This little book is an investment classic. It was written in 1926 in parable form and provides an excellent introduction on how to become wealthy. It emphasizes the fundamental keys to wealth creation: saving and investing wisely so your money works for you. Order on Amazon

This is another investment classic and it was written in 1841. It details numerous historical episodes where major investment bubbles and busts occurred as investors got caught up in the mania of the crowd. These include the famous Dutch tulip mania, the Mississippi Company and the South Sea Company. The important takeaways of this book are 1) investment bubbles and busts have occurred throughout history and will continue to do so, as human psychology has not changed, and 2) in order to invest successfully, you must think independently and not get caught up with the groupthink of the investing masses. As MacKay put it well: "Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one. Order on Amazon

In this popular book, finance professor Jeremy Siegel provides useful statistics on historical returns for stocks, bonds, gold and inflation. Our main critique of this book is that he generally suggests that one is always better off investing in stocks “for the long run”, while glossing over the risks that come from investing in stocks at very high valuation levels and/or when stocks are in a bear market. Order on Amazon

This popular book is by Yale economics professor Robert Shiller. It provides a good discussion of the late 1990s Tech Bubble and the unprecedented overvaluation of the stock market it produced. This overvaluation was driven by very bullish investor psychology (aided by excitement over the Internet) combined with “easy money” accommodation by the Fed. This book helped break the spell of the “efficient market hypothesis” that ruled academia in finance for decades. It is a good reminder of the importance of understanding and taking account of investor psychology and valuations when making investments. Thus, it serves as a good complement to the Siegel book Stocks For the Long Run. Order on Amazon

This beautifully produced book provides detailed statistics on historical returns for stock markets around the world in the 20th century. It shows how investing in “stocks for the long run” (i.e., the “buy and hold” strategy) generally worked well in the 20th century in the US (particularly if one invested in stocks in 1900 and had a 100 year time horizon!), but was a very dangerous and unsuccessful strategy in many other countries, particularly ones that suffered from high inflation and war, two of the key ways that governments destroy wealth and lives. Order on Amazon

This little book by the founder of Vanguard provides a good and brief explanation of why it is important to focus on low cost index funds and ETFs. However, like many investment “experts”, he generally takes the traditional “stocks (and bonds) for the long run” buy and hold approach and glosses over the risks of investing in stocks and bonds when they are at high valuation levels and/or are in bear markets. He also does not show how to identify or mitigate the risks of bear markets. Order on Amazon

This book is produced annually and provides interesting and useful information on historical seasonal patterns for the stock market, including the famous “best six months” strategy. While technical indicators always trump historical seasonal patterns, it is important to be aware of seasonality and factor it into your analysis, as it can help increase your conviction in the price trend. Order on Amazon

This book provides useful information to help understand the importance of valuation in estimating long-term returns for major asset classes. Bernstein also explains how to build a portfolio using low cost index funds and ETFs “for the long run”, i.e., buy and hold. Again, this book does not help in providing guidance for avoiding and/or profiting from overvalued assets and bear markets. Order on Amazon

This book explains how to allocate assets for long-term returns. It is similar to Bernstein’s other book “The Four Pillars of Investing” and, like that book, it unfortunately does not help investors manage the risks and profit potential of overvalued assets and/or bear markets. Order on Amazon

This famous book provides the classic explanation of value investing for individual stocks. Benjamin Graham was Warren Buffett’s investment mentor. It was written in 1949 and is a much shorter and easier to read summary of his Great Depression era classic Security Analysis, which is the “bible” of fundamental stock analysis. The Intelligent Investoris an interesting book and very useful if one wants to be a fundamental stock analyst, particularly with a value orientation to stocks (which sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t). But it is not very helpful in assessing or profiting from bull and bear market trends, which is the best way to make money investing. Order on Amazon

