A

Curriculum
For The

Modern Investor
Patrick O'Shaughnessy

Education is the key to successful investingbut most never learn the

right lessons, or learn them when its already too late. This curriculum
which can be accessed mostly for free with a library card or kindle
unlimited subscriptionis meant to fix this problem.
Ive spent the last decade reading, watching, and listening to thousands of
different sources on the subject of investing. This curriculum lists only
the best of what Ive found. It covers all aspects of investingfrom basic
information about markets to detailed investment strategiesand will
leave you ready to build a successful portfolio. Lets get started.

In addition to the resources in this curriculum,

I send out 3-4 great books each month to subscribers.

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? How to use this curriculum

The books, articles, reports, videos, and interviews in this curriculum cover every
facet of money and investing.
I am breaking them up into the following topic areas:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Introductory
Market History
Market Overview
Investing Strategies
Investor Psychology: How to Get Out Of Your Own Way
Investing Lessons From Non-Investing Books
Entertaining & Educational
Counterpoints/Glass Half Empty
Business Stories
Blogs

Pick the topics that matter most to you and dive in.

1 Introductory
For those just beginning to learn about investing.
Simple Wealth,
Inevitable Wealth
by Nick Murray

The Little Book of

Common Sense
Investing

If I could hand just one book to a

novice investor, this would be it.

by Jack Bogle

The Potential of
Every Dollar

If You Can: How

Millennials Can Get
Rich Slowly

(on my website)
This brief article frames your
basic investment choices (stocks,
bonds, cash) in terms of the
potential of every $1. When you
startand what you buy
makes a huge difference.

Bogle, who created low-cost index

funds, has done more for everyday
investors than anyone else. A
lifetime of wisdom condensed into
a small book.

by William Bernstein
A 30 page, high level overview of
investing.

1 Introductory
For those just beginning to learn about investing.
Deep Risk: How
History Informs
Portfolio Design
(Investing for Adults)
by William Bernstein
Dont mind the daunting title,
this is a great overview of the
major risks in investing and how
to mitigate them.

The Behavior Gap:

Simple Ways to Stop
Doing Dumb Things
with Money
By Carl Richards

The Richest Man in

Babylon
by George Clason
Everything you need to know
about personal finance (its not
complicated) told through a fun
story.

Your Money & Your

Brain
by Jason Zweig
We are our own worst enemy
when it comes to money &
investing. These two books are the
antidote.

1 Introductory
For those just beginning to learn about investing.
This video, produced and narrated by Ray Dalio, explains the economy
in simple terms in just 30 minutes.

2 Market History
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. These sources will
help you learn from the mistakes of others.
Devil Take the
Hindmost

The First Crash

by Edward Chancellor

A short book about the South Sea

Trading Company bubble of 1720:
the first great market bubble.

The best collection of stories

about irrational investors and
the damage they do.

The Worldly
Philosophers: The
Lives, Times And
Ideas Of The Great
Economic Thinkers,

by Richard Dale

The History of Money

by Jack Weatherford
A page turner that will help you
understand the evolution of
money.

Seventh Edition
By Robert L. Heilbroner
History told through the eyes of
geniuses.

Read also my own (much briefer)

History of Money

3 Market Overview
Once youve formed a basic foundation, you can dive into markets themselves.
Triumph of the
Optimists: 101 Years
of Global Investment
Returns

The (mis)Behavior of
Markets
by Benoit Mandelbrot

by Elroy Dimson, Paul Marsh,

Mike Staunton

The Most Important

Thing: Uncommon
Sense for the
Thoughtful Investor

The Essays of Warren

Buffett: Lessons for
Corporate America,
Third Edition

By Howard Marks

by Lawrence A. Cunningham,
Warren E. Buffett

3 Market Overview
Once youve formed a basic foundation, you can dive into markets themselves.
More Than You
Know: Finding
Financial Wisdom in
Unconventional
Places (Updated and

The Outsiders: Eight

Unconventional CEOs
and Their Radically
Rational Blueprint for
Success

Expanded) (Columbia
Business School Publishing)

by William N. Thorndike

by Michael J. Mauboussin

Against the Gods:

The Remarkable
Story of Risk
By Peter L. Bernstein

Saving Capitalism
From Short-Termism:
How to Build LongTerm Value and Take
Back Our Financial
Future
by Alfred Rappaport

3 Market Overview
Once youve formed a basic foundation, you can dive into markets themselves.
Poor Charlie's
Almanack: The Wit
and Wisdom of
Charles T. Munger,
Expanded ThirdEdition
by Peter D. Kaufman (Editor),
Ed Wexler (Illustrator),
Warren E. Buffett (Foreword),
Charles T. Munger (Author)

Other articles:
This article, written by Cliff Asness and
John Liew, is the best Ive read summarizing the debate
between active managers (who try to beat the market) and
passive indexers (who just want to earn the overall markets
return).

