Two Good Books About Money
In the time I've had enough money to invest, the smartest thing to do has been to keep it under my mattress, which is about what I've done. But this is not a good long-term plan.
One of the best books I've seen for individual investors is the latest from David Swensen, who runs the Yale Endowment (and gets very good results). It is called Unconventional Success, and should be required reading in the Ownership Society, especially the second half, which is about the abuses of the mutual fund industry. If you read this book and follow its advice you will do a lot better than most people.
Another book I'm working on now is the hugely entertaining Fortune's Formula, which tells the story of the Kelly betting system. John Kelly was a very smart man at AT&T Bell Labs who (alas) died young, but his formula has attracted the attention of some very bright people. The book not only explains the system, but traces the careers of some of the geniuses, gangsters and investors who have been involved with it.
posted by Anonymous at 7:14 PM
2 Comments:
Having no stake in anything but the (presently upward, thank goodness) curve of the value of my own artwork, I couldn't help notice that the Dow has been between 10k and 11k for a rather long time indeed.
This system seems interesting- and naturally unworkably complex for most individuals to practice properly.
If it really works, of course I can neither do this myself practically - aside from the horse races - and I also can't trust any private firm to do this in such a way I can take full advantage. It seems that only an organization with significant resources can maintain the institutional expertise to manage a complex investment strategy, even one based on a farily straightfoward mathematical principle, and that its own profit motive would tend to prevent it from selling a product based on that system that fully benefits its customers.
And so I call to the winds -isn't there some government agency that can do this for me?
OK, I'll bite.
There was such a government agency, started, I believe in the 1930s. However, the current leadership seeks to sell it off (privatization, as it's called) because it seems to make people lazy.
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