Favorite Books
What are some of everyone's favorite books? These books can be finance related and non-finacne related. Any books with good moral lessons, biographies, personal finance?
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Damn it feels good to be a banker, a classic.
Liars Poker, also a classic.
The Big Short, Michael Lewis
Random Walk Down Wall Street, Burton Malkiel
Clash of Economic Ideas, Lawrence White
A Universe from Nothing, Lawrence Krauss
Just picked up Fdr by Jean Edward Smith and it has been a fantastic read so far. Would recommend.
Master Key to Riches
Power of Your Subconscious Mind
Psycho-Cybernetics
Outliers
Not business related, but worth a read (we'll all experience it sooner or later):
Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers
When Genius Failed Hedgehogging The Gold Coast and The Gate House Liars Poker Skinny Legs and All
From the responses above, holy smokes this generation is intellectually impoverished. Here's one- "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius.
Finance Related -- Fooling Some of the People All of the Time
Not finance related -- Blood Meridian, Cat's Cradle, The Sun Also Rises
Atlas Shrugged. Great book and actually applies to the world today quite well
lol
The Alchemy of Finance
have you read "The End of Alchemy" by Sir Mervin King?
Thank you, I will add it to my reading list.
Road to Serfdom Slaughterhouse Five Extreme Ownership Too Big to Fail - The commentary of all the CEO's is illuminating to their thought process Getting Off Track - John B Taylor(short book but he is the probably the smartest economist of our time) Sapiens - First 150 pages Liar's Poker/The Big Short, pick one Starting Strength On War
Finance books: Barbarians at the Gate: amazing story of the botched MBO of RJR Nabisco that pretty sums up Wall Street in its heyday
Den of Thieves: all about the largest insider trading ring in history. Pulls together the junk bond boom, corporate raiders, etc. a great wall street history lesson.
Non-finance books: The Obstacle is the Way: several accounts of people who have endured extreme hardship looked at from a Greek stoicism perspective.
Thinking Fast and Slow: all about how human behavior is influenced by heuristics and biases. This one is probably my favorite and also the most useful book I have read.
It's a really long book (900+pages) that I read during my two years in the military. My favorite is "The Prize" by Daniel Yergin. It's an authoritative history of petroleum history from 1850 to 1990. It is only after reading this book that I realized that you cannot ever properly understand modern history without petroleum. It's really book full of unbelievable stories of people, companies, and nations around petroleum. I read books like Cosmos by Carl Sagan and bunch of other books (+20) while in the military but The Prize definitely stands out among all.
Extreme Ownership The War of Art Hillbilly Elegy How Starbucks Change My Life The Westies
a Tim Ferrrris fan?
Sure, but read most of those - except for EO - outside of Tim's influence.
Below are some of my personal favorites:
Liars Poker. Barbarians at the Gate. King of Capital. How to Win Friends and Influence People. Intelligent Investor. Wealth of Nations. House of Morgan. Titan - (Rockefeller Bio). The Last Tycoons. Den of Thieves. The Everything Store. Lords of Finance: The Bankers who Broke the World. The Man Who Knew: The Life and Times of Alan Greenspan. Digital Gold: The Untold Story of Bitcoin. ANYTHING J.R.R. Tolkien, literally. Scar Tissue. Long Walk to Freedom. War and Peace. The Art of War. Great Expectations. The Alchemist. The Accent of Money.
I think you will find most of these on Audible too - great for the morning commute to work.
Warren Buffet's favorite books (Originally Posted: 11/07/2016)
Given that this appears to be the week Business Insider posts, here is one I actually found to be helpful (regardless if this has been discussed before).
Warren Buffet's favorite books
For anyone toy lazy to actually click on the link: 1. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham (surprise, surprise) 2. Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham and David L. Dodd (second surprise) 3. Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip Fisher 4. Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises by Tim Geithner 5. The Essays of Warren Buffett by Warren Buffett 6. Jack: Straight from the Gut by Jack Welch 7. The Outsiders by William Thorndike Jr. 8. The Clash of the Cultures by John Bogle 9. Business Adventures: Twelve Classic Tales from the World of Wall Street by John Brooks 10. Where Are the Customers' Yachts? by Fred Schwed 11. Essays in Persuasion by John Maynard Keynes 12. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by Jack Bogle 13. Poor Charlie's Almanack edited by Peter Kaufman 14. The Most Important Thing Illuminated by Howard Marks 15. Dream Big by Cristiane Correa 16. First a Dream by Jim Clayton and Bill Retherford 17. Take on the Street by Arthur Levitt 18. Nuclear Terrorism by Graham Allison 19. The Making of the President by Theodore White 20. Limping on Water by Phil Beuth and K.C. Schulberg 21. Warren Buffett's Ground Rules by Jeremy C. Miller
Opinions?
"Warren Buffet's favorite books"
"5. The Essays of Warren Buffett by Warren Buffett"
nice ..
edit: I would like to see a list of the people Warren Buffet likes to converse with...
Yeah...my thoughts exactly.
