[AN447]

Warren Buffets letters to shareholders would be a good place to start. Read all of them.

The intelligent investor and securities analysis by Ben Graham are essentially reading albeit abit dry.

I'd also recommend (when looking at equities) that you do lots and lots and lots of research on individual stocks and really get to know them before you take the plunge and fully understand why you've decided to buy.

Also, have an entrance and exit point on all investments. Unless you're going for the 'value investing' strategy buying and holding forever.

[Retailslave]

I'm looking for more applied advice. Your advice seems to have more of that, does Buffets' letters include such things?

Thanks for the entrance/exist point strategy. I am planning to invest for the short term so that should be useful

[zzeroparticle]

Well, I'd say Buffett's letters' strong points are the way it breaks down tough concepts into a language that most people can understand. While I wouldn't say that he dispenses much in the way of investment advice, they make good reading if you're looking for a broad stroke of the US economy (especially the financial sector) as well as the factors that affect his business.

It also helps that his letters tend to be free of the BS that permeates some of the annual reports I've had to read through. When a business he owns isn't doing well, he admits to it without needing to couch behind platitudes.