Top 10 Books to Read and Movies to Watch for Winning Investing
Is your favorite on the list?
We love this time of year in the Patalon household.
School’s out for Joey …
The hot Maryland summer is here …
We are taking advantage of the gorgeous patio we had built last year (complete with the “sitting wall” Joey insisted we add … and he was right).
My Giant Sequoia trees are rich and green … and my tomatoes, basil and pumpkin plants are all flourishing …
And family vacation time looms …
We love our family trips … to places like San Francisco … Muir Woods … Washington, D.C. … Bar Harbor — or even just to the beaches of Maryland or Delaware.
We play miniature golf … Joey and my wife do 3-D puzzles … we hit the wave pool … we go on walks … catch up on some movies …
And we read.
A lot.
If you want to be a Wealth Builder, you need to read. And the fact that you’re here on Substack tells me you folks are readers … but may also appreciate switching things up from time to time by watching some informative and entertaining videos.
For books and videos, when you Google “best investing books” or “best investing movies,” there’s a list of usual suspects that come up, like the Intelligent Investor for books and The Big Short for movies.
Those are both excellent (they’re team favorites) and deserve a read and a watch, respectively. But we also curated a “resource guide”… a roster of books and movies that aren’t as well known or aren’t as widely associated with becoming a better investor (but should be).
But I’m not just handing you a “10 Things” list … and expecting you to take it from there.
I’m also giving you the critical context for each - so you’ll see how each of these resources can help you become one of those rare “winning investors.”
Without further ado, here’s the list.
No. 1: The Rush: America’s Fevered Quest for Fortune, 1848-1855
Why It’ll Help
Mark Twain (perhaps apocryphally) is credited with saying: “History doesn’t repeat itself … but it often rhymes.” Whether Twain said that or not doesn’t matter – the wisdom is just too good to ignore.
Besides, as we’ve all seen throughout history (and in the markets) that the more things change, the more they stay the same. With the California Gold Rush, lots of folks abandoned their soul-sucking daily routines – in pursuit of adventure and wealth.
Here we are more than 150 years later, and folks are still looking for shortcuts … still chasing the “hot thing” … still willingly joining manias … still hoping for that “lucky strike” that will let them escape their daily drudgery.
We get it. Too many folks are falling behind … with their goals … with their savings … with their bills. That search for a “quick fix” leaves them vulnerable … and this book helps explain why.
If you understand these emotional “triggers” – and how the masses succumb to these manias – you and your money will stay on the right path. And by seeing who really got rich during the gold rush (Hint: Look at the pick and shovel on the front of the book), you’ll better shape your stock-picking decisions and will avoid the wealth-killing moves that manias tend to foster.
No. 2: Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
Why It’ll Help
Be honest: When you hear the term "risk," isn’t your first reaction a negative one? For most folks, “risk” is synonymous with losing money or a stock-market crash. It’s associated with “bet it all on red” roulette, “doubling down” in blackjack, and speculating with options or trading on margin. That’s still another example of folks “filling in the lines” – since “risk,” on its face, isn’t a bad thing.
It’s a way of looking at a particular situation – an investment, a job change, a construction project, a corporate expansion – and assessing the probability of a win vs a loss … understanding the upside and the consequences — and then deciding if the move makes sense.
Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk walks us through the history of risk and shows us how people perceived it throughout the ages.
It’s a historical tour that can help you get a better handle on how you feel about risk. Because, as we all know, some risks are worth taking.
Indeed, as another of those great adages tells us: “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
No. 3: Think and Grow Rich
Why It’ll Help
Wouldn’t it be great if creating a mental image of a Ferrari is all that was needed to walk out the front door and find one (in red) in your driveway?
As we all know, it’s not that simple. Even so, there’s tremendous power in pairing a positive mental focus with the specific goals and the energy needed to create a very real successful “reality” for ourselves.
In other words, if you believe you can become a successful investor, you’re probably right.
Conversely, if you believe you’ll fail as an investor, you probably will.
First published in 1937, author Napoleon Hill draws upon the wisdom of Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison … and more – all to answer the question: “What makes a winner?”
From this Hill weaves a “Law of Success” mindset that will help you achieve what you want through affirmation, visualization and goal setting.
No. 4: Money: The Unauthorized Biography – From Coinage to Cryptocurrency
Why It’ll Help
If we don’t have money, we can’t afford food to eat, a home to live in or a car to take us where we need to go.
As the old adage tells us: “Money makes the world go round.”
And, yet, think back to your school days: Did you learn anything meaningful about money? We’re betting that, beyond a few basics, probably not.
In Money: The Unauthorized Biography – From Coinage to Cryptocurrencies, you’ll gain a concise understanding of how money gets its power. And you learn how to think about money so that it works for you — and not the other way around.
No. 5: Elon Musk
Why It’ll Help
Walter Isaacson’s biography is the closest you’ll get to Elon Musk – for insight into who he is, how he thinks and how he operates.