I have read -The Great Gatsby -Outliers
Advanced organizational literacy - a year end book recommendation (Originally Posted: 01/04/2015)
I don’t know about you guys, but one of my favorite traditions around the holidays / year end is to pause everything for a moment and take stock of where I’m at and where I’m going. As part of this process, I usually enlist the help of a book or two, preferably something that puts a new spin on a set of ideas I’ve been kicking around. This year, the book I’ve been going through has been so refreshingly original and eye-opening, I felt it worthwhile to pass it along here in case any of you are looking for any last minute reading material as you wind down the holidays.
The book is The Gervais Principle by a blogger / consultant named Venkatesh Rao. It is a fairly short but very dense read. The topic at hand is workplace politics (or organizational literacy as Rao puts it), and over the course of Gervais’ 153 pages, Rao presents his framework that explains why the modern world of work is the way it is, and indirectly, your options for navigating it. This isn’t the first book to tackle such an important topic of course, but it is by far the best in my opinion, primarily because it is so devastatingly accurate in a highly original way. Instead of passing along a series of dos and don’ts or rules (which are often based on the false assumption that the workplace is akin to a battlefield or some sort of Game of Thrones drama), Rao constructs his thesis by dividing the workplace into a three tier, pyramid hierarchy (with people that run the company at the top, people that perform the labor at the bottom, and people that manage the labor in the middle), and performing an in-depth character study on the inhabitants of each tier.
While moving through the character study, something particularly interesting becomes apparent: people are bound to their particular tier based upon how they ascribe meaning to their lives. In other words, someone in the bottom, labor tier is never going to be running an organization unless he significantly alters his worldview. It’s a similar story for the middle and top tiers. With this central tenet in place, it becomes relatively easy to understand and explain organizational dynamics that may have previously seemed absolutely inscrutable.
This may all seem a bit esoteric at first blush, but I promise it will fall into place when you read the book. You can pick up the e-book on Amazon for a few bucks or read it for free online at ribbonfarm.com. I’d recommend the Amazon e-book, as it includes an excellent bonus essay on the movie Office Space. If the prospect of chucking your traditional career / life and creating a four hour workweek style existence sounds appealing, there are some interesting insights in this essay for you that may make you think twice.
Happy holidays monkeys.
thanks labanker! end of the year is when I catch up on my readings so this will be added to the list. how's your non-PE life going?
It's going really well. I think I'm more or less over the hump -- I have a good gig at a funded start-up and I'm reasonably confident in my skills and ability to meaningfully contribute. I also really enjoy the actual work, which is a nice change of pace from my PE days.
So yeah, still early innings but pretty happy with how things have turned out so far.
Just started reading, first chapter is super interesting. Thanks for the rec!
Book recommendation (Originally Posted: 12/19/2017)
Hey folks,
I applied to one of the hedge funds in my country and I was told that in two weeks time I will have an Excel task, which will follow up with a series of interviews. Hegde fund mainly focuses in such areas as infrastructure, energy and commodities. Therefore, since it will be my first interview with hedge fund's employees, would there be any informative book(-s) to read that would bring me more insights about hedge funds' activity and help me to excel the interviews?
Thanks!
What If? by Randall Munroe When to Rob a Bank by Steven Levitt
Not sure about books, but there are a lot of great Excel tutorials online. They might also test your knowledge of VBA, or at least be pleasantly surprised if you happen to know it, as it's also somewhat widely used.
Book Suggestions (Originally Posted: 10/11/2017)
So I just bought a copy of investment banking valuations by Joshua Pearl and Joshua Rosenbaum. I also have an audible copy of basic economics by Thomas Sowell. Do you guys have any suggestions for books like this? Preferably not narratives because we all know about Liars Poker Etc.
Romain Rolland, Jean Christophe. And a lot of other essays. Stefan Zweig, World of Yesterday, and almost all other novellas/short stories.
(Richard Feynman, Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman, read recently, don't like it that much, but fun to read)
Hey Bayoumonkey, I'm not sure how familiar you are with PE or what exactly you are looking for, but I am just starting to learn more about it. One book I just received a few days ago was Barbarians at the Gate (about the fall of RJR Nabisco). It's one of the most recommended books for people interested in investment banking and PE. Hope this helps!
Appreciate the suggestion
I have about 40-50 books on a list that I want to read. The most recently added and ones that have been bumped to the top: In Pursuit of Wealth: The Moral Case For Finance (Might not be up your alley, written by objectivists, more of a pleasure read) King of Capital: The Remarkable Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone Deals from Hell: M&A Lessons that Rise Above the Ashes
I love those "The king of XYZ" books. Sounds similar to The King of Oil but for PE.
The Art of war Barbarians at the Gate the prince (machiavelli) democracy (pluto) memories from prison (Mlk) etc.