This is a good book about the investment approach of world famous investor and one of the world’s wealthiest people, Warren Buffett. Buffett is clearly a unique investment genius. He combined the quantitative value approach of Benjamin Graham with Philip Fisher’s qualitative approach of identifying high quality businesses. There is much more to Buffett’s success that most investors cannot copy, including the unique structure of his insurance business, but this book provides a good overview of Buffett’s approach to picking stocks. While interesting and helpful to understand successful stock investing, keep in mind that virtually no one else in the world has been able to practice this approach as successfully as Buffett. Order on Amazon

In this book, famous investor and travel writer Jim Rogers provides the fundamental case for a secular bull market in commodities, driven by supply and demand. If you invest in commodities, this is an important book to read. While his commodity bull market prediction did work in the first part of the decade of the 2000s, the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 put an end to it. This provides a good example of not just investing based on company and industry “fundamentals”, but also stressing the paramount importance of investor psychology, technicals and macroeconomics. Order on Amazon

This book by famous investment advisor Peter Schiff provides interesting facts and analysis predicting future economic crises resulting from excessive government debt. It is worth reading as a reminder of the house of cards the economy is resting on. Order on Amazon

Harry Browne was a brilliant writer on investing and free market economics. He also ran for President of the US twice as a Libertarian Party candidate. This book provides a brief summary of his case for a “permanent portfolio” comprised of equal parts of stocks, bonds, gold and cash “for the long run”. Like other long-term asset allocation portfolios, the returns have generally been mediocre for this approach compared to the potential returns from well-implemented active trend following approaches. The primary value of this book is in explaining how different asset classes perform in different economic environments. Order on Amazon

This excellent book by our friend and economics professor, David Howden, Ph.D., uses sophisticated and intuitive statistical analysis to analyze past trends and cycles of 42 stock markets around the world. He identifies the most undervalued and overvalued stock markets in order to estimate their long-term returns. The book analyzes centuries of data and brilliantly summarizes them in hundreds of high quality charts and tables.  Order on Amazon

This is one of the best books on technical analysis for the beginner. Weinstein is a clear communicator who avoids the jargon and unnecessary complications typical of most books on technical analysis. This book provides a good introduction to the important “secrets” of technical indicators like moving averages, stock market breadth and investor psychology that are invaluable for determining the bull or bear market trend of any investment traded on financial markets. It shows that investing just on the “fundamentals” is like driving a car by looking out the rear view mirror with one eye closed. While the book was written in the 1980s, the lessons taught about analyzing and acting on the indicators of investor psychology and behavior are timeless. Order on Amazon

This is another good introduction to technical analysis by one of its most famous practitioners, John Murphy. It serves as a useful guide for understanding and using various technical indicators, all written in terms that are easy for beginners to understand. Order on Amazon

In this book, Murphy shows how useful and insightful technical analysis is in analyzing all financial markets, including stocks, REITs, commodities, bonds and currencies. He also shows how they influence one another and when they tend to trade similarly and differently from each other. While each investment should be analyzed on its own, it is helpful to know how clues provided by one investment can be used to assess the prospects of another investment. For example, if gold is in a rising bull market trend, that could be a clue that consumer price inflation is accelerating, which likely means that interest rates will be rising, which would be negative for bonds and often for many high dividend yielding stocks, such as REITs..Order on Amazon

This book provides a comprehensive and detailed overview of technical analysis and technical indicators. Order on Amazon

This book provides a good discussion of the numerous highly successful investors who use trend following to profit from bull and bear market trends in various financial assets, including John Henry, the billionaire money manager who owns the Boston Red Sox baseball team. It is an entertaining book and provides strong evidence in support of this approach to investing. However, it doesn’t show you how to implement this approach or the indicators you can use to assess and profit from the bull or bear market trend of an asset. That is what Bull & Bear Profits does for you. Order on Amazon

This excellent book explains how to use absolute and relative price trends (or “momentum”) to earn higher investment returns with lower risk than traditional “buy and hold” investing. It provides historical data proving this approach is successful in outperforming the stock market with less risk over time. However, this book only looks at using a couple of different investment alternatives, so the return potential would be even greater if one were to also use individual stocks and other investments with this approach, as Bull & Bear Profitsdoes. Order on Amazon