Seven Immutable Laws of Investing, by the

great James Montier
Having a global portfolio reduces your risk. Heres why.
If you want to beat the market, you have to build a
different/unique portfolio. The legendary money manager
Howard Marks explains here.

Untangling skill and luck, a very useful paper from

Michael Mauboussin. More on the role of luck,
from Howard Marks.

4 Investing Strategies
Beating the market is hard (and it isnt for everyone), but these will help you on
your journey.
What Works on Wall
Street (Fourth Edition)

Contrarian Investment
Strategies

by by James OShaughnessy

by David Dreman

Uncovering the most successful

investment strategies of the past
60 years.

Why going against the grain is the

best way to beat the market.

The Little Book that

Beats the Market

Global Value: How to

Spot Bubbles, Avoid
Market Crashes, and
Earn Big Returns in
the Stock Market

by Joel Greenblatt
Buying good businesses at good
prices leads to great results (so
long as you stick to it!)

by Meb Faber
Buying the cheapest countries
around the world is hard, but
rewarding.

4 Investing Strategies
Beating the market is hard (and it isnt for everyone), but these will help you on
your journey.
Quantitative Value:
A Practitioner's
Guide to
Automating
Intelligent
Investment and
Eliminating
Behavioral Errors
(Wiley Finance)
by Wesley R. Gray, Tobias E.
Carlisle
Using the lessons of great
investors and researchers to
build a value based strategy.

Other articles:
High quality stocks beat low quality stocks
over the long-term.
Warren Buffett has succeeded by focusing on four key
ideas: value, quality, low risk, and smart use of leverage.

Read how here.

What Has Worked In Investing, a great paper
from Tweedy Browne that summarizes what strategies have
worked best over the long term.

A Brief Survey of Quantitative Investing,

great presentation by money manager Cliff Asness.

5 Investor Psychology
How to Get Out Of Your Own Way
Inside the Investors
Brain
by Richard Peterson
The best overview of the
investors brain and psyche. We
are wired to be bad investors.
Learning how is the first step to
overcoming our wiring.

The Little Book of

Behavioral Investing:
How not to be your
own worst enemy
by James Montier
Simple methods to get out of
your own way.

Mean Markets and

Lizard Brains: How to
Profit from the New
Science of Irrationality
by Terry Burnham
Why you should often do the
opposite of what your brain tells
you to do.

Thinking, Fast and

Slow
by Aniel Kahneman
The defining book on human
behavior, with countless lessons
applicable to investing.

Are We in Control of Our Own Decisions? A great TED talk by psychologist Dan Ariely

6 Investing Lessons From Non-Investing Books

These books offer general lessons that can be easily applied to investing.
The Checklist
Manifesto: How to
Get Things Right
by Atul Gawande
Why having rules (and the
discipline to stick with them) is
the key to success in many areas
of life..

Moneyball

Drunk Tank Pink: And

Other Unexpected Forces
that Shape How We
Think, Feel, and Behave
by Adam Alter
The title says it all: we are less in
control of our decisions and
behavior than we like to think.

by Michael Lewis

Expert Political
Judgment

How models beat humans.

by Philip E. Tetlock
Never, ever, ever listen to expert
forecasts. They are seductive and
entertaining, but usually wrong.

6 Investing Lessons From Non-Investing Books

These books offer general lessons that can be easily applied to investing.
The Success
Equation: Untangling
Skill and Luck in
Business, Sports, and
Investing
by Michael J. Mauboussin
The role of luck in our lives, and
why we should focus on process
instead of outcomes.

Who's in Charge?:
Free Will and the
Science of the Brain
by Michael S. Gazzaniga
A fascinating discussion of the
mind and our lack of control.

7 Entertaining and Educational

These books and interviews are cautionary tales about investor psychology, Wall
Street shenanigans, and market history.
Clash of the Financial
Pundits: How the Media
Influences Your
Investment Decisions for
Better or Worse

Reminiscences of a
Stock Operator
by Edwin Lefevre
The story of famed speculator
Jesse Livermore, who teaches us
that the investing game never
really changes.

