Some notes on “One up on Wall Street”, by Peter Lynch

It’s always good to learn, a few choice notes from reading this (albeit) 10 yr old book are:

Private investor has some advantages – Wall Street/the City has to track the big ones, and doesn’t want to stick their neck too high above the parapet. Therefore, a lot of the upside of a small co is not captured by them.

If you don’t own a house, get one first before investing [historically, it’s often the best return/tax advantage (CGT free). It’s also leveragable. I wonder if his view has changed now that property became incredibly difficult to sell, prices collapsed, and dealing costs are high?]

P90-1

• Don’t overestimate the skill and wisdom of professionals
• Take advantage of what you already know
• Look for opportunities that haven’t yet been discovered by Wall St/City
• Invest in a house before a stock
• Ignore short term fluctuations
• Large profits can be made in common stocks
• Large losses can be made in common stocks
• Predicting the economy is futile
• Long term stocks are far better than long term bonds
• Most chatter is just influence/gossip/not real.