This book explains how to capitalize on price trends in financial markets using futures contracts. I prefer the simplicity of stocks and ETFs versus futures contracts, but the importance of using and following price trends is explained well in this book. Order on Amazon

This book explains how numerous market timing techniques using various technical indicators beats traditional “buy and hold” investing...Order on Amazon

This book shows how to use interest rates, technical analysis and cultural indicators to time the stock market for higher returns and lower risk...Order on Amazon

This 800+ page book is exactly as the title describes. It is a comprehensive encyclopedia of technical indicators and their definitions and use. It serves as a great reference guide on the subject. Order on Amazon

This book provides detailed definitions, explanations, calculations and examples of over 135 technical indicators. Order on Amazon

This book provides nearly 200 color charts showing common technical patterns such as head and shoulders, double tops, double bottoms, triangles, flags, etc. This is very helpful in learning to identify patterns that typically lead to a continuation or change in the trend. Order on Amazon

Logical economic theory, as with most human wisdom, begins with Aristotle. In The Politics, written in the 4th century BC, the great Greek philosopher argued in favor of private property, as opposed to “public” or “socialized” communal property, thus providing the key argument for free market capitalism over socialism. Order on Amazon

Richard Cantillon was one of the first modern economists. He wrote this book in the 1730s, a generation before Adam Smith’s much more famous The Wealth of Nations. In it, he explains how free markets and entrepreneurialism create economic prosperity and wealth. Order on Amazon

This is a comprehensive collection of essays critiquing the Keynesian fallacies propagated by Nobel Prize winning New York Timescolumnist Paul Krugman. Murphy hosts a brilliant podcast called “Contra Krugman” with Tom Woods every week that argues against Krugman’s fallacious, but highly influential, thinking. Order on Amazon

Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nationsis the most famous book arguing the case for free market economics. In it, Smith uses the insightful “invisible hand” metaphor to show that allowing individuals to pursue their own self-interest is the most powerful and effective way to help others in society live a better and more prosperous life. Along with the Declaration of Independencewritten in the same year, 1776, the general adoption of the free market ideas provided in The Wealth of Nationshelped the US to become the wealthiest country in the history of the world, with unprecedented living standards and freedom. Of course, as with any country, US living standards are weakened when it abandons free market principles, as it has been increasingly doing in recent decades. Order on Amazon

This nineteenth century economic treatise by investor and economist David Ricardo is another classic arguing for free markets, including in international trade. His famous “law of comparative advantage” proves that all countries are better off when they engage in free trade, rather than protectionist tariffs, quotas, etc., regardless of their productive capabilities.Order on Amazon

Say was a brilliant nineteenth century French economist. In this classic treatise, he made the case for free markets and introduced Say’s Law, which provided a devastating argument against Keynesian “aggregate demand” economics. Say’s Law proves that production comes first and there can never be a deficiency in demand since all demand comes from and is paid for with prior production. Order on Amazon

Another brilliant French free market economist was Frederic Bastiat. This is his classic brief explanation of property rights as the source of freedom, justice and economic prosperity. Order on Amazon

This is Bastiat’s collected works and essays in over 1000 pages, including his famous and humorous refutations of trade protectionism..Order on Amazon

This is the groundbreaking economics treatise by the founder of the Austrian School of economics, Carl Menger. Written in 1871, this book contributed to the “marginal” revolution in economics and explained how money developed naturally on the free market, rather than being a creation of government. Order on Amazon

This is the magnum opus of Ludwig von Mises, the dean of the free market Austrian School of economics. It is full of brilliant insights and historical perspective, all presented in logical and clear reasoning. Key contributions include a) his methodological discussions explaining why economics is not a quantitative science and cannot be used for precise predictions (such as how fast GDP will grow next year) given all the variables in human society and human free will, b) his explanation of why socialist economies are doomed to failure due to their lack of private property rights in the means of production, which makes it impossible for them to calculate economically and rationally allocate resources to meet the needs and desires of consumers and c) his explanation of the monetary causes of the business cycle, for which his student F.A. Hayek won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1974, one year after Mises’ death. Order on Amazon

