Thank you for contributing and participating in the 30 Days to Becoming a Better Investor community event. I think we have learned a lot over these past 30 days. I hope our efforts have helped you become a better investor.

Now it is time to take our new-found knowledge and put it into practice.

Alexander Barbara of WealthJunkie recently discovered a way to read the first three chapters of Benjamin Graham’s “Intelligent Investor” for free. If you have not gotten a change to read this classic investment book, I highly recommend you read at least these first three chapters for free. I’m not the only one recommending it. Warren Buffett wrote, “I read the first edition of this book in 1950, when I was nineteen. I thought then that it was by far the best book about investing ever written. I still think it is.”

I have another tip about investment books to share with you today. Did you know that you can search many investment books online? Using Amazon.com you can search many books and read the pages that contain your search term! The only limitation is that you must be logged into Amazon using an account that has made a recent purchase. However, everyone can preview the cover, table of contents, index, and an excerpt from the book.

I often reference the following investment books:

• The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
• Security Analysis: 1934 Edition by Benjamin Graham, David Dodd
• Security Analysis: 1940 Edition by Benjamin Graham, David Dodd
• Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings by Philip A. Fisher
• Value Investing by Bruce C. N. Greenwald
• Investment Valuation by Aswath Damodaran (You can even read the whole manuscript of Investment Valuation here.)
• You Can Be a Stock Market Genius by Joel Greenblatt
• The Warren Buffett Way by Robert G. Hagstrom
• Damn Right! by Janet Lowe
• Yes, You Can Time the Market! by Ben Stein

I hope you find these links a useful reference. Let me know if I missed any important books on this list that you reference often. I’ll add them to the list.

Today’s tip on becoming a better investor comes from deep within my archives. Last year I started exploring investment alternatives when I was having trouble finding value opportunities in wide moat companies. I discovered arbitrage and special situation opportunities. Take a few minutes tonight to explore my initial thoughts on these unique investment opportunities.

Mike Price also recently wrote about special situations discussed in Joel Greenblatt’s book, You Can Be a Stock Market Genius.

Examining conflicts of interest between management and shareholders is critical when choosing companies that are worthy of your investment. Arpit Ranka examines these conflicts of interest. He discusses liquidation, expansion, buybacks, compensation, and the role of directors.

You can often find some information about conflicts of interest in proxy statements, and I recommend that you read the proxy statement of any company that you currently own or are considering purchasing.

Visit the summary page of the 30 Days to Becoming a Better Investor community event, and catch up on the old posts you may have missed.

How do you pick your stocks? Alexander Barbara over at WealthJunkie examines three paths you can take to picking stocks in his recent post, “From The Mail Bag: How People Pick Stocks“. I like Alexander’s focus on using your own brain, and not relying on a stock picking service, to become a better investor.

I hope you have recovered from all that turkey on Thanksgiving. There is a lot of learning still to come in the final days of the 30 Days to Becoming a Better Investor community event. There is still time to contribute as well, but don’t put it off any longer.

Shai Dardashti notes that value investing in 2005 is not strictly an American game anymore. This post is definitely worth reading, especially given the great exchange of comments associated with it.

Catch up on all the 30 Days to Becoming a Better Investor submissions by visiting the summary.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is the Thanksgiving holiday here in the United States. I hope you are able to spend some time with family and friends today. They are an important part of your success at becoming a better investor.

I am thankful for my health and that of my family’s. I am also thankful for my ability to participate in the stock market. I’m amazed that I’m able to share my thought and ideas here at Fat Pitch Financials and get such great feedback from my community.

I hope you were able to enjoy a great Thanksgiving today with your family. Thank them for being there for you even when you are obsessing over your investment.

I am sure you have seen all the newsletter pitches and other advertisements claiming to help you make amazing returns in the stock market. In reality, most of those services probably won’t even help you beat the market averages.

Mike Price of Value Investing, and a Few Cigar Butts just wrote an article challenging these claims that you can make 50% returns, even if you are as smart as Warren Buffett. Mike makes some good points, but I’ll let you decide if it is possible to make amazing returns.

A telltale sign that a company has a wide moat is that it has pricing power. Pricing power is when a company can raise prices without hurting overall revenues. Old Niu takes a closer look at pricing power and sales growth in his recent post, Buy the Expensive.

Catch up on all the past posts in the “30 Days to Becoming a Better Investor” series by visiting the summary page.

I finally pulled together my article on reviewing proxy statements. On day 9, I talked about using EDGAR to research companies. I mentioned that I would show you the key things to look for in a proxy statement. My post today on reviewing a proxy walks you through my research on Microsoft’s corporate governance. This is a very important skill for investors who want to avoid blow-ups resulting from bad corporate behavior.