marks

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The Most Important Thing:
Marks distills investment wisdom into crucial concepts including second-level thinking, market efficiency, value, and risk assessment. Through his famous memos, he explains how successful investing requires understanding market psychology and having the discipline to act against the crowd.

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Mastering the Market Cycle:
This book focuses on how market cycles work and why understanding them is essential for investment success. Marks explains how to recognize cycle patterns, what drives them, and how investors can position themselves accordingly without attempting perfect timing.

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Bull Market Rhymes:
Marks examines historic market cycles and how they repeat with variations, providing a framework for navigating different market environments. He analyzes how investor psychology drives market extremes and offers practical wisdom for maintaining discipline during both bull and bear markets.

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Mohnish Pabrai

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The Dhandho Investor:
Pabrai adapts the business principles of Gujarat immigrants (Dhandho = "endeavors that create wealth") into nine investing principles. He emphasizes a concentrated, low-risk/high-uncertainty approach to value investing, focusing on businesses with simple models and large margins of safety.

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Mosaic: Perspectives on Investing:
A collection of Pabrai's essays on investment philosophy and strategy, focusing on long-term, concentrated value investing. He discusses cloning successful investors' ideas, avoiding common pitfalls, and developing the right temperament for investing success.

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Aswath Damodaran

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Investment Valuation:
A comprehensive guide to valuation methods for virtually any type of asset. Damodaran provides detailed frameworks for discounted cash flow analysis, relative valuation, and contingent claim approaches with practical applications.

 

Damodaran on Valuation:
Focused specifically on security analysis, this book explains how to apply different valuation models to various types of investments. It provides practical tools for determining the value of companies across different industries.

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The Dark Side of Valuation:
Addressing the challenges of valuing difficult-to-value companies like tech firms, startups, and distressed businesses. Damodaran provides modified approaches when traditional metrics don't work well.

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The Little Book of Valuation:
A concise guide making valuation accessible to non-experts. Damodaran simplifies complex concepts while maintaining their integrity, helping investors understand the fundamentals of determining what assets are worth.

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Narrative and Numbers:
Explores how to combine qualitative stories with quantitative analysis in valuation. Damodaran shows how effective valuation requires both compelling narratives about a company's future and the numbers to support that story.

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Charlie Munger

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Poor Charlie's Almanack:
A collection of Munger's speeches and writings compiled by Peter Kaufman. The book presents Munger's multidisciplinary "latticework of mental models" approach to decision-making and his insights on psychology, business, and life. It includes his famous "Psychology of Human Misjudgment" speech and lessons from his long investing career.

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Pat Dorsey

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The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing:
Dorsey, former director of equity research at Morningstar, presents a framework for finding quality companies at reasonable prices. He emphasizes understanding business models, competitive advantages, financial statement analysis, and valuation basics.

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The Little Book That Builds Wealth:
Focuses entirely on economic moats (sustainable competitive advantages). Dorsey explains different types of moats including intangible assets, switching costs, network effects, and cost advantages, helping investors identify businesses that can maintain high returns on capital.

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Ben Graham

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Security Analysis:
Co-authored with David Dodd, this foundational text established the framework for value investing. It teaches investors how to analyze financial statements, assess business quality, and find securities trading below their intrinsic value. Despite being written in the 1930s, its principles remain relevant for fundamental analysis.

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The Intelligent Investor:
Graham's masterpiece for individual investors introduces the concept of "Mr. Market" and "margin of safety." He differentiates between defensive and enterprising investors, emphasizing rational analysis over emotional reactions to market movements. Warren Buffett called it "the best book about investing ever written."

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The Interpretation of Financial Statements:
A straightforward guide to understanding company financial reports. Graham walks through balance sheets, income statements, and financial ratios, teaching investors how to spot red flags and identify true financial strength.

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Phil Fisher

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Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits:
Fisher introduces his growth-oriented investment philosophy based on qualitative factors. He presents his famous "15 Points to Look for in a Common Stock" and "scuttlebutt method" of research—gathering information from customers, suppliers, and competitors. This book influenced Warren Buffett's evolution beyond pure Graham-style value investing.

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Paths to Wealth Through Common Stocks:
Expands on Fisher's investment approach with additional insights on finding exceptional growth companies. He discusses how to identify businesses with sustainable competitive advantages and strong management that can deliver long-term returns.

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Conservative Investors Sleep Well:
Focused on risk management, this book explains how to build a portfolio that provides both appreciation potential and peace of mind. Fisher demonstrates that truly conservative investing doesn't mean avoiding stocks but rather owning the right kinds of companies.

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Developing an Investment Philosophy:
Fisher outlines how investors should create and refine their personal investment frameworks. He emphasizes the importance of continuous learning, adapting to changing market conditions, and maintaining discipline during market volatility.