Harriman’s New Book Of Investing Rules [Book Review]

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Harriman’s New Book of Investing Rules: The do’s and don’ts of the world’s best investors, edited by Christopher Parker, contains over 500 pages of wisdom from 64 noted American and British investors. It’s a smorgasbord of ideas from which the reader can pick and choose. Don’t like Brussel sprouts? Here, have some cheesecake. But, said in a cautionary whisper, you’d be better off with the Brussel sprouts.

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I hate to think how many years of successful investing experience are encapsulated in this volume. Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000. There aren’t too many resources that can claim this much collective experience.

Herewith a tiny sampling of some of the rules, minus the often much more insightful explanation that follows each of them.


Diversify, but not to mediocrity.

Concentrate, but not too much.

Hedge when the market’s expensive and falling.

Unless you are a genius use a system.

Don’t rely too heavily on models.

Beware of geeks bearing formulas.

Demographics are destiny.

Price is the paramount trading signal.

Be happy doing nothing.

Question the persistency of anomalies.

Understand your edge and why it is sustainable.

Review past stupidities, but don’t let them make you timid.

Only bet on one variable at a time.

It’s important that your process does not work in every market environment.

Don’t chop and change too much.

Be patient—fortune sometimes take a while to favor the bold.

Time, not timing, is the key to investment success. The best time to invest, therefore, is now.

Always remember that investing is hard.


Harriman's New Book of Investing Rules: The do’s and don’ts of the world’s best investors by Christopher Parker

Every investor needs an edge. Where better to look than the rules of the world's best investors?

These are the do's and don'ts that have driven profits in the billions. They are the practical precepts, and hard-earned wisdom, of many of the best investors in the UK and the US and further afield - of the fund manager who outperformed the market by staggering percentages for three decades in a row, of the private investor who once trained the professionals in the City, of the ex-hedge fund manager who now advocates the simplest investing system in the world.

And 50+ MORE of the most interesting minds in modern investing, from Wall Street to West London and back again.

The legendary Harriman Book of Investing Rules is back with a gripping new volume - packed with hundreds of pages of new content, bringing you the wisdom of the very best investing minds around the globe.

Article by Brenda Jubin, Reading The Markets

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