Mats Larsson

How did you become interested in investing? Quite late and in an indirect way. I come from an academic liberal arts home; meaning business and investments weren’t a big part of the dinner table conversations. The interest started at Uppsala University where I wrote papers on finance and tried to hang around the cool guys in the trading room (yes, there was one in those days). But the real fire didn’t lit until I later worked in corporate finance and got to see the operations of a number of – soon to be listed or merged - companies from the inside.

Favorite book on investing? Right now, The Most Important Thing by Howard Marks. Otherwise my favorite investment character is Charlie Munger, or perhaps Ben Graham.

Favorite book all categories? The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich von Hayek, which I read on our honeymoon – don’t remind my wife!

If you could only recommend five books to a beginner, what would they be? In no rank order 1) Why Moats Matter by Heather Brilliant & Elizabeth Collins, 2) The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham, 3) Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip Fisher, 4) The Art of Execution by Lee Freeman-Shor and 5) The Most Important Thing by Howard Marks. Some of these the beginner will appreciate even more over time, but why start without ambition?

Most important take-away from a book? That’s impossible to single out. The insights that have shaped me the most are definitely the behavioral finance and investing research by James Montier and Michael Mauboussin that later turned into several books. Oh, and I had my wife paint a black swan above our front door!

Henrik Andersson

How did you become interested in investing? At first through my father’s investing, and then due to a very passionate teacher in high-school who really opened my eyes to how companies work, entrepreneurship and the difference between a company and stocks. But it was when I arrived at University of Nebraska on a tennis scholarship in the early 1990s that investing went from mere interest to something I really wanted to spend my life doing. Specifically, it happened in the fall of 1993 as Mr. Buffett travelled the hour it took from Omaha to Lincoln in order to present to a group of fortunate students – I being one of those lucky individuals.

Favorite book on investing? Poor Charlie’s Almanack.

Favorite book all categories? Poor Charlie’s Almanack.

If you could only recommend five books to a beginner, what would they be? The Intelligent Investor (Benjamin Graham), Value Investing (James Montier), Business Adventures (John Brooks), Poor Charlie´s Almanack (Peter Kaufman) and The Essays of Warren Buffett (Lawrence Cunningham).

Most important take-away from a book? To see investing as a long-term compounding game where the result depends upon the returns of underlying business develops, not to view companies as ticker-codes to be traded back and forth. (The Intelligent Investor).

How did you become interested in investing? A good question. For some to me unknown reason I began reading a Swedish weekly business magazine, Affärsvärlden, which my dad took home when I was around 14 years old, and found it intriguing. No one in my family had any interest in stocks but I managed to get a permission to buy 2 shares in 5 different companies, which was a home run. After that I was hooked. The first book I read was "Point & Figuremetoden", by a local swede, Sixten Öhman, who probably borrowed most of his material from the US. I did a lot of X & O manually which was very fun and seemed sophisticated. My parents were less impressed.

Favorite book on investing? One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch.

If you could only recommend five books to a beginner, what would they be? Value Investing (James Montier), One Up on Wall Street (Peter Lynch), How to Make Money in Stocks, William O’Neill, More Than You Know, Michael Maboussin, Fooled by Randomness, Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

Most important take-away from a book? Big question, I don't think there is one big finding, other than that thru trial and error, over time, as an investor you will find your own investment style with the help of reading different investment books of high quality.

Niklas Sävås

How did you become interested in investing? My grandfather mentioned that he had bought stocks in the IPO of the major state owned telecom company in Sweden, Telia, in the year 2000 (a terrible investment). I had been interested in making money from an early age and when I got to know what stocks were I was intrigued. However, it took some time until I made my first highly speculative trade (not close to being an investment). Later on I developed a more analytical investment approach.

Favorite book on investing? Poor Charlie’s Almanack, Peter D. Kaufman

If you could only recommend five books to a beginner, what would they be? Manual of Ideas, John Mihaljevic; The Little Book That Creates Wealth, Pat Dorsey; Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, Phillip Fisher; Poor Charlies Almanack, Peter D. Kaufman and Intelligent Investor 7th edition, Benjamin Graham (Jason Zweig version).

Most important take-away from a book? For me it’s the concepts of Mr Market and Margin of Safety that Benjamin Graham explains so well in The Intelligent Investor. Grasping these concepts will take a person a long way in becoming an investor as they explain the importance of psychology (you are your biggest enemy) and valuation in such profound ways.