The Four Pillars of Investing, Second Edition: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio

This new edition of the bestselling guide brings sophisticated investors—including institutional and individual investors, investment bankers, and those who want to follow in the footsteps of legends like John Bogle—up to date on ETFs, risk management, neuropsychological investing concepts, and more

Since its original publication two decades ago, The Four Pillars of Investing has become a classic guide for serious investors. The practicalities of investing, however, have changed dramatically, particularly pertaining to ETFs, and thinking has evolved about a host of key issues, such as lifecycle finance, the nature of risk, and basic finance and neuropsychological concepts. This new edition has been fully updated to address all these issues.

Retired neurologist and hugely popular finance author William Bernstein applies his trademark informal writing style to help you become more self-sufficient and make better-informed investment decisions. He walks you through the “four pillars” of investing:



The Theory of Investing: “Do not expect high returns without risks.”
The History of Investing: “About once every generation, the markets go barking mad. If you are unprepared, you are sure to fail.”
The Psychology of Investing: “Your greatest investment enemy is the face staring back at you in the window.”
The Business of Investing: “The investment industry wants to make you poor and stupid. Don’t let them.”



You’ll learn how to build a solid foundation for investing by focusing on these four essential lessons, each of which builds upon the other. The Four Pillars of Investing includes practical investing advice based on fascinating history lessons from the market, exercises to determine risk tolerance as an investor, and easy-to-understand explanations of risk and reward in the capital markets.

This unmatched resource provides the tools you need to construct a high-performance portfolio—without the help of a financial adviser.