The 5 Best Stock Market Books To Learn How To Invest
The stock market is a confusing thing. Even those who work in the industry can never fully predict what’s going to happen next — but they know a lot more than the rest of us.
Luckily, these experts have also shared their knowledge in books, so the average person can better understand the market. Here are the best stock market books to learn from, whether you’re looking to diversify your portfolio, learn when to buy and sell stocks, or just dipping your toe into the world of investing.
Want to access the powerful ideas in these books faster? The Blinkist app helps 22 million users do exactly that. The app gathers key insights from nonfiction books and shares them as bite-sized explainers.
You can read or listen to these explainers in 15 minutes, and — beyond the stock market — there are more than 5,000 books to explore across 27 categories, including entrepreneurship, management & leadership, and money & investments.
Can you really learn about the stock market from books? Some of the world’s best investors — like Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger — think so.
Here are the 5 best books to get you started in the stock market.
1. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham and Comments by Jason Zweig
The Intelligent Investor
- 21 min reading time
- audio version available
Legendary investor Warren Buffett himself recommends this book, saying it changed the way he looked at the stock market. It was written by Benjamin Graham who kick-started his investing career back in 1914 and survived the financial crash of the 1920s.
The book shares what Graham says makes an intelligent investor. There’s advice on how to diversify your portfolio, when to buy and sell stocks, and how to choose which companies are worth investing in.
One piece of key advice includes:
– Benjamin Graham
2. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing
- 12 min reading time
- audio version available
Want to know the basics behind two common investing options? The Little Book of Common Sense Investing explains the difference between actively managed funds and index funds, and which one you should invest your hard-earned money in.
The book’s author is John C. Bogle, the founder and former CEO of Vanguard, which managed over $7 trillion in assets in 2021. Bogle explains to readers why they should consider safe, low-cost index funds over risky, high-cost actively managed funds.
There’s also advice on which index fund to go for, and how to avoid market trends that all too often turn out to be not worth your time or money.
– John C. Bogle
3. One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch
One Up On Wall Street
- 23 min reading time
- audio version available
Investor and mutual fund manager Peter Lynch shares his stock market wisdom in One Up on Wall Street. Why should you learn from Lynch? He ran Fidelity’s Magellan Fund for 13 years and took it from managing $18 million in assets to $14 billion, making it the most successful mutual fund in the world.
The book isn’t for professionals, though. In fact, it explains why amateur investors actually have an advantage when playing the stock market because they don’t have the same rules and regulations as professionals, and they can take risks with stocks that haven’t proved their profitability yet.
Readers will also learn how to identify fast-growing companies to invest in and what kind of investment returns they should be looking for from their stocks.
4. How to Make Money in Stocks by William J. O’Neil
How to Make Money in Stocks
- 21 min reading time
- audio version available
The title says it all with this book. How to Make Money in Stocks explains how exactly readers can intelligently choose, buy, and sell stocks to maximize their investments and make more money.
You’ll learn skills that’ll help you win in the stock market game, including what patterns to look for when reading stock charts, how to identify profitable companies to buy into, and when exactly the right time is to cut your losses and sell.
One piece of actionable advice from the book? When looking at pricing patterns trying to predict which direction stocks will go in, look for a cup with a handle. This pattern — literally called “cup and handle” — shows a stock with a gradual fall, steady base, and gradual rise (the cup), and then a short drop (the handle).
Once you see this, it’s time to buy. The book says more often than not, the stock’s value is about the shoot up.
5. Warren Buffett’s Ground Rules by Jeremy C. Miller
Warren Buffett's Ground Rules
- 16 min reading time
- audio version available
Who better to learn from than the investing master himself, Warren Buffett. In Warren Buffett’s Ground Rules, Jemermy C. Miller dives into the pearls of wisdom Buffett has shared over the years through letters to partners of the fund he managed for 14 years.
Readers can learn how to predict the right time to buy and sell stocks based on the company, why young investors should buy into undervalued companies, and why obsessively measuring your stock’s performance can help you stay ahead of the game. Don’t have time to measure the market closely? Buffett recommends index funds instead.
– Warren Buffett
A Book Explained in 15 Minutes
There are thousands of other stock market books to hone your investing skills, but only so many hours in the day. Blinkist can help you get more knowledge in less time with its bite-sized explainers.
You’ll get the most important parts of a book — think key ideas, actionable advice, and real-life case studies — in just 15 minutes. Even better? You can read or listen to these explainers, meaning learning can happen on the go, whether that’s while commuting to work, doing chores, or as part of your morning routine.
– Karen Trepte, HuffPost
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The app has also won awards from the likes of Google and the United Nations, and it’s loved by 22 million users who use it to pack more learning into their daily lives.
– The United Nations
