This was based around action learning, where you look at a real problem from the workplace and apply development solutions. Dr Cliff Ferguson, 50, left college after O Levels and trained as a salesman. After a stint in Australia, he returned to the UK as sales director for multinationals, then became a business consultant. In 1992, he co-founded The PACE Partnership, with law, accountancy and engineering firms among its clients MY BIGGEST mistake was to believe for too long that people might listen to me and act on an idea of mine. I worked for a large organisation and decided to do a part-time MBA. Some of the bookis out of date, but it will give you at least a flavour of the rich variety of information available on day trading or more serious investing.Finally, I can also recommend Market Speculating by Andrew Burke, an introductory guide to spread betting.

Although it is sponsored by IG Index, one of the leading spread-betting firms, the book does not underplay the risks in this new and fast-growing medium for those who want to take leveraged bets on sporting events and financial markets.All these books are available at exclusive discount prices from The Independent Financial Bookshop at www.independent.co.uk/investment or by phone on 01730 233870. The first, The Book Of Investing Wisdom, contains writings by leading practitioners in the investment world. The second, The Ultimate Investor, is a collection of thoughtful essays on aspects of the investment process. Finally, Trading Online, although primarily directed at the new generation of electronic day traders, is one of the best single-volume guides to the online data and dealing services on the Internet I have come across. The story reminds us how most great advances in theory are taken up and frequently abused by the ambitious corporate titans of the day. (Despite LTCM's fall, I have no doubt the theory of options pricing and the understanding of derivative securities will eventually come to be seen as a powerful long-term benefit to humankind.)My list of recommended investment books this Christmas also includes three compendiums. Mr Neff sums up his approach to investment as "now and then a windfall, but mostly a four-yard gain and a cloud of dust".Common Sense on Mutual Funds, by Jack Bogle, the founder of Vanguard, America's leading exponent of tracker funds, is a straightforward and compelling explanation of why minimising costs is such an important discipline for anyone who invests through collective investment funds.Inventing Money, by Nicholas Dunbar, is another cautionary tale, this time about the rise and fall of Long Term Capital Management, the hedge fund that crashed last year, with a host of financial luminaries aboard, including two Nobel laureates.

The book is a mix of anecdote and shrewd observation on the way the investment world works.Two prominent figures in the American fund management business have also written books which merit attention by the serious student of investment. John Neff on Investing is an account of how one of America's most successful fund managers stuck to his tried and tested value-investing methods through thick and thin. Peter Stormonth Darling, as the first chairman of Mercury Asset Management, witnessed the remarkable transformation which saw the unloved fund management arm of Sigmund Warburg's once-mighty investment bank become one of the UK's leading fund management companies. Mr Kynaston has a remarkable ability to breathe life into character and to observe the City from more than one perspective.