Musk has created a lot of wealth for investors; some Tesla Inc. TSLA 0.00%↑ shareholders say that they’re “Tesla-naires,” since owning the stock turned them into millionaires.
Love him or hate him, from supercomputers to electric vehicles (EVs) to robots to artificial intelligence (AI) to building X (Twitter) into the ultimate social media and digital payment platform, Musk is shaping the world. Or RE-shaping it.
So, as someone who wants to be a winning investor, you need to know who Musk is (or “know” him as much as possible). And you need to watch his next moves with the eye of an educated and motivated Wealth Builder.
No. 6: Principles
Why It’ll Help
Ray Dalio founded Bridgewater and Associates all the way back in 1975.
Today, as measured by assets, it’s the world’s largest hedge fund – with $124 billion.
For context, that’s larger than the economy of Guatemala. And while you may never score a one-on-one sit-down with Dalio, this book can transform him into a virtual mentor for you.
This book offers great insights on running a team and a business. But one of the real gems here is Dalio’s process for decision-making. After all, when it comes to your investments, one of the most damaging mistakes to make is to buy a stock without fully understanding why you’re doing so.
And everyone who reads this will find at least one nugget that will help you evaluate – or reevaluate – your approach to buying a stock.
No. 7: Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist
How It’ll Help
No list of investing resources is complete without something about Warren Buffett. In Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist, you’ll see the life events that shaped the “Oracle of Omaha” – and helped make him one of the wealthiest people in the world.
Without giving too much away, think about how complicated investing seems to be.
After reading this book, you’ll see how simple Buffett makes it.
No. 8: Apes Together Strong
How It’ll Help
It’s easy to write off the GameStop Corp. GME 0.00%↑ craze of 2020 to 2021 as meme-stock mania, where a bunch of message boarders shot GameStock’s stock price from $2.57 to $483 (more than 18,000%) in just nine months.
At its core, Apes Together Strong is a study in human psychology. But in this documentary, twin brothers Finley and Quinn Mulligan decipher all the financial jargon to give you the nitty-gritty of what really happened.
They do it in a way that’s entertaining … and educational. And they show us that there’s a real person behind the computer or phone — someone whose fears, life stressors and dreams feed into the decision to hit that “Buy” button.
And you’ll see that meme stock trading isn’t just about greed.
It’s also about fear.
No. 9: The Hummingbird Project
How It’ll Help
Our team believes that we retail investors have a huge competitive advantage over the big players on Wall Street.
And that advantage is time.
We’re not talking about “buy and hold.” We’re talking about opportunistic stock picking.
We think in terms of years …
Hedge-fund traders and other big institutional players operate in the opposite extreme: Hours, minutes and even seconds are too long – they think in milliseconds.
In fact, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS 0.00%↑ approved a plan to shave milliseconds off trades.
The projected cost was $100 million.
In the fictional film The Hummingbird Project, you’ll see a relatable look at the price “Big Money” pays to get an edge.
The truth is that we – the retail investors – can't compete with that. That’s why we enlist time as an ally. And we can do that because we control our own destiny … because we’re our own “boss” — which means there’s no one berating us over bad trades or “leaving money on the table.”
Time is your “edge” – and is a key to building wealth.
No. 10: Margin Call
How It’ll Help
Based on the very real 2008 financial crisis, when Wall Street’s massive bet on mortgage-backed securities very nearly took down the global economy, Margin Call is a fictionalized, understandable (and super dramatic) account of an investment bank that realizes that an imminent crisis could eradicate its entire market value.
It’s a tight thriller, that makes finance accessible and entertaining. Even The New Yorker’s film critic said it was “easily the best Wall Street movie ever made.”
This movie helps us understand the importance of understanding what you’re buying and fully grasping risk (pairing nicely with Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk).
And it tacitly underscores another of those wonderful axioms: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”
That brings us to the end of the list.
As a recap, the 10 resources for becoming a successful investor are:
1. The Rush: America’s Fevered Quest for Fortune, 1848-1855
2. Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
3. Think and Grow Rich
4. Money: The Unauthorized Biography – From Coinage to Cryptocurrency
5. Elon Musk
6. Principles
7. Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist
8. Apes Together Strong
9. The Hummingbird Project
10. Margin Call
Hopefully, this guide reminded you of books, documentaries or films that can help you in your investing journey — and maybe even introduced you to a few new ones.
Read, watch … and put the lessons to work.
And know that we're here — that we’re in your corner — to help keep you on that pathway to success.
Let us know in the comments if you saw any of your favorite investing books or films on this list … or if you have some others you think would be worthwhile sharing with the SPC community.
There has always been a debate over who wrote the better book on Buffett. Personally, I preferred the Snowball by Alice Schroeder to Roger Lowenstein. However it has been a long time since I read the Making of an American Capitalist.
You can’t go wrong reading the Money Masters by John Train. Also Buffettology by Mary Buffett and David Clark.
But also read the history of Mania’s, Panic’s and Crashes to keep yourself grounded.
The Elon book is by far one of the best reads I've ever read. The deep dive into his brain was absolutely astonishing!