Stocks for the Long Run

Jeremy Siegel, a Wharton School finance professor, takes an empirical, long-term view of financial markets from 1802 onward, mainly in the United States with some comparisons abroad. By his reckoning, stocks have averaged real returns of 6.5 to 7 percent a year over two centuries. Topics include stock and bond returns, large, small, value and growth stocks, taxes, global investing, gold and central banks, inflation, the business cycle, the crash of October 1987, technical analysis and calendar anomalies. Though the book has been called the buy and hold bible, Siegel concedes that some market inefficiencies can be exploited. James K. Glassman of The Washington Post ranked it among the ten best books on investing.

Ramit Sethi included it in a list of 50 books he recommends.