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I'm interesting in hearing comments from anyone who had read either of the books listed below. Both come highly recommended as key reading for global asset allocation. The downside is that they are quite expensive, several times the cost of the average book.

Asset Allocation: Balancing Financial Risk - Hardcover
~ Roger Gibson

Global Investing: The Professional's Guide to the World Capital Markets - Hardcover
~ Roger G. Ibbotson, Gary P. Brinson

Thanks for any advice.

Petey

I found Gibson's book to be excellent for understanding the Asset Allocation process. It is definitely more advanced than your general investing books (Bogle, Quinn, Clements), but it explains the process clearly. It talks about goals, risk tolerances, etc, and how to evaluate and intertwine them into a coherent plan.

I think it's geared towards financial advisors, but if you understood both of B. Bernstein's books (especially the first), you shouldn't have many problems. I'm sure if you had any trouble with it, you could ask the nice people here for help. Oh, and I found it at my local library for free.

- Alec

Hi Petey, I though both were excellent. Bernstein recommends them but you could probably invest just fine without them. (I know that your local library is unlikely to stock foreign books ) FWIW, I had to buy them (used) myself

Yeah, they are each around £40 ($60).

What I do feel that Bernstein's second book lacked was his thoughts on what assets were non-correlated with each other. Edmunds's Retire Early, Live Well covers that to some degree which highlighted the need for such knowledge and the surprising lack of it in Bernstein's latter book.

Another author's thought on different markets internationally and in the emerging market sectors would be useful however I understand at least one of the books is from the early 90s, if not both.

Petey

ataloss wrote: Hi Petey, I though both were excellent. Bernstein recommends them but you could probably invest just fine without them. (I know that your local library is unlikely to stock foreign books ) FWIW, I had to buy them (used) myself

I thought Intelligent Asset Allocater was more interesting (and more focused than 4 pillars) IAA and Gibson's Asset allocation were overlapping to a large degree.

1. Free- read them all
2. Cheap (buy used then resell online) read most
3. expensive- read selectively

I have an interest in reading Intelligent Asset Allocator. The opening section explained the difference between average and annualised, the specifics of which had been unclear to me until I read the excerpt on Amazon.com. For that reason I'm sure there will be other useful pieces of information not imparted elsewhere. However I do have a concern that the math may be beyond me. Formulas are beyond me frankly. John R and gummy's full of diagrams and fancy explanation charts is lost on me too.

It would be helpful, ataloss, if you could let me know how readable the book would be for me.

Thanks mate,
Petey

ataloss wrote: I thought Intelligent Asset Allocater was more interesting (and more focused than 4 pillars) IAA and Gibson's Asset allocation were overlapping to a large degree.

1. Free- read them all
2. Cheap (buy used then resell online) read most
3. expensive- read selectively

IAA is written at the level of the Efficient Frontier website. Fortunately, gummy's formulas are not a prerequisite :lol:

ataloss
fearing math contaning Greek symbols

Greetings Alec :)

Welcome aboard! :D

petey
IMO, Gibson is too detailed for an average "intelligent investor". I agree with ataloss that Bernstein's Intelligent Asset Allocator is more focussed than 4 Pillars and it is very readable for someone with sufficient interest in the subject - no obscure math formulae - only comonsense and logical thinking required. If I had to recommend only one book it would be the IAA.

If I had to recommend only one book it would be the IAA.

I'm sold KenM!

Trex

Thanks Ken. Even though they're all hardback, Intelligent Investor is half the cost.

Petey

KenM wrote: petey
IMO, Gibson is too detailed for an average "intelligent investor". I agree with ataloss that Bernstein's Intelligent Asset Allocator is more focussed than 4 Pillars and it is very readable for someone with sufficient interest in the subject - no obscure math formulae - only comonsense and logical thinking required. If I had to recommend only one book it would be the IAA.