I’ve just finished John Kay’s The Long and the Short of It. In the terms of the analysts that the book derides, I’m upgrading my recommendation from a Hold to a Buy.The book does have some downsides: I think it over-promises on investment advice and, at times, it rehashes many ideas from the author’s regular columns in the Financial Times and elsewhere. For example, there is little in the chapter on future regulatory reform that isn’t said more succinctly in this Guardian piece. Perhaps this is a remnant of Kay’s working methods on his previous books The Hare and the Tortoise and Everlasting Lightbulbs, which were collections of columns by design. Still, this is only a problem for people who have read other John Kay books and articles. Readers new to his admirably direct and forthright style will not suffer this slightly disappointing déjà vu.

Despite these gripes, it’s still a good, and quick, read – a good deal better than Hugo Dixon’s Introduction to Finance, which I struggled through at the end of last year. In fact, I read Kay’s book so quickly that I’ve set aside half an hour this weekend to nip back through the investment advice sections and précis the advice. The big lesson I do remember (and it is a key theme through the book) is that holding many unrelated and diversified risks can reduce portfolio risk more than just holding supposedly safe blue chips. Frankly, the book was worth it for this advice alone.

It’s also worth mentioning that the book has a great ‘Bookshelves and bookmarks’ bibliography at the end, with some further reading recommendations. I’m now awaiting about six tomes from Amazon Marketplace to build up my investment library.