Logical economic theory, as with most human wisdom, begins with Aristotle. If you can only read one book by Mises, this is it, since it includes key sections from all his major works, including Human Action, Socialismand The Theory of Money and Credit. Order on Amazon

This is Mises’ classic explanation of why peace, prosperity and freedom is the result of a consistently free market society. Order on Amazon

This book contains Mises’ devastating critiques of all socialist ideas. In addition to numerous other insights, Mises presents his explanation of why socialist economies are doomed to failure due to their lack of private property rights in the means of production, which makes it impossible for them to calculate economically and rationally allocate resources to meet the needs and desires of consumers. Order on Amazon

Henry Hazlitt was a famous 20th century American journalist who became an Austrian School economist after reading Mises and Hayek. H.L. Mencken called him one of the few economists who could write clearly. This book is one of the best brief and easy to understand introductions to free market economics. Order on Amazon

This is Hazlitt’s devastating line-by-line critique of Keynes’ fallacious but highly influential book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Keynes’ lack of understanding of economics, including the causes of business cycles, continues to plague us today with massive government budget deficits and debt, inflation and recurring business cycles that destroy wealth and harm living standards..Order on Amazon

This is an interesting collection of essays from various writers critiquing Keynesian economics. Order on Amazon

Professor DiLorenzo provides a very clear and persuasive refutation of all the major fallacies of socialism and socialistic policies. Order on Amazon

In this massive treatise, Professor Murray N. Rothbard provides the clearest and most comprehensive explanation of Austrian School economic thought ever written. In addition to explaining how a free market economy works in creating the most prosperous society possible, Rothbard provides a brilliant and devastating critique of all forms of destructive government interventions into the free market. If you read this book, you will understand more about real economics than virtually all professional economists who have ever lived..Order on Amazon

Professors Murphy and Boudreaux provide an excellent modern and easy to understand summary of Ludwig von Mises’ magnum opus Human Action..Order on Amazon

This is a provocative collection of essays on free market capitalism from Ayn Rand’s powerful philosophical perspective. It provides utilitarian arguments, but also important ethical arguments in favor of a free society. It also includes an essay by a young Alan Greenspan arguing against the Federal Reserve central bank and fiat paper money and in favor of a free market gold standard. Greenspan claims to still believe in that, but his actions clearly speak louder than words. Order on Amazon

This book provides an excellent modern day critique of Keynesian economics. Order on Amazon

Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Rothbard’s most insightful student and colleague, presents the case for a pure free market society over all forms of socialism in this book. Order on Amazon

This is a brilliant collection of essays from today’s leading free market Austrian School economist..Order on Amazon

This is an enormous treatise presenting the comprehensive case for free market capitalism, based on the pathbreaking ideas of Mises and Rand..Order on Amazon

This book provides an easy-to-understand modern explanation of free market economics..Order on Amazon

This is Mises’ first book and, although it was written in 1912, it is still one of the best analyses of money and banking ever written. In this book, Mises provides the first discussion of his revolutionary business cycle theory..Order on Amazon

In these essays, Mises explains his revolutionary business cycle theory in detail (now called “Austrian Business Cycle Theory” or “ABCT”) and uses it to predict the Great Depression of the 1930s. Order on Amazon

This is Hayek’s contributions to the Austrian Business Cycle Theory that his teacher Mises first developed. Hayek used these works to successfully debate Keynes and his flawed theories in the 1930s. Hayek later won the 1974 Nobel Prize in economics for these writings. Order on Amazon

This is a devastating critique of Keynes by his most formidable opponent. Order on Amazon

This book was written in the late 1960s, just before the highly inflationary decade of the 1970s. It provides a clear summary of the Austrian School view of money, banking and inflation. Order on Amazon

This is the clearest, briefest and easiest to read theoretical and historical case for a free market in money based on a gold coin standard and 100% bank reserves, written by Mises’ best student and successor. Order on Amazon

