Customer Reviews

Winning Investment Habits of Warren Buffett and George Soros

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am surprised that this book doesn't get the attention that it so rightly deserved. This is indeed a hidden gem! I have read dozens of investment books over the years and this book definitely belongs to my all-time top 5 must read. The writing is simply amazing with investment advices that are clear, succint and easily applicable to our own investment situations.

The book caters to a broad audience with investment advices that will prove beneficial to even the most seasoned investors. Beginners will love the book's approach detailing a step-by-step mental checklist to go through when making investment decisons. I am truly impressed by the author's careful research of coming out with 23 winning habits employed by the world's most successful investors including Warren Buffett and George Soros. I always thought that Warren is a true long-term investor and business owner whereas George is a amazing speculator taking advantages of current market conditions. Their investment philosophies must be worlds apart. Boy, was I wrong. As the author points out, they both have the same 23 winning investment habits as they go thru the same mental checklist when making investment decisions! This book is indeed a revelation.

I won't spoil the party by telling you what the 23 winning habits are. But I promise that each page is a head-turner and you will learn so much and improve your investment record up a notch for every habit that you acquired and practiced. It is one of those rare investment books that I have read cover-to-cover for a great many times and still find the urge to refer back to it. I am sure you will too!

I often think about successful investing as consisting of lots of different ingredients. But the key is getting all the ingredients right. Lots of people know some things, but they can't seem to put them all together into a coherent and workable investment style.

Tier's book helps you do that by taking apart and studying the nuances in Warren Buffett's and George Soros's approaches. Toward the back, it also includes a look at Carl Icahn and John Templeton.

Anyway, Tier breaks these styles down into winning habits. They are great fun to read about and Tier finds anecdotes and stories that you may not have heard before.

It's inspiring reading, actually, and it got me thinking about lots of different things successful investors do.

One of my favorite investment books.

I only see eight reviews at the time I write this, but there must be over a hundred for each of the other much less useful books, particularly anything from the nauseating Kiyosaki collection. Many more new investors (and even experienced ones) could learn so much more from this book than most of the other basic investment books.

Soros is a trader, Buffet is an investor, but they both have similar rules that fly in the face of the wall st. gurus. The book details 23 winning habits of both Soros and Buffet. Among the habits to adopt, the book stresses the need to separate knowledge from understanding, to do away with the traditional "diversity first" nonsense, and to avoid the habit of seeking validation of ones ideas with the gurus. There is also a useful check list at the back of the book for anyone about to take an investment plunge (not just for stocks).

What's more, the author isn't just another fluffy columnist blathering on - he puts his money where his mouth is and, if his bio is to be believed, lives off his investments. Too many other financial writers are themselves financial train wrecks no better than a chimp at picking stocks. This book teaches the value of learning from others but thinking for yourself. Though it might seem painfully obvious, I don't know too many people who truly follow this advice (until now, myself included).

I don't give five star ratings very often, but this book deserves it. If I had to recommend one investment book to anyone, especially a neophyte, this would be it.

Yes, book is truly a hidden gem.

I read the book roughly a year ago and find myself returning to it. I found the strength to be that after reading what Buffet & Soros do in certain circumstances that it immediately forced me to think about how I should handle the same situations whether it be a longterm investment or a shortterm trade.

One can fill their head with reams of product/instrument knowledge, balance sheet/market sector fundamentals, crop report data, economic indictaors, etc. However, it's understanding yourself, your habits good & bad, and what works with your investing/trading approach that is important. Such introspection can lead to consistency in a pursuit that can be anything but consistent.

The 23 point hitlist is a good aid for asking oneself what one is doing right and wrong. This book can take you a step closer in being sucessful in investing/trading. Like anything, it is what you make of it.

As a high school student with no piror knowledge in investment, this book teaches you the most important element to make sound investment - behave rationally.

In the first few chapters, the author focus on shapping up your brain to think like a master investor. He high-lighted the 7 sins of investment and uses very vivid examples to describe the difference mental habits of a looser investor from a master investor.

