I do value investing, to learn that you really have to read a combination of theoretical (books about value investing) and practical (accounting, finance, inves

I do value investing, to learn that you really have to read a combination of theoretical (books about value investing) and practical (accounting, finance, investment valuation, excel modeling, books about different industries). After that you need to put the two together and start valuing businesses. If you keep at it eventually you will pick up the right skills. Most people just read about the theory and dont focus enough on the practical stuff. Their analyses tend to be sub-par and unprofessional. I spent a lot of time reverse engineering old investments by famous people or recent investments by hedge funds. There was never one book that helped. I read a ton and tried to pick the best ideas from all of them. At school I regularly had about 10-12 books checked out in my name and would jump around, reading what really interested me. The other day the founder of our fund took me out to lunch, he mentioned that he thinks Keynes offers the best introduction to the theory aspect of investing in Chapter 12 of his book General Theory of Employment Interest and Money. You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian_beauty_contest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynesian_beauty_contest