This is the clearest, briefest and easiest to read theoretical and historical case against the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money and monetary policy. Order on Amazon

This is a detailed investigation of central and fractional reserve banking, which are the primary causes of the business cycle, inflation, recessions and depressions..Order on Amazon

This is a collection of brief and easy to read essays by Mises, Hayek, Rothbard and others explaining Austrian Business Cycle Theory. It includes Rothbard’s brilliant essay “Economic Depressions: Their Cause and Cure”, which is one of the best introductions to Austrian Business Cycle Theory. Order on Amazon

This essay is the clearest brief explanation of Austrian Business Cycle Theory in print. Order on Amazon

Professor Mark Skousen’s economics PhD thesis is a well written analysis of a pure free market gold standard..Order on Amazon

This is a sophisticated modern-day analysis of Austrian Business Cycle Theory and “supply side economics”, as contrasted with Keynes’ flawed interventionist “demand side economics”. Order on Amazon

This book arguing in favor of a free market gold standard is a reprint of Dr. Paul’s report of the U.S. Gold Commission originally published in the Congressional Record in 1982. Order on Amazon

The book provides an overwhelming case for why we should end the Fed and return to a free market monetary system. It includes Ron Paul’s conversations with Fed Chairmen Greenspan and Bernanke while he was in Congress. Order on Amazon

This is a sophisticated and technical modern-day analysis of Austrian Business Cycle Theory, as compared to other popular but flawed academic theories such as Keynesianism. Order on Amazon

This is a collection of brilliant theoretical and historical analyses of money and business cycles by Rothbard’s best monetary student, Professor Joseph Salerno. Order on Amazon

This is the most detailed and comprehensive Austrian School analysis of the economics and law of money, banking and business cycles in print. Order on Amazon

This book argues persuasively that, for both economic and ethical reasons, money should be produced on the free market, just like food, shelter, clothing and all other goods and services..Order on Amazon

This book explains why paper money is unstable and destructive, as demonstrated in the Great Depression and Great Recession. Order on Amazon

In his PhD thesis, Rothbard explained the causes of the a boom and bust business cycle in the pre-Fed era, the famous Panic of 1819. It remains the authoritative book on this topic. Order on Amazon

In this fascinating book, Rothbard provides the definitive explanation of the causes of the Great Depression. Government monetary, fiscal and regulatory policies, not the free market, are to blame. It includes an excellent explanation of Austrian Business Cycle Theory. Famous historian Paul Johnson writes the introduction, in which he says Rothbard’s provides the best explanation of the Great Depression ever written..Order on Amazon

This is Rothbard’s detailed history of money, banking and business cycles in the US from the country’s founding to WWII. Order on Amazon

This is Rothbard’s detailed history of the Progressive Era in the US, which started in the late 1800s and led to the founding of the Federal Reserve and the institution of the Federal income tax in 1913. Those Progressive Era “accomplishments” led to the Great Depression and other business cycles since then, the 98%+ decrease in the value of the US dollar since 1913 and the massive government deficits and debts we have now, despite very high income tax levels relative to human history. Order on Amazon

The massive two-volume treatise is Rothbard’s detailed and insightful history of economic thought. It was the last major work of his life. Order on Amazon

This provides a relatively brief and easy to understand overview of the great economists in history from a free market perspective. Order on Amazon

In this book, historian Tom Woods provides an excellent detailed summary of the causes of the recent Great Recession. As with the Great Depression, government policies rather than the free market are to blame. Order on Amazon

This is an insightful Austrian School analysis of the flaws of the euro currency. Order on Amazon

With DECADES of well-proven experience forecasting bull, bear & flat markets and selecting top-performing stocks & ETFs, founder Jon Wolfenbarger and our team are regularly sought out by the financial and investment media, press reporters, podcasters, vodcasters, radio & TV producers and seminar & investor conference coordinators for interviews, quotes, insights, guest appearances, etc. See some samples of recent and favorite spots on the media appearances page.