Great book, i definitely recommend for anyone who just started on learning investment. This would be a great asset to you

Tier's book provides a good summary of Buffett's and Soros' approach to investments, though it lacks specific analysis examples and sometimes drifts off into misstatements and overstatements.

Tier begins by showing how Buffett's trademark buying great businesses for considerably less than he thinks they're worth and then owning them "forever" is similar to Soros making huge, leveraged trades in the currency and futures markets. Both focus more on not losing money than making it, and shy away from diversification (requires too much time and energy to follow too-many securities).

Tier then claims that both believe you don't have to predict the market's next move to make big returns, and that risk comes from now knowing what you're doing. Neither Buffett nor Boros believes in the efficient-market hypothesis, and both look at fundamentals as well as likely future industry trends, along with politic.

Buffett seeks businesses with advantages such as lowest costs (Omaha Furniture Mart), a powerful brand name (Coke), market dominance (Washington Post), premium-priced, high-qualify products (See's Candies), while avoiding those in regulated industries or with heavy debt. High return-on-equity, and honest, competent management are also essential. Buffett particularly likes insurance companies because of the funds available through their normal float.

Buffett also doesn't like paying dividends (profits are taxed twice at the corporate and investor levels, and never gets good ideas talking to other investors. (First-hand discussions with experts and contrarians, however, are important to Soros.)

Both agree that when there's nothing to do, do nothing, keep quiet - you don't want others working against you. Finally, both are very frugal both in their business and personal lives, and don't do investing simply for the money.

Tier ends by comparing other legendary investors (eg. Carl Icahn - buys struggling companies selling below book value, and either forcing them to sell off assets or pay him greenmail to go away) with Buffett and Soros.

The "bad news" about Tier's book is that it is woefully short on specific examples that would help implementation.

This is a great book. Not because it tells you how to make a pile in the market but because it emphasises what your behaviour needs to be. At a time when I have been badly shaken by foolish mis-steps, this encourages one to overcome the self-doubt by talking about the mistakes and attitudes of well-known people's mistakes and their approach to the mistakes.

On the other hand for those who want a positive approach:
This is a book for buying and referring frequently because, rightly, you need to imbibe the habits and make them part of your mental make up - as adapted for you: not some fixed, rigid one-mix-for-all-diet type.

The only problem is you have to be honest with yourself.

Author Mark Tier applies Neuro-Linguistic Programming to investing. NLP is a discipline that says if you want to be good at something, emulate the thoughts of those who are masters and your own performance will follow. He collects all the information he can on Warren Buffett and George Soros and what they say they are thinking, and distills out 23 common elements. Then he compares this to several other investors.

The author then urges you to develop your own investing style and discover what your strengths are, rather than giving you particular advice or a system. He provides some advice on how to discover your investing style, but exactly how to develop one's own system is a little incomplete. What to do once you have it is very complete, although he gives an example of something John Templeton did late in life which seems completely outside John's system.

The book is an efficient way to gain insight into Warren and George without having to read multiple books by or about each man.

It also became clear to me for the first time that some people do become very wealthy only through investing, not through business or other means. So it is possible.

Warren Buffett's value philosophy is fairly well known, however the author gives the clearest account that owning a business and controlling the cash flow to make additional investments, a key point of Buffet's method, is not the same as just owning the stock, and a key difference between Buffett and his mentor Benjamin Graham.

Soros' investing philosophy is less well known, and the author provides insight into how Soros tests his ideas in the market before making the commitment to huge positions. Those of you interested in various "trading" styles might also want to check out The Complete TurtleTrader: The Legend, the Lessons, the Results.

Well written, easy to read and full of good advise for anybody who wants to invest in the stock market.

Unlike other books that try to sell you a method, or explain to you their method, this book here explains habits that two of the biggest investors/(Sorros is probably more a trader) use to amass their fortunes and constantly win in the markets. Then, it does something that so few books encourage it's readers to do (Van Tharp Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom being a clear and reccomended exception), it tells you that you are to look into yourself, and figure out a system that works for you. These are just habits, things that two great investors do in their trading that has made them successful.

