What's your favorite finance related book?

What's your favorite finance related book?

The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham
16% (215 votes)
The Theory of Investment Value - John Burr Williams
0% (3 votes)
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits - Philip Fisher
1% (14 votes)
The Foundations of Finance - Eugene Fama
0% (4 votes)
One Up On Wall Street - Peter Lynch
3% (38 votes)
Damodaran on Valuation - Prof. Damoradan -
3% (35 votes)
Stocks for the Long Run - Jeremy Siegel
0% (3 votes)
Irrational Exuberance - Robert Shiller
1% (16 votes)
Technical Analysis of the Futures Market - John Murphy
0% (5 votes)
Continuous-Time Finance - Robert C. Merton
0% (3 votes)
Common Sense on Mutual Funds - John Bogle
0% (2 votes)
The Essays of Warren Buffett - Warren Buffett
2% (29 votes)
The Strategic Bond Investor - Anthony Crescenzi
0% (3 votes)
The Gorilla Game - Geoffrey Moore
0% (1 vote)
A Random Walk Down Wall Street - Burton Malkiel
2% (29 votes)
The Money Game - Adam Smith
0% (4 votes)
The Black Swan - Nassim Taleb
4% (51 votes)
The Alchemy of Finance - George Soros
1% (17 votes)
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator - Edwin Lefevre
2% (25 votes)
The Art of Short Selling - Kathryn Staley
0% (4 votes)
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds - Charles Mackay
0% (3 votes)
Monkey Business - John Rolfe / Peter Troob
7% (91 votes)
The Big Short - Michael Lewis
6% (79 votes)
Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis
12% (165 votes)
Market Wizards - Jack D. Schwager
3% (39 votes)
When Genius Failed - Roger Lowenstein
2% (28 votes)
The Richest Man in Babylon - George S. Clason
1% (8 votes)
The Wolf of Wall Street - Jordan Belfort
2% (29 votes)
Against the Gods - Peter Bernstein
1% (7 votes)
A Random Walk Down Wall Street - Burton Malkiel
1% (19 votes)
Barbarians at the Gate - Bryan Burrough / John Helyar
8% (110 votes)
Investment Banking: Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts, M&A - Rosenbaum / Pearl / Harris
8% (110 votes)
More Money Than God - Sebastian Mallaby
5% (68 votes)
The most important thing - Howard marks
3% (36 votes)
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World - Niall Ferguson
3% (43 votes)
Total votes: 1336
 

+1 on More Money Than God - great for those interested in HFs. Loved King of Capital, a history of Blackstone and a description of lots of its (good and bad) deals. Really liked Fooling Some of the People All of the Time (Einhorn's account of a long-term public short and all the drama associated with it). Liked The Accidental Investment Banker. Wolf of Wall Street 1 was nuts, 2 was good but not as good.

Anybody read Damn It Feels Good to be a Banker? Thoughts?

 
notthehospitalER:

Anybody read Damn It Feels Good to be a Banker? Thoughts?

I have. It was a good intro into what IB and ST are, especially for people who are just starting to think about their career paths (freshmen, sophomores), and it was entertaining. I read it in a day. A lot of the music and pop culture references are terribly out-dated, which just made it funnier.

 
thebrofessor:

A new one but a great one: The most important thing by Howard marks

Amen
"After you work on Wall Street it’s a choice, would you rather work at McDonalds or on the sell-side? I would choose McDonalds over the sell-side.” - David Tepper
 

My vote was for Against the Gods. First picked it up when I was browsing through my father's library and the cover art caught my eye. I was still in junior high school at the time. I re-read the book again when I was older.

The book has its faults, but I think Bernstein does a good job of taking complex ideas and weaving them into an accessible, entertaining piece of writing.

 

Ok, how many of you rookies voted for "Investment Banking: Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts, M&A - Rosenbaum / Pearl / Harris" just so that you could list it on your resume?!

Monkey Business FTW...However, I read it shortly before getting into banking and I refuse to read it until I'm out of banking for fear of breaking down into a ball of tears after realizing how accurate it was/is.

 

The Buffett bio by Roger Lowenstein. That book really changed my life/direction - I was 13 or 14 at the time and read it in a couple of days. For me that was the 'innoculation' of value investing that some talk about.

More recently, Competition Demystified by Bruce Greenwald has made me think more systematically about how to look at an industry and focusing on what drives competitive advantage (if any exists). Less of a wild goose chase now.

 

In terms of investing books: The Intelligent Investor Security Analysis You Can Be a Stock Market Genius Distressed Debt Investing (I'm leaving out Margin of Safety because I found it largely regurgitates The Intelligent Investor.)

In terms of books about finance: Barbarians at the Gate Too Big to Fail

(Big step down)

Liar's Poker Confidence Game Fooling Some of the People All of the Time The Vulture Investors (essential reading for distressed/deep-value investors)

 

Hard to pick but More Money Than God is easily one of the best books I have ever read, period. Very subjective, but it's incredibly easy to read, well-researched, informative, and full of great stories. Highly recommended.

The Big Short is a close second, as it's one of the most interesting things I've ever read.

"When you stop striving for perfection, you might as well be dead."
 

I am not an investment banker, not a PE guy, not a quant- just a business guy that owns a variety of businesses and real estate. I dont play stocks etc. But I am VERY disapointed no one mentioned Predators Ball or Den of Thieves. The o ly thing we learn from history, is that we dont learn anything.

Predators Ball should be required reading for anyone that wants to make real money and have freedom

 

No love for The Investment Answer? Super short, written by a dying financier and his friend, and is basically the "don't do dumb shit" primer for investor wannabes.

Currently: future neurologist, current psychotherapist Previously: investor relations (top consulting firm), M&A consulting (Big 4), M&A banking (MM)

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