“Investing: A Skeptic’s Guide”: New book shares accessible lessons

“Investimentos: o guia dos céticos” (“Investing: A Skeptic’s Guide”), a book published by FGV Press, constitutes an important contribution to the extensive body of literature that seeks to teach people how to invest. As a guide for skeptical investors, this book discusses what you need to know when investing.

To launch the book, a conversation with its authors – Paulo Tenani, Denise Menconi, Mohamed Mourabet, Marcel Borelli and Gustavo Jesus – will be held at Livraria da Travessa, a bookstore, at Iguatemi Shopping Mall in São Paulo, on April 11, starting at 7 p.m.

The book is organized by professors from Fundação Getulio Vargas’ Sao Paulo School of Economics (FGV EESP) and its Center for Studies in Investment Processes (FGV Invest), based on their professional and classroom experiences, together with professionals from the domestic and international financial markets.

The guide presents the most important concepts needed when it comes to investing, using easy and accessible language for a wide audience interested in learning about this topic.

According to its authors, the book is a halfway house between publications written by market professionals, often more concerned with teaching how to discover “unique” investment opportunities, and academic books, which are much more in-depth and technical, but more difficult to read.

Paulo Tenani, Denise Menconi, Mohamed Mourabet, Marcel Borelli and Gustavo Jesus, the book’s organizers, take as their starting point a well-known financial market saying by mega-investor Warren Buffet: “Any player unaware of the fool in the market probably is the fool in the market.”

Based on this saying, they argue that a good dose of distrust, or skepticism, is healthy for anyone who participates in a market with a high level of information asymmetry, as is the case with the financial markets.

The 224-page book consists of 14 chapters divided into three subsections. The first deals with what you need to know before investing. The second section describes some subtleties that are little discussed and usually only realized after many years of experience. Finally, the third section deals with how to invest efficiently, discussing how to build a portfolio, investment processes, fixed income, variable income and alternative instruments, and risk factors. 

Venue:
Livraria da Travessa
Iguatemi Shopping Mall, 2232 Avenida Brigadeiro Faria Lima, Jardim Paulistano, Sao Paulo

To acquire the book, click here.