This book has some pretty solid chapters that cover investment bubbles, fundamental vs. technical analysis, modern portfolio theory, index funds, etc, all topics I was being exposed to by taking Robert Shiller's free Financial Markets course on Coursera (Yale University). However, I was finding Shiller's course to be lacking in its abbreviated form and needed some additional reading to aid in my understanding. That's where 'A Random Walk' came in and saved the day.
I work in education, not finance, and I believe it was David Ausubel who wrote that the single most important thing you can do when teaching someone is to anchor new content on the learner's existing knowledge/framework. This book is pretty helpful in that regard. It's more of an introduction to financial markets, but not so basic as to be something you could easily learn from online articles like those on Investopedia (which a great site, but this book is better organized and more cohesive).
So, in short: maybe start with this book, then take Shiller's course, and move on to actual finance textbooks if you're inclined to go deeper. Or, if you just want a casual, future retiree's introduction to financial markets and investing, this book will help plenty.
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