Recommended Book (Originally Posted: 10/11/2010)
You guys should check out the new anotated version of Reminsces of a Stock Operator...it goes through the original text and uses margin annotations to put all the stories and characters in historical context. Really great for anyone who has an interest in the history of the 1920's and the history of speculation...also has a forward and an interview with Paul Tudor Jones. I just started reading it and its really interesting...i just ordered a bunch of copies for other guys I work with...
http://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Annotated-Edwin/dp/0…
Oh, definitely the Art of War. I heard good things about the others, but I haven't gotten around to read them yet.
You should take a look. Majority of these are fast to read.. Really open-minded
It looks really interesting. Thanks for this find.
I read this, it is incredible. Any other recommendations?
Les Miserables. Doesn't need an introduction, but this book details how you can control the outcome of your life. This story is about a convict, who was born into poverty and other miserable circumstances, who turned his life around.
Book Suggestions - Currently reading an interesting book (Originally Posted: 05/24/2010)
Folks, I am wondering what books everyone has read recently about I-banking that would be good reads. I am currently reading an interesting book "Money for Nothing: How the Failure of Corporate boards is Ruining American Business and Costing Us Trillions". It is interesting (not to mention I got it for FREE). But I was wondering what books you all suggest for reading.
Mod edit: Search
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/recommended-reading-list
Check this forum out and see what you have/have not. There are a lot of links posted so you should also look at those.
I just read Liar's Poker yesterday (in case anyone here hasn't read it yet); it was a great read in my opinion and I definitely recommend it. I just started reading Damn It Feels Good To Be A Banker, it's pretty funny. Next one will probably be The Smartest Guys in the Room about the Enron scandal.
Economic Facts and Fallacies -Sowell About Face - Hackworth Reinventing the Bazaar The Disciplined Trader Killing Pablo Kill Bin Laden Surviving Hell - Thorsness Bible - God The Art of War The Ranger Handbook Steal this Book Green Eyes Black Rifles
Books - Good suggestions? (Originally Posted: 02/21/2007)
Any good investment/hf/ib book suggestions?
http://www.ibankingoasis.com/node/56
The most important thing by howard marks
Non business related: beyond belief (Josh Hamilton)
Recommended Books (Originally Posted: 06/01/2007)
Hye, can you guys recommend some books to a college student who wants to get a good insight into finance? Books that can explain more technical things. Something different than Liar's Poker and others. Thanks
Hull
for fixed income try fabozzi-authored materials.
Yor-Revuz Continuous Martingales and Brownian motion Karatzas Shreve Brownian Motion and Stochastic Calculus these are some easy stuff to start working on...
Fabozzi - The Handbook of Fixed Income Options as a Strategic Investment Most everything by Michael Lewis except FlashBoys Applied Predictive Analytics Weapons of Math Destruction Big Data Fool's Gold Against the Gods Keynes v Hayek Securities Analysis (1934 edition only)
Probably many others but that is what comes to mind now.
Recommend Me a Book (Originally Posted: 06/29/2015)
Going to Europe for 10 days at the end of July, figured I'd use the long flights to start up a new book. I'm currently working in investment sales at a major brokerage on the office/industrial side. Thing is, I want to learn more about the buyside. What really makes an investment a good investment. Primarily in the multifamily space (my father owns a small portfolio and ideally I'd like to eventually take the reigns and grow it). Anyone know of any good real estate investment books to get more insight for someone in my kind of position? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Trammel Crow Master Builder
If you haven't read them already, Jorge Perez of Related Group wrote several books. All of which are really good in understanding the philosophy of building a real estate empire.
I read his powerhouse principles book a couple years ago, wouldn't recommend it unless your undergrad with way to much time on your hands
most important thing by howard marks
For real estate, I'd suggest The Real Estate Game by Poorvu. If you're looking for a more serious, textbook intro, Real Estate by Linneman is worth a look.
Its always entertaining to look back on books from the 90's. I loved "The Real Estate Game" but excerpts like these are gold:
"As I implied at the outset of this chapter, the recent resurgence of REITs has at least one salutary subplot. To the extent that the recent (1998) fall in REIT prices chases capital away from the real estate industry, we may void the kinds of overbuilding that have led to crashes in the past. Wall Street may do a better job of rationing capital--through its control of the sale of securitized mortgages and REIT shares-- than the thousands of S&Ls that previously dominated the game. If this turns out to be true, this will be a very good outcome, indeed."
Not with those cushy origination fees and friendly ratings agencies though!
bump
Anyone have some good recommendations for some beach reading? No textbooks more biographies or just interesting CRE books.
I would recommend the following two;
The Liar's Ball - a must read about the GM building The Great Crash - I believe a Wharton or MIT grad prof. bases a whole class on this
Skin in the Game is a great book... very interesting... covers all aspects of the RE crisis. Obviously very factual, but it doesn't read like a textbook. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
http://www.amazon.com/Skin-Game-Present-Investments-America/dp/14635076…
The sex god method
bump. Appreciate all the responses, but any good books for getting into multifamily investing in particular?
Other People's Money: Inside the Housing Crisis and the Demise of the Greatest Real Estate Deal Ever
King of Capital: The Remarkable Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone
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