Back to Blog
Stack of five stylized investment books on dark blue background

Top Five Investment Books to Read in 2026

Andrew Izyumov, Founder & CEO of 8FIGURES, professional portrait
By Andrew Izyumov, CFA
Founder of 8FIGURES
Financial Freedom
January 12, 2026
5
min read

Investing is a long-term game, and staying ahead demands continuous learning. In 2025, several compelling investment books emerged, offering fresh perspectives on financial history, behavioral finance, market disruption, personal finance reforms, and asset fundamentals. This curated list highlights five groundbreaking works that every investor should consider to sharpen their edge in the evolving financial landscape.

1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History — and How It Shattered a Nation

This book is essential reading for investors who want to understand market crashes and financial cycles. Andrew Ross Sorkin provides a deeply researched account of the 1929 stock market crash, one of the most important events in financial history.

Using newspapers, diaries, government records, and historical data, Sorkin recreates the speculative boom that led to the collapse. He explains how Federal Reserve policy, political decisions, and investor psychology combined to create a fragile financial system.

Unlike simplified crash narratives, this book challenges common myths and shows that market downturns are rarely caused by a single factor. For long-term investors, it offers valuable lessons about risk, speculation, and systemic vulnerability.

Why it matters for investors:
Understanding past market crashes helps investors recognize warning signs and avoid repeating costly mistakes.

The Winner's Curse: Behavioral Economics Anomalies Then and Now

Behavioral finance plays a critical role in investing success. In this book, Nobel Prize winner Richard H. Thaler and economist Alex O. Imas explain how cognitive biases influence financial decisions in predictable ways.

The authors explore common behavioral errors, including overconfidence, loss aversion, sunk-cost fallacies, and emotional decision-making. Through real-world examples from auctions, insurance markets, and consumer finance, they show how these biases consistently affect outcomes.

The book also highlights practical solutions, such as default investment options and behavioral nudges, that help individuals make better financial decisions.

Why it matters for investors:
Recognizing behavioral biases can improve portfolio discipline and reduce costly emotional mistakes.

Fixed: Why Personal Finance Is Broken and How to Make It Work for Everyone

This book examines why personal finance systems often fail ordinary investors. John Y. Campbell and Tarun Ramadorai argue that financial outcomes are shaped more by system design than by individual knowledge.

They show how wealthier individuals benefit from lower borrowing costs, better investment access, and more favorable financial products. Meanwhile, lower-income households face high fees, expensive credit, and limited options. Rather than focusing solely on financial education, the authors propose structural reforms. These include simplifying financial products, limiting predatory practices, and designing consumer protections that work by default.

Why it matters for investors:
Understanding financial system incentives helps investors navigate markets more effectively and evaluate policy-driven risks.

The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip

Technology is a major driver of modern investment returns. The Thinking Machine tells the story of Nvidia’s rise from a niche chipmaker to a dominant force behind artificial intelligence and advanced computing.

Stephen Witt chronicles Nvidia’s strategic pivots, leadership decisions, and long-term vision under CEO Jensen Huang. The book explains why Nvidia’s GPUs became essential to AI development and how early investments in parallel computing reshaped the company’s future. The technical concepts are explained clearly, making the book accessible to investors without engineering backgrounds.

Why it matters for investors:
Understanding technological disruption helps investors identify companies with durable competitive advantages and long-term growth potential.

The Land Trap: A New History of the World’s Oldest Asset

Real estate and land are often considered safe investments, but The Land Trap challenges this assumption. Mike Bird explores how land has repeatedly fueled financial bubbles, inequality, and debt crises throughout history. The book traces land-driven booms from early America to modern Asia, showing how easy credit and policy incentives can distort prices. Bird emphasizes that institutions, governance, and economic structure determine whether land becomes a productive asset or a systemic risk.

Why it matters for investors:
Real estate investing requires historical and institutional awareness, not just assumptions about stability.

Practical Insights: Integrating These Perspectives

Investors can use insights from these books to strengthen long-term performance. Studying market history improves cycle awareness. Behavioral finance helps control emotional reactions. Understanding system design clarifies incentives and risks. Tracking technological change identifies future growth drivers. Evaluating assets in context reduces overconfidence.

Taken together, these works encourage a more disciplined and thoughtful approach to investing, one grounded in context rather than prediction. For investors looking to translate that understanding into day-to-day decisions, modern tools are increasingly part of the process. AI-driven investment advisors such as 8FIGURES aim to bring these principles together by combining historical data, behavioral insights, and real-time market analysis into practical portfolio strategies.

See also

Try it now!

Managing your investments has never been easier!

Link to App Store
QR Code to App Strore
Link to Google Play
QR Code to Google Play
Encrypted
We keep your data safe. Always.
Industry-leading privacy & bank-level security are at the heart of 8FIGURES.