Suggested Books

Here are some of the books and financial materials that I’ve read and either recommend (or advise against):

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“The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing: Morningstar’s Guide to Building Wealth and Winning in the Market” by Pat Dorsey

His bio per Morningstar: Pat Dorsey, CFA, is Director of Equity Research for Morningstar and author of The Little Book that Builds Wealth and The 5 Rules for Successful Stock Investing.

Book URL on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0471686174/ref=cm_sw_su_dp

Overview:

This book is an excellent intro-level handbook for equity investing newbies. The financial analysis segments are a bit too basic for most entry-level investment bankers and research analysts, but his clear explanations of basic equity and financial statement analysis is perfect for the aspiring single stock equity investor. His suggested investing style is pretty much a by-the-numbers Morningstar approach that advises buying shares of companies with competitive economic moats at prices that provide attractive investment returns and acceptable margin of safety (pseudo Warren Buffett style value investing). The book does a good job of explaining what an economic moat is and why it’s important, and lays out some basic rules of thumb that investors can use to identify possible moats. Anyone who’s read their Michael Porter or received their MBA probably won’t find many new ideas on competitive analysis in this book, but the book’s target audience probably doesn’t have that background.