Welcome to the third issue of The Journal. My goal with The Journal is to post once a week a list of everything that I found interesting. Here is what I found interesting this week:
On New Year day, I finished reading Millennial Money: How Young Investors Can Build a Fortune by Patrick O’Shaughnessy. The book was fascinating. It was filled with useful information about investing and the way a millennial should invest as soon as possible to see the effect of computing. Like the Magic Formula found in the book The Little Book That Beats the Market by Joel Greenblatt, Patrick has his own criteria when he invests in a basket of stock with the help of momentum and value investing. I enjoyed reading Millennial Money and I learned a lot about Patrick’s insight. I would recommend reading the book to new investors and to millennials thinking about investing. Patrick O’Shaughnessy has a very interesting podcast about investing named Invest Like the Best I would recommend listening to it.
Sapiens
Last year, I bought Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari and I wanted to read the book but never got around to do it. Last week, I bought the audiobook on audible and I am happy to say that I finished listening to Sapiens. Sapiens is the best book I have read so far, and I would recommend it to everyone. I really enjoyed listening to the part about The Unification of Humankind and The Science Revolution. I know for a fact that this will not be the last time I read the book. I look forward reading the sequel Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari.
The 4 Best Books I Read in 2017
Last year, I read 21 books which was a big accomplishment since the year prior I only read one book. I recently wrote a post on The 4 Best Books I Read in 2017. If you did not read it, please check it out here and let me know what was your best read last year.
Last year, I read 21 books and here are the four best books I read in 2017.
Here are my top four books:
Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark
I read Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark, a Swedish-American cosmologist, after reading a tweet by Elon Musk. Life 3.0 is a book that talks about AI. By reading this book, I learned the pros and the cons of AI, the need to have something like a Geneva Convention for regulating AI, why something like universal income will be mandatory in the future because of the loss of jobs to machines, and the evolution of humans with AI.
The Dhandho Investor by Mohnish Pabrai
The Dhandho InvestorbyMohnish Pabrai is the best Investing book I read last year. I read the book last month, and I have been a big fan of Mohnish Pabrai. The Dhandho Investor is very interesting and filled with useful information about how to invest in the stock market or in businesses without losing money and obtaining a high return on your investment. I love the mantra that Mohnish gives in the book “Heads; I win; tails, I don’t lose much!” I will be following this mantra in the future whenever I am investing in a company to reduce my risk of losing money.
The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King by Rich Cohen
I heard about Sam Zemurray when I was reading The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday. The Fish That Ate the Whale tells the story of Sam Zemurray from his arrival in America in 1891 to become one of the richest and most powerful men in the world. By reading this book, I learned a lot about business, history, and the incredible journey of Sam Zemurray for running one of the biggest company and becoming a threat to foreign nations.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy. Marcus Aurelius is named as one of the Good Emperors. Meditations is filled with a lot of wisdom. It will probably not be the last time I will be reading this book. In fact, I intend to read Meditations once every year because I don’t think reading the book once gives justice to the incredible notes of Marcus Aurelius.
Welcome to the second issue of The Journal. My goal with The Journal is to post once a week a list of everything that I found interesting. Here is what I found interesting this week:
I am currently reading Principles by Ray Dalio. I heard about Ray Dalio a couple of years ago by watching How The Economic Machine Works, a fascinating video. Since He is a private person, I was very excited when I heard that he has a book coming this year. Principles is a three-part book. The first part talks about Ray Dalio’s Career and what it took him to overcome his failure. The second part is Ray Dalio’s Life Principles, which is what I am currently reading, and the final part is Ray Dalio’s Work Principles.
Here are some interviews about the book with Ray Dalio:
How The Economic Machine Works by Ray Dalio – 31 min
Here is an excerpt from the book that made me think about the size of the universe :
“Through our own eyes, we are everything – e.g., when we die, the whole world disappears. So to most people (and to other species) dying is the worst thing possible, and it is of paramount importance that we have the best life possible. However, when we look down on ourselves through the eyes of nature we are of absolutely no significance. It is a reality that each one of us is only one of about seven billion of our species alive today and that our species is only one of about ten million species on our planet. Earth is just one of about 100 billion planets in our galaxy, which is just one of about two trillion galaxies in the universe. And our lifetimes are only about 1/3,000 of humanity’s existence, which itself is only 1/20,000 of the Earth’s existence. In other words, we are unbelievably tiny and short-lived and no matter what we accomplish, our impact will be insignificant.” – p. 149
Thanks for reading, happy new year and see you next week!
