The 10 Best Stock Market Books (2024)

Key Takeaways

Best Overall: The Intelligent Investor

Benjamin Graham’s tome was first published in 1949, but its tried-and-true approach to investing has stood the test of time. Think: Graham’s famed “value investing” philosophy, minimizing gains while limiting losses, and controlling one’s emotions when making investing decisions. The updated version includes commentary and footnotes by financial journalist Jason Zweig, a nice perk.

Best for Beginners: A Beginner's Guide to the Stock Market

Best-selling author and former hedge fund manager Matthew Kratter schools wannabe investors on how to really make money in the stock market, from avoiding common mistakes to figuring out which investing strategies really work—and which will cost you. This book helps readers develop their investing chops by explaining simple concepts, like where to open a brokerage account or how to buy your first stock, to more advanced concepts, like generating passive income or how to trade momentum stocks.

Best on Index Funds: The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

Penned by the legendary John C. Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group, “The Little Book of Common Sense Investing” zeroes in on one very specific investing strategy: index funds. More specifically, low-cost index funds. The 2017 version explains this strategy in detail, from investing in low-cost index funds (preferably one that tracks an index such as the S&P 500) to holding over the long term and then reaping the benefits. Is it sexy? Not really. But it’s one investing strategy that has stood the test of time. Bogle is also the author of “Common Sense on Mutual Funds” and “Enough.”

Best Skill-Building: How to Make Money in Stocks

Let’s face it. Anyone who’s ever invested in the stock market wants to do one thing: make money. But it’s not as easy as it sounds. That’s where William J. O’Neil’s bestseller, “How to Make Money in Stocks” comes in. It explains easy techniques for actually making money when you invest, from how to choose stocks that are on the cusp of large price gains to picking the best bonds, stocks, and ETFs, and even the most common mistakes investors make. O'Neil was the founder and chairman of Investor's Business Daily, a daily newspaper covering finance, economics, and the stock market.

Related: The Best Investing Books for Beginners

Best Conceptual: A Random Walk Down Wall Street

The updated version of this Wall Street classic helps investors understand important stock market concepts including exchange-traded funds (ETFs), emerging market investments, derivatives, and more. From Princeton economist Burton Malkiel, this book popularized the “random walk hypothesis.”

The random walk hypothesis states that one cannot consistently beat the markets, so it makes more sense to build a balanced portfolio that matches market performance. This idea also supports the efficient market hypothesis.

Fundamental concepts in the book include technical and fundamental analysis, whether or not actively managed mutual funds make sense, and other tried-and-true investment theories.

Best Classic Pick: Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits

Philip Fisher, one of the most influential investors of all time, authored this 1958 take on investing. “Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits” includes some of the author’s most valued investment strategies, most notably the scuttlebutt method in which a potential investor would gather information about a company from several different sources before investing in said company.

This updated version includes an introduction by Fisher’s son Ken Fisher, a successful investment professional in his own right.

Best for Long-Term Investors: Stocks for the Long Run

Each year, editor Max Olson adds more of Warren Buffett’s letters to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway to this compilation. Buffett’s letters tell the story of how a small, failed textile business turned into one of the biggest conglomerates in the world under his leadership. Sprinkled in the book, you can find tidbits about the economy, investing, management, and more.

The lessons here track the company from $18 per share in 1965 to about $473,000 per share as of the 2022 letter. If you can invest like Buffett, you should be on track to great investment success.

Best First-Person Account: The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing

Named for their loyalty to Vanguard founder John Bogle, the Bogelheads are a passionate group of investors who participate in the Bogelhead forum on investing, which has a staggering 130,000 members. “The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing” serves as sort of an extension of that, sharing the forum’s advice and giving readers a fairly simple guide to investing and building wealth, the Boglehead way. Author Mel Lindauer is a former Forbes.com columnist and was called "The Prince of the Bogleheads" by Jack Bogle himself.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why Invest in Stocks?

  A diversified portfolio with a long-term approach can help investors grow their wealth with the economy and stay ahead of inflation. It's also beneficial that there are two ways to earn money. One way is for the value of the stock to increase, but some stocks also pay dividends.

• What Risks Come With Investing in Stocks?

  There's no guarantee that stocks will increase in value. Even stocks that maintain their value might provide a net loss in value due to the impact of inflation. This is why it's important to have a diversified portfolio with multiple stocks from multiple sectors. That way, losses can be cushioned by growth elsewhere in the portfolio.

• How Is Investing Different From Saving?

  Investing is a form of saving in that it can be a way to generate additional money from savings. The trade-off is that investing comes with the risk of losing money. What most people think of as saving is a safe way to set money aside for the future or emergencies. Things like savings accounts may earn some interest, but it generally is less than inflation. The benefit is that there is no risk of loss.

Meet the Expert

Rachel Morgan Cautero has a master's degree in journalism from New York University and more than a decade of journalism experience, mostly in the personal finance sector. Most recently, she was the managing editor of DailyWorth, a finance-based media destination for women. She’s been published in SmartAsset, The Balance, The Atlantic, Life & Money, Parents, WealthRocket, and Yahoo Finance. These titles were selected based on author credentials, reader reviews, and any relevant awards.