If you want to learn how to invest in stocks, there should be plenty of college level books about reading financial statements of companies with regards to all kinds of standard key numbers or books on technical analysis.
Personally, I don't want to think of investing as throwing money after stocks, but rather seeing 'game changing' technology and then going in.
I know everyone has stories like this, but I remember telling everyone how cool the idea behind Bitcoin was years ago for example.
I'd like to think the true investor is good at spotting the beginning of trends or the importance of new technology while it still struggles. If I have learned anything it is that the mainstream is very slow to catch on.
Basically learning to spot what Nassim Taleb calls 'Black swan' events:
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The black swan theory or theory of black swan events is a metaphor that describes an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit of hindsight.
The theory was developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to explain:
The disproportionate role of high-profile, hard-to-predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance, and technology
The non-computability of the probability of the consequential rare events using scientific methods (owing to the very nature of small probabilities)
The psychological biases that make people individually and collectively blind to uncertainty and unaware of the massive role of the rare event in historical affairs
For example, as soon as the internet came out in the 1990s, the wheels started spinning about possibilites with the smartest people, the mainstream was still apprehensive.
Out of such situations arises opportunity for massive growth and also overnigth destruction.
An example is how Netflix destroyed video/dvd rental, but Netflix took a while to catch on, even so, wouldn't the smart person realize that this was a game changing moment?