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posted: February 7, 2021
tl;dr: Since I’m not an advisor myself, here’s where I turn to learn about the world of finance...
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this post is not intended as, and shall not be understood or construed as, financial advice. I am not a financial advisor, accountant, or attorney, nor am I holding myself out to be. The information I present is not a substitute for financial advice from a professional who is aware of the facts and circumstances of your individual situation, which is different from my own. You should seek the advice of a financial professional who is capable of understanding your own personal situation, your goals and aspirations, and making recommendations suited to you.
I am not a financial advisor. Nor do I provide investment advice. I seek knowledge from a variety of other sources: books, newsletters, online news sources, blogs, podcasts, even Twitter. I’ll list my main sources here, although I’ll again caution that these sources may not work for you, given your own personal financial situations and goals.
It’s important to know what type of investor you are, in particular: are you a trader or an investor? The difference is primarily one of timeframe for holding a particular investment. Traders monitor the market continuously, trying to catch micromovements up and down. Investors, by contrast, try to catch macromovements by buying and holding positions that they can be comfortable with for years. I work full-time, so I literally do not have the available hours in the day needed to be a trader. When market abnormalities like the recent GameStop short squeeze happen, I follow them in the news, but do not even think of participating. That’s the realm of day traders. The people and firms I try to learn from are all investors, not traders. I’m not on the WallStreetBets subreddit.
Books
My favorite book about stock market investing is Jeremy J. Siegel’s Stocks for the Long Run, now up to its fifth edition. Here’s my 2004 review of the third edition. It passes the test of time.
Other books I’ve read and reviewed which relate to investing are:
Newsletters
I have subscribed to The Prudent Speculator for several decades - I can't even remember when I started. They consistently follow a value strategy. They seek out good companies temporarily selling at a low price, hopefully due to some short-term bad news, that will rebound in the years ahead. You can view their list of recommendations as "Here are the stocks which are on sale". They say their average holding period is three to five years, and I think in practice that it may be longer than five years.
Even though they follow a value strategy, they sometimes end up with some growth stocks because they buy in when the price is temporarily depressed. Here are some that I still hold in my portfolio:
Obviously not every stock performs like that. There is also profit taking along the way: as the price rises, they start unloading some of the gains. And they also pay attention to dividend payouts. In the loser column, I bought some IBM at $170.90 on 5/12/2011, and the current price is $121.79. IBM hasn't yet figured out how to reverse their decline.
Value stocks have been out of favor over the past ten years. But with growth stocks looking very overvalued (see TSLA, currently $852.23), this upcoming decade could see value do better than growth.
An investor that I've been following recently is Lyn Alden. She publishes a free newsletter every six weeks or so.
I like her overall attitude about investing, her macroeconomic perspective, and her data-heavy analysis. She actually works as a full-time engineer, so investing is a side hustle for now. Her M1 portfolio shows how she has diversified her risk and where she is putting her money to work.
Newspapers
I’ve subscribed to The Wall Street Journal for decades, first in paper format and for the past 10+ years exclusively in electronic format. They are a balanced source of news and represent the mainstream view of how most investors are thinking. Even if you are going to be a contrarian and run counter to the mainstream, you need to know what the mainstream is thinking.
Podcasts
Between all the bike riding and dog walking that I do, I listen to a fair number of podcasts. Here are the financially-oriented ones that I try not to miss:
If you use Twitter, here are some of the financially-oriented folks that I have on a Twitter list:
Those are the sources I currently use, but I am always open to new ones.
Related post: Where I don't go for investment advice