A Conversation with Charlie Munger and Michigan Ross – 2017 – 56 min
Mohnish Pabrai Lecture at Boston College (Carroll School of Mgmt) – Nov 30, 2017 – 140 min
Making a Flipbook Machine – 10 min
Vertical Farming
Last year for the first time, I grew vegetable plants in my backyard, and I found fascinating seeing the plants grow and eating fresh plants whenever I want. Now that it is winter, I am looking for a way to grow plants indoors, and I found out about The Smart Farm by Click And Grow. It is a ridiculous 9 900$ indoor farm that can grow 288 plants. When I was doing some research to look at commercial uses of vertical framing and their benefits, I found these two videos very interesting.
For about two weeks, I have been listening to The Investor Podcast. I used to listen to some of their podcasts and now, that I am more interested in value investing, I have listened to all their episodes until episode 123. I have learned a lot from listening to their podcasts, and I would recommend them to everybody who wants to learn more about value investing.
The Dhandho Investor
I finished reading this week The Dhandho Investor by Mohnish Pabra. The book is very interesting and filled with useful information about how to invest in the stock market or a business without losing money and obtaining a high return on your investment. I would recommend the book, like the podcasts, to everybody who wants to learn more about value investing.
SeekingAlpha
For about three years, I have have been very passionate about the stock market and all things business. After acquiring a pretty good knowledge about the stock market, by any mean, I am not an expert I decided to become a contributor to seekingalpha.com. I wrote two articles, one last month and one this week. Please, check it out and any feedback will be really appreciated.
“Learn to Earn” by John Rothchild and Peter Lynch is a book for any investor and anyone interning to learn how a company earns money.
The book accomplishes on what it sets out to accomplish by showcasing that capitalism is the best economic system.
The author, John Rothchild, is most know for his work as the former editor of Washington Monthly as well as a former columnist for Time and Fortune.
The co-author, Peter Lynch, is an investor know the As the manager of the Magellan Fund at Fidelity Investments between the years 1977 and 1990. Peter Lynch averaged a 29.2% annual return with is mindblowing.
I enjoyed reading the book. The book helps me confirm my thought that the best economic system is capitalism for the company, the consumer and the investor.
I enjoyed the first chapter where the author briefs a quick history lesson of capitalism and explain without a capitalist country like the United-stade would it prosper as it did. I also like the appendix two where the author helps ride a company balance sheet.
The only thing the I did like is that the book isn’t updated and the references are old. Unless this I enjoyed reading the book.
I would recommend this book to anyone interning to learn how a company earn money and to learn about the stocks.
“The neatest little guide to stock market investing” by Jason Kelly is a book for anyone who wants to learn about the stock market.
The book accomplishes on what it sets out to accomplish by giving a good overview of every step related to becoming a business owner in a public company.
The author, Jason Kelly, is most know for his book “The 3% Signal” and his newsletter “The Kelly Letter” about the stock market and investing.
I liked the book. I had some knowledge about the stock market prior, but reading the book helped me think like an investor. I learnt how to evaluate stocks and all the termer related such as P/E, ROE and all the other measurement.
I enjoyed the third chapter where the author writes about Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Peter Lynch and other investor masters. He summarizes the investor philosophy which is very helpful. I also liked the way the author related all aspects of investing with one example throughout the book.
There is nothing that I didn’t like about the book. Although the book had a dry and academic tone which is expected for these kinds of books, I loved reading this book.
I would recommend this book to everyone because I truly believe everyone should learn the basics of investing even though the invest in an index fund or mutual funds.
Investing 101 by Michelle Cagan is a book for the newcomer in the vast world of investing.
The book accomplishes on what it sets out to accomplish by giving a good overview of every branch in investment such as stock, bonds, ETFs, Mutual funds, currency commodity trading and real estate.
The author, Michele Cagan, has worked in several fields involving money such as financial planner, accountant, and tax advisor. She also wrote several books on personal finance and business.
I very much liked the book. I had some knowledge about investing prior but reading the book probably gave me a better understanding than the average person. I was still able to learn a lot which is never a bad thing. I have expanded my knowledge about the stock market and learned about new ways to invest especially in the bonds market.
The book has a dry and academic tone but is very easy to understand and not boring at least for me and the author doesn’t implement fancy words. It is written for the new learner with no or very little knowledge about personal finance.
I enjoyed the last two chapter where the author writes about how a person can build a profitable portfolio built according to the person’s needs. I also loved the chapter where the author introduces successful investors and gives their advice to the reader. Finally, I loved the part where the author gives an exercise where you can learn about your risk tolerance which is an important aspect of investing.
I did not enjoy parts where the author talked about mutual funds, currency, and commodity trading because I have no interest in this type of investment.
Event though I did not enjoy some parts of the book, I would change nothing about it. I believe that every part is important because every person has different ways to invest and all of them are important even if all these branches are not meant for everyone.
I would recommend this book to everyone because I truly believe everyone should learn the basics of investing.
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“The neatest little guide to stock market investing” by Jason Kelly is a book for anyone who wants to learn about the stock market.
Investing 101 by Michelle Cagan is a book for the newcomer in the vast world of investing.
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