The stock market is something that many people go into with vague hopes, with pension plans, or mutual funds for some interest, hoping that they'll pay off. Other people try to invest in a company they like--Peter Lynch's books can teach you brilliantly how he turned a mutual fund into something huge using that method--but a lot of people lack the will or the focus to do the research, the studying, and the ability to execute those buy and sell orders (emotionally) that the stock market will for most people remain a suckers bet.

With a book like this out there however, with its common and approachable language, it's to the point explainations, and it's brilliant juxtapositioning, you have a book that investors and traders alike should read long before ever buying their first stock.

To help design your own system, a few books that have helped my parents (investors) and me (trader).

Investing:
Benjamin Graham: The Intelligent Investor and Security Analysis (though some things have changed in the market, much of what's written in those books are pretty much biblical in their importance for intelligent investing and well worth the money).
Philip Fisher: Common Stocks And Uncommon Profits (The Intelligent Investor and the book Security Analysis can be considered the most important books for Value investing, then Fisher's must be considered the most important book for growth stock investing. It is one of the best books on finding stocks that will grow and grow).
Peter Lynch: Beating the Street and One Upon Wall Street (he was a massive diversifier, but learning how different people did it is always important.
Dorsey: The Five Rules For Successful Stock Investing (coupled with Keys to Reading an Annual Report) (These two books are astonishing in their key to investment wisdom. Coupled with the other books, you can be finding undervalued companies with growth potential in a matter of a few months, that in a few years will be worth dozens of dollars more than you bought them for).
Jim Cramer: Real Money (I am not a huge fan of his book, but the one thing he does promote is selling the stock. Buy and Hold in the stock market needs to become a dead aphorism, and his selling rules, and emphasis on Buy and Homework, is well worth the small price of the book).

Trading
Van Tharp: Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom (A brilliant book that lays bare the mental needs one must have for a trader and how to get yourself there).
Stan Weinstien: Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Beark Markets (though completely technical analysis, in trading, if you don't couple the fundementals with technicals, you can't expect big gains.
Martin Zweig's: Winning on Wall Street (This book focuses on a style of macro-analysis, taking the big picture, and then finding stocks that fit in the big picture, with government reports, global market, and the such.
William O' Neil: The Succesful Investor, 24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success, and How to Make Money In Stocks (okay, cheesy title I will admit, and it sounds like one of those books you get at your own peril. It's also a massive add for his newspaper Investor's Business Daily--though with the information I've gotten from the book it's my experience that if you have the time you can do the same thing with Barron's magazine. William O'Neil made himself millions by analyzing the market and shorting stocks and buying stocks before they broke in either direction. He supported his fledgling paper with his trades alone. His three books come to a little more than 30 dollars which you'll make back in weeks if you follow his rules).
Nicolas Darvas: How I Made Two Million Dollars in the Stock Market, Wall Street: The other Las Vegas (Another bad title, but a brilliant system called Box System, a system that has inspired William O'Neil and countless others).
Gearld Loeb: The Battle For Investment Survival (An old timers book that aged well and is still relevant).
Michael Covel: Trend Following (a brilliant book that gives a strategy called Trend Following that many successful funds have used).
Jesse Livermore: How To Trade Stocks (This poor Massachusetts boy, went from a small job at 14 or 15, at a stock brokerage, to making a hundred million dollars in the 1920's, his insight into the psychology of the market has saved me money and made me money).

I've read all these books and I think diversifying your knowledge instead of your portfolio and focusing key things that you think are important, and not being afraid to fail, which is a hurdle every trader has to overcome (one time missed out on a 20 point jump in less than two months, because the stock dropped slightly--not even below buying point--and I got scared). Live and learn, that's the major lesson. Start with this book, it's the perfect beginners guide in my opinion.