What books are great to read for breaking into Wall Street?

Barbarians at the Gate - just because Liar's Poker Intelligent Investor Security Analysis by Graham and Dodd - If you want to really dip your balls into some knowledge.

Rosenbaum's IBanking: Valuation, LBOs and M&A.

Monkey Business

Fooling some of the people all of the time

Forgot about Monkey Business. Entertaining read, made for the newbie / recent grad.

This is mainly (although not exclusively) for Investment Banking:

Theoretical: The McKinsey "Valuation" book "Investment Valuation" by Damodaran

Practical: "Investment Banking" by Rosenbaum and Pearl

Lifestyle: "Monkey Business" "Liar's Poker"

Classic read: "Barbarians at the Gate"

Cases: "Case-in-Point" by Cosentino

Too Big to Fail for recent/current goings-on in finance

just picked up Rosenbaum's book.

Wouldn't you think some of these titles may be a little dense and for someone only considering a career in finance/consulting? I would stick with easy titles to start - there's no need to pick up Damadoran or Rosenbaum's books unless you're really serious.

Said before but some of these light reads are: Barbarians at the Gate - Leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco and touches on the rise of the junk bonds Monkey Business - Funny day in the life of an IB associate The Greatest Trade Ever - John Paulson's hedge fund capitalizing on the mortgage crisis When Genius Failed - Academics found quant based hedge fund that leverages to the hill until their models fall apart

That should get you started.

Any entertaining reads similar to Monkey Business for the consulting world?

It's one of those books that tries to be douchey like LSO but falls short. It's one of the more satirical/bitter views of the industry, I'd say. Definitely not something you'd read to get a "feel" for the business but if you want a few laughs then it's alright. Personally, I say skip all that and just read something like Consulting 101 or any of the McKinsey books (McK Way, McK Engagement, McK Mind).

Vault Guide to Finance Interviews

I would like to know as well but I would like a current book more like from the view of one person (similar to Liars Poker and Monkey Business) but written within the past few years. Preferably about banking and not trading.

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If you're looking for something like Liar's Poker, Street Fighters was a really enjoyable read. It's all about the last 72 hours of Bear Stearns. Not long on technical detail, but a really quick read.

Street Fighters: The Last 72 Hours of Bear Stearns, the Toughest Firm on Wall Street

I'll look into Street Fighters Edmundo, anyone have other suggestions?

Gods at War, by the NY Times' Steven Davidoff

http://www.amazon.com/Gods-War-Takeovers-Government-Implosion/dp/047043…

I liked ScoopBooks Guide to I-banking. I found it to help a lot.

The Last Tycoons (same author as House of Cards which I think is written extremely well)

Agree, good book. Quick read. Great to have insight from top people all in one place. Would highly recommend to people beginning to think about wall street jobs.

Just skimmed some pages on Amazon - looks pretty good but probably for a beginner / undergrad student who doesn't know much about finance.

thanks for the heads up. just downloaded to my kindle!

bump

bump X 2

Anyone else?

Update: Nassim Taleb's 'Fooled by Randomness' Annette Thau's 'The Bond Book'

PM me if you want. Thanks.

Well, assuming you already own a Kindle you can download a preview of the book (i.e. Chapter 1) and see how you like it. If you don't own a Kindle, then for the most part it's ok, looking closely at graphs can be tricky and a bit time consuming.

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You can preview it on Amazon even if you don't own a kindle through their online kindle app just find the kindle version and preview it on their website. Also you don't need a kindle to read kindle books you can download the kindle app onto your computer.

http://www.careers-in-finance.com/ should help out

Thanks for that SirBarney! Looks like there's loads of good info on there. Investopedia also have some good articles. There isn't any established career book as such for this area at all is there?

This is for careers within banking:

http://www.unofficialguidetobanking.com/

Fountainhead. You'll learn more about the spirit of entrepreneurship from this book than anything you'll find in an MBA program.

Ummm...Hello? ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

Fountainhead for sure, I reread it every year. And I'm halfway through Eddie's book, it's pretty wild

How to use the WSO Search Bar by Will Hunting

Very helpful, could save you time, and change the way you view other members on this site. For instance, people who post topics that have been talked about ad nauseum.