Market Wizards,
Updated: Interviews
With Top Traders
by Jack D. Schwager
Learn lessons from the most
successful traders in history.

by Joshua M. Brown, Jeff Macke

Learn how to avoid the noise in the
news and focus on what matters.

Barry Ritholtz, one of the most widely read market

thinkers, has a series of phenomenal interviews with
legends of business & investing. Each contains valuable
lessons, you can find them all here.
Consuela Mack, like Ritholtz, interviews the leading
minds in finance and investing on her weekly program
Wealth Track. Each program is full of valuable
insights.

The best of value investing video : Part 1 & Part 2.

8 Counterpoints/Glass Half Empty

Peopletend to only read/notice information that confirms what they already
believe (this is called confirmation bias). I therefore find it useful to read books
that make cogent arguments against my central beliefs.
The Death of Money:
The Coming Collapse
of the International
Monetary System

The Decline of the

West - Vol I - Full
Formatting

by James Rickards
Why the U.S. dollar may face a
grim future.

Why the modern west looks a lot

like previous empires (Babylonian,
Roman, Egyptian, etc.) on the
precipice of decline.

Currency Wars: The

Making of the Next
Global Crisis

The Dependency
Agenda (Encounter
Broadsides)

by James Rickards

by Kevin D. Williamson

The secret world of currencies

and the dangerous nature of the
modern financial system.

Why we may have grown way too

reliant on government, and may
be unable to depend on
government come retirement.

by Oswald Spengler

8 Counterpoints/Glass Half Empty

People tend to only read/notice information that confirms what they already
believe (this is called confirmation bias). I therefore find it useful to read books
that make cogent arguments against my central beliefs.
The Clash of Generations:
Saving Ourselves, Our Kids,
and Our Economy
by Laurence J. Kotlikoff, Scott Burns
Why we have borrowed from future
generations to fund cushy benefits for
ourselves; and why that trend cannot
continue.

9 Business Stories
Owning stock is the same as owning partial shares in a business.
The Fish That Ate the
Whale: The Life and
Times of America's
Banana King
by Rich Cohen
One of the all-time great ragsto-riches stories about Sam
Zemurray, a Russian immigrant
who rose from nothing to
dominate the American fruit
business.

The Second Machine

Age: Work, Progress,
and Prosperity in a
Time of Brilliant
Technologies
by Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew
McAfee
A brilliant look at the future of
machines, automation, lifestyle,
and wealth inequality.

9 Business Stories
Owning stock is the same as owning partial shares in a business.
The Prize: The Epic
Quest for Oil, Money
& Power
by Daniel Yergin
Perhaps the best book Ive ever
read (disclaimer: its very long).

The Lights in the

Tunnel: Automation,
Accelerating
Technology and the
Economy of the Future
by Martin Ford
What kinds of skills will matter in
the future.

Business Adventures:
Twelve Classic Tales
from the World of
Wall Street
by John Brooks
Twelve great stories, all of which
could have happened today.

10 Blogs
There are many incredibly well written and informative blogs to check periodically.
philosophicaleconomics.wordpress.com

www.morganhousel.com

In depth discussion of investing topics written by the

smartest guy out there today (whos appeal is enhanced
by his anonymity)

Well written, sensible, and approachable investment

advice from one of the best financial writers of our day.

pragcap.com

Humorous but poignant takes on the major issues of

the day. A financial equivalent of Penn & Tellers
debunking show Bullsh!t

Cullen Roche writes about all things investing, money,

and finance. Also the author of the fine book
Pragmatic Capitalism

www.mebanefaber.com
If you like rules based, quantitative strategy, then Meb
Faber is the go to resource.

abnormalreturns.com
Check in daily for a list of the best stories out there. I
used to spend hours looking for interesting stories to
read. Now, with the help of abnormal returns, I spend
no time.

www.thereformedbroker.com

awealthofcommonsense.com
Clean, useful, educational posts covering all things
investing and personal finance.

www.ritholtz.com/blog
A one-stop-shop for news and insight on markets.

25iq.com
Lessons from legendary investors and venture
capitalists

Final Thoughts
It would be unreasonable to expect to get through all of
this, but that is not the point. Depending on your
current level of market knowledge, I hope that you will
find the appropriate resources in this curriculum to take
your investing plan to the next levelearning better
returns for yourself and your family in the process.

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