95 books like Investment Science

Based on scientific arguments, this book shows how strongly incorrect drives are stuck in our brains, causing us to think that we are making a logical decision, while this is not the case.

The best example I tell everybody: Look at your attic that you want to clean out. You empty your cupboards, and almost always, a large part goes back into the cupboard because it is a waste. But if you are offered the same stuff for free, you usually don't want it.

The message of this example: Your brain finds it difficult to get rid of something you have, and it is a non-rational reaction that occurs in our fixed brain.

There is much evidence that individuals often suffer from inertia when it comes to making significant decisions – including investment choices.

This engaging book by Professor Milkman at the Wharton School aims to create a climate in which “change” can be accomplished in an efficient, systematic, and relatively painless way. There are numerous examples of improvements by both individuals and organizations. This highly readable book is a must for anyone interested in creating and sustaining positive change habits, for example, to encourage increased savings and systematic investment policies.

Professor Milkman is one of our successful undergraduate alums and participates on the advisor committee of the ORFE Department at Princeton. She is a terrific teacher and writer. The lessons in this book are most appropriate for investors who are interested in establishing and maintaining sound habits to improve their investment performance.

As a loyal Princeton University alum, Jack Bogle often visited us and participated in discussions at the Bendheim Center for Finance, at our investment workshops, and at reunions, as well as lectures in my and others’ courses at Princeton. Jack had a remarkable ability to take a complicated problem and distill it into simple, intuitive, and understandable terms.

This highly readable book provides several topics worth studying for individuals interested in improving their wealth and risk management activities. It shows Jack’s philosophy and his direct attitude to managing money to minimize costs; it provides an excellent starting point for establishing sound investing steps.  

Ed Thorp is one of the most successful quantitative investors of all time. He proved the advantages of a systematic approach to take advantage of special edges that occur from time to time in markets and even games of chance – such as card counting in Blackjack. 

The underlying strategy is to maximize the expected log of capital – sometimes called the growth optimal or Kelly strategy. This strategy has multiple benefits but can suffer from limitations – as reviewed in this book – including the chances of large drawdown during shorter time periods.

Still, the growth optimal strategy provides an upper bound on pursuing leverage and taking excessive risks, providing a motivation for systematic risk controls and the enduring advantage of long-short strategies such as betting-against-beta.

Buffett is probably not thrilled with this book, written by his ex-daughter-in-law, but I think it provides the best insight into his investment process. Mary Buffett was married to Buffett’s son Peter, and David Clark is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) that skillfully explains some of the more technical aspects of investing. For example, the book discussed how Buffett values a stock. He primarily considers companies with a “moat” so he has confidence in forecasting their cash flows. He then projects these cash flows out at least ten years and discounts them back to the present to estimate their value. He will only buy at a significant discount to this estimated or “intrinsic” value.

This book is a great option for children who want more activity rather than just reading. This book will keep you engaged!

It's another great option to work with your children and spend quality time teaching them how to make better financial decisions so that they are prepared for the world. I really enjoyed completing this book with my little nephew and the joy on his face when he realized how much money he can potentially have in the future is priceless.

Warren Buffett, considered the greatest investor of all time, manages a portfolio worth hundreds of billions of dollars.

However, Swedroe's teachings show that his core investment strategies can be replicated by any investor. In his book, Swedroe offers insights into Buffett's philosophy and practical guidance on building a diversified portfolio, managing risk, and making sound investment decisions.

The book is written in a clear and concise manner, with complex topics simplified, making it a great recommendation for novice investors.

Some people love to make successful investing seem more complicated than it really is. In this anthology of essays and letters written between 2010–20, Terry Smith makes the case for simply buying the best companies in the world. These are businesses that generate large amounts of cash and know what to do with it in the form of sound capital allocation. The result is a powerful compounding of returns for the long term.

This book serves as a good reiteration of the thinking and principles underpinning Smith’s investing approach, including his three-step investment mantra: “Buy good companies. Don’t overpay. Do nothing.” It also highlights the nuances of the process, including why Smith favors return on capital employed (ROCE) and free cash flow (FCF) yield as metrics for assessing companies and why Smith is less enamored of measures such as earnings per share (EPS).

I first encountered Gary Antonacci’s strategy in his paper “Risk Premia Harvesting Through Dual Momentum,” in which he called momentum “the premier market anomaly.” He found that combining absolute and relative momentum delivered optimal results. In this book, he shows how to boost performance with monthly switching among three asset classes in the following decision tree: Did the S&P 500 beat US bonds over the past 12 months? If no, own US bonds. If yes, did the S&P 500 beat global stocks over the past 12 months? If no, own global stocks. If yes, own the S&P 500. Just three funds could power this system: SPY (S&P 500), AGG (US bonds), VEU (global stocks ex US).

Subtitled How to Use Right Brain Instinct & Left Brain Smarts to Become a Master Trader, this book is written by one of the original Turtle Traders and draws on Curtis' experience in developing a whole-brain approach to trading. As such, it is a quantum leap from the run-of-the-mill trading book, and very worthy of some study.

I was privileged to get a review copy which so impressed me that I provided inside and back cover endorsements. I've only done so with a couple of other books, which should show you how greatly I believe in what he is presenting.