Finance

3 books that will help you better understand the stock market and how to invest your money

Published

7 months ago

April 1, 2024

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The stock market can be a very difficult place for beginners to navigate. Before you start investing your money, you should have a fairly good understanding of how the stock market works.

Investing can be a way for your money to make money for you. That said, you work hard for the money you earn, and investing in the stock market without proper knowledge can cost you.

There are many resources out there to give you the knowledge you need to be confident in the investments you make. Books are one of many resources to explore.

The stock market can be a confusing place when you don’t have the knowledge you need. (iStock / iStock)

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Over the years, there have been numerous books written about the ins and outs of the stock market, and they all take different approaches. Some take a very data-driven approach, while others are more psychology and behavior-based. Certain books cover short-term investing, while others are more focused on the long-term growth of your money.

If you have never invested a dime before, or have just begun investing and want to know more, these are three books that will help you get a better understanding of how the stock market works.

“A Beginner’s Guide to the Stock Market: Everything You Need to Start Making Money Today”
“The Intelligent Investor”
“The Psychology of Money”

1. “A Beginner’s Guide to the Stock Market: Everything You Need to Start Making Money Today”

If you have no idea how the stock market works or what the first steps you should take are, this book is for you.

Think of “A Beginner’s Guide to the Stock Market” by Matthew R. Kratter as a “how-to” guide to investing. This book will answer all the questions you have and provide you with clear instructions on how to get started in the stock market.

Throughout this book, you’ll learn how to open a brokerage account, how to purchase your first stock, how to earn a passive income in the stock market, how to choose stocks and more.

2. “The Intelligent Investor”

“The Intelligent Investor” was written by Benjamin Graham in 1949 but remains one of the most popular stock market books to date.

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This book covers value investing, which is an approach that targets undervalued stocks that could perform well in the long term. This is not a short-term strategy, but instead teaches investors how their money can grow over a long period of time.

Close-up view a person's hands going over stocks on a smartphone.

Before you get into investing, pick up a few books that will teach you the basics of the stock market. (iStock / iStock)

Even though this book was written in 1949, a lot of the concepts put forth by Graham can still be applied today. That said, there was a revision published in 2006 so the book better reflects a modern market.

The revised edition of the classic business book offers commentary by financial journalist Jason Zweig.

3. “The Psychology of Money”

“The Psychology of Money” is slightly different from the others on this list. This book was published in 2020 by Morgan Housel.

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This book is more of a lighter read than many other money-based books. It focuses more on individuals’ behaviors and financial decisions, rather than math and data.

Knowing the basics of investing can help you accumulate wealth over time. (iStock / iStock)

As a stock market novice, it’s easy to get tangled up in the math and data. The style of this book is easy to digest, while still teaching about investing and money management in general.

Through the 19 different stories presented in the 19 chapters of this book, Housel is able to teach readers how to have a better relationship with money and finances.

Finance

China’s Alibaba claims AI translation tool beats Google, ChatGPT

Published

8 hours ago

October 16, 2024

Business Finance News

Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba has invested heavily in its fast-growing international business as growth slows for its China-focused Taobao and Tmall business.

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

BEIJING — Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba‘s international arm on Wednesday launched an updated version of its artificial intelligence-powered translation tool that, it says, is better than products offered by Google, DeepL and ChatGPT.

That’s based on an assessment of Alibaba International’s new model, Marco MT, by translation benchmark framework Flores, the Chinese company said.

Alibaba’s fast-growing international unit released the AI translation product as an update to one unveiled about a year ago, which it says already has 500,000 merchant users. Sellers based in one country can use the translation tool to create product pages in the language of the target market.

The new version is based only on large language models, allowing it to draw on contextual clues such as culture or industry-specific terms, Kaifu Zhang, vice president of Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group and head of the business’ artificial intelligence initiative, told CNBC in an interview Tuesday.

“The idea is that we want this AI tool to help the bottom line of the merchants, because if the merchants are doing well, the platform will be doing well,” he said.

Large language models power artificial intelligence applications such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which can also translate text. The models, trained on massive amounts of data, can generate humanlike responses to user prompts.

Alibaba’s translation tool is based on its own model called Qwen. The product supports 15 languages: Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian.

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Zhang said he expects “substantial demand” for the tool from Europe and the Americas. He also expects emerging markets to be a significant area of use.

When users of Alibaba.com — a site for suppliers to sell to businesses — are categorized by country, developing countries account for about half of the top 20 active AI tool users, Zhang said.

Chinese companies have increasingly looked abroad for growth opportunities, especially e-commerce merchants. PDD Holdings‘ Temu, fast fashion seller Shein and ByteDance’s TikTok are among the recent global market entrants. Many China-based merchants also sell on Amazon.com.

Contextual clues

Since Alibaba launched the first version of its AI translation tool last fall, the company said merchants have used it for more than 100 million product listings. Similar to other AI-based services, the basic pricing charges merchants by the amount of translated text.

Zhang declined to share how much the updated version would cost. He said it was included in some service bundles for merchants wanting simple exposure to overseas users.

His thinking is that contextual translation makes it much more likely that consumers decide to buy. He shared an example in which a colloquial Chinese description for a slipper would have turned off English-speaking consumers if it was only translated literally, without getting at the implied meaning.

“The updated translation engine is going to make Double 11 a better experience for consumers because of more authentic expression,” Zhang said, in reference to the Alibaba-led shopping festival that centers on Nov. 11 each year.

Alibaba’s international business includes platforms such as AliExpress and Lazada, which primarily targets Southeast Asia. The international unit reported sales growth of 32% to $4.03 billion in the quarter ended June from a year ago.

That’s in contrast to a 1% year-on-year drop in sales to $15.6 billion for Alibaba’s main Taobao and Tmall e-commerce business, which has focused on China.

The Taobao app is also popular with consumers in Singapore. In September, the app launched an AI-powered English version for users in the country.

Nomura analysts expect that Alibaba’s international revenue slowed slightly to 29% year-on-year growth in the quarter ended September, while operating losses narrowed, according to an Oct. 10 report. Alibaba has yet to announce when it will release quarterly earnings.