TIMELESS INVESTING BOOKS

Mercatus’ core investing books are a cornerstone of the club’s approach to developing a long-term, disciplined mindset toward building wealth. These readings emphasize investor behavior, market history, and sound decision-making, providing a foundation for how to invest within the markets we analyze.

Recommended order

1. The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness

2. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns

Morgan Housel explains how human behavior, emotions, and personal experiences drive financial decisions, emphasizing that long-term success depends more on discipline and mindset than technical skill.

John Bogle argues that low-cost, broadly diversified index investing consistently outperforms most active strategies, highlighting how costs, taxes, and investor behavior erode returns over time.

3. Winning the Loser’s Game: Timeless Strategies for Successful Investing

4. The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing (Revised Edition)

Charles Ellis shows that modern markets are dominated by professionals, making outperformance extremely difficult, and that investors are better off focusing on diversification, discipline, and minimizing mistakes.

Benjamin Graham introduces the principles of value investing, including margin of safety, disciplined decision-making, and controlling emotions, emphasizing that successful investing is rooted in behavior, not prediction.

5. The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor

6. Investing in U.S. Financial History: Understanding the Past to Forecast the Future

Howard Marks focuses on risk, cycles, and second-level thinking, teaching investors how to think differently from the crowd and make better decisions under uncertainty.

Mark Higgins explores over two centuries of U.S. financial history, showing how market cycles, policy decisions, and investor psychology repeat over time and reinforce the importance of a long-term perspective.

7. How Not to Invest: The Ideas, Numbers, and Behaviors That Destroy Wealth—and How to Avoid Them

8. Stocks for the Long Run: The Definitive Guide to Financial Market Returns & Long-Term Investment Strategies, 6th Edition

Barry Ritholtz highlights common investing mistakes and behavioral traps that lead to poor outcomes, helping investors avoid costly errors and focus on sound long-term strategies.

Jeremy J. Siegel presents the historical case for long-term equity investing, demonstrating how stocks have consistently outperformed other asset classes despite short-term volatility.