How many finance books/textbooks have you read?
A lot of these books that are recommended reading amount to some 500 pages each. Quite hefty. How many of these do you think people working in the industry - let's say in the markets - have read? I have a list of 100+ I would like to get through - granted, I am still in school - but it is clear it will take a long time.
Think books like Handbook of FI Securities (Fabozzi, 1531 pages), Art of Currency Trading (Donnelly, 418 pages), etc.
Recommended reading by who? Your school or your firm?
Found some good recommendations by searching for "recommended reading" on WSO, as well as, and I will use J.P. Morgan here as an example, searching J.P. Morgan reading list on Google - multiply that x50 for every hedge fund, bank, quant fund/prop shop out there - should yield a healthy amount of recommendations. Finally, you will question whether sinking this much time to reading - ultimately, a passive activity - is a productive use of your time, with, no doubt, visions of being a baller macro HF PM owning a megayacht and partying with swedish supermodels in your mind. Of course, only time will tell how if dreams do indeed become true.
To address your question: recommended by my desire for gainful employment (future HF PM baller) and a prosperous future (above).
I see. Keep at it. There are no guaranteed returns, but they certainly have high expected returns. And obviously, you don't have to go thru all of them
Currently in school as well, can you recommend any of that list that looks interesting? Looking to do some reading myself.
I am interested as well if you could expand on which books you’re reading
I can guarantee that you won’t get past 10 finance books, let alone 100.
What’s the point of reading 100+ finance textbooks? Perfect example of diminishing returns.
Perfect difference between who’ll succeed and who won’t.
I’ve spent some years in the industry and It’s clear as day that those who do the extra work outperform on the long run. Read a lot of those books so you can get the different perspectives on the market and market participants to build your knowledge base and bolster your lack of experience. Keep in mind those books (not all) are written by market participants with experience, both on and off the floor. The wealth of experience and knowledge in those books cover more topics than you can pick from interactions or bare google.
Of course you can’t read all of them at a stretch but it’s a solid habit to develop.
It's better to read the same great 5 books 10 times each
Bro if you want to get into finance just read the BIWS guide 100 times instead of finance textbooks lmao
I actually disagree with some of the replies here. I joined the buyside straight out of undergrad, and have worked for 3 of the biggest macro hedge funds (think Citadel/Millennium/Rokos/Brevan/Bluecrest), and if I were to attribute my “success”, it would be towards the fact that I voraciously read everything about macro. My profile was what some kids here would call “non-target” (wtv thats supposed to mean), and the way I showcased my value is through my extensive reading.
Think about what an edge is; it’s about doing things that other people are not willing to. As you can see not many people here are willing to read 500-page book or whatever, so if you somehow have the discipline to follow through go for it. Having said all that, finding good books/resources is half the battle, so make sure you plan well. But don’t over obsess about that either that you end up spending most of your time not reading.
Edit: Of course by no means that all you need to get a job is to read books. Ideally you would read, do the exercises if applicable, get the data and try to replicate/test out the things you read about. Can you be successful without ever reading any 500-page book? Sure. But I’ve worked directly under some serious risk takers (one guy manages ~1B absolute return macro book, and another guy is a partner at one of the firms I mentioned above, among others), and all of them are voracious readers about anything and everything. So make of it how you will.
This was extremely heartening to hear! I know there are a few threads about macro, but what did you personally find the most helpful to read in terms of textbooks/resources? What was your approach for going about turning the theory you learned in the book into unique trade ideas? As someone who wants to pursue a career in global macro, really would love your insight.
Books don’t matter. I was skipped over during undergrad buyside recruiting and had read 150+ and nobody cared. Did banking to break in and everyone was still more interested in my banking experience than what I had read.
What did you specifically read about Macro did you think was the most helpful? Books or other?
Any books you’d recommend?
The macro guys are always the most interesting in the room...but with a few exceptions most aren't good at performing unfortunately
Stupid question but how did you translate that into your CV? Impressive career start right out of undergrad but l'm struggling to understand how did you make yourself stand out in your resume like you did in reading? I'm a student who is also a fan reading a lot of for knowledge.
I agree with you that reading helps a lot especially in macro. I was interviewing for an internship under a semi systematic macro PM and my experience was almost all CS/programming and no finance. There was one screen for CS and math knowledge, and another for finance knowledge, followed by the main interview with the PM. The only way I was able to get past the finance screen was because I told the interviewer I read The Alchemy of Finance, which was one of his favorite books, and we talked about it the whole time.
Can i dm you??? You seem the first person to see it as i do.
0. Read a novel instead.
You don't really need to read any books. However you should focus on reading financial news daily and have a good macro and geo-political understanding of what is happening in markets and around the world. If you are really motivated you can try and read John Hull; honestly speaking that is the only book you will ever need for market finance.
I think a few comments are taking this question to mean different things. One side being that all you need to get a job is to read a bunch of books, and another side questioning how helpful it is to read all the books. I think pretty clearly just reading a lot of books is not enough to get a job on its own, although for interviews during undergrad I'm sure it helps to be a differentiator and to demonstrate passion (and also teaches you a ton).
I have gone through the majority of book lists you see out there, and a lot of them I have revisited when I was older + wiser and could apply it more deeply. I think the one thing I wanted to add is that sometimes being too involved in the books + philosophizing side can be a detriment, when what is most important is actually getting reps in looking at businesses or investment ideas and going through that feedback loop. Getting quicker at figuring out how to hone in on the most important stuff can't be trained from books - or at least not entirely trained from books.
Being an investor is a marathon and not a sprint, and you never really reach end state (AFAIK) - so you are constantly learning and improving. Most importantly, you are developing a framework for approaching the world, markets, investment analysis, value creation, etc. So the books are very very helpful for giving context to whatever market or situation you are dealing with and whatever your investment framework may look like, and overtime you will probably pull from quite a few disciplines as you add on your own slight flair (some book quote here about how you will never re-invent the wheel, but you will have your own style). I actually keep a word doc that I continuously edit with my "investment philosophy" and it pulls from a million sources + past investment experiences + my own convictions, and it continues to evolve.
Reading is especially important because it is how you learn the basics of the game from a multitude of approaches and it is where you can begin to develop your own convictions. At a certain point though, it is equally/more important to actually spend more time applying yourself to investment set ups, otherwise you are just philosophizing about hypothetical investment scenarios. I can't disagree more with the person who said reading books isn't that important though.
OOPS I didn't realize we were talking about the hardcore academic books vs. "books" in general.... so yea I sound like an idiot....
Anyways, on the equity side at least, McKinsey's valuation is great, and there are a few others that are important, but there is a point of diminishing returns I think. Know what game you are playing and know your knowledge gaps. Time is a super valuable resource, and there gets to be a point where knowing a ton more about the "science" of finance doesn't make a difference. If you play in arena where it makes a difference, obviously spend the time there.
I try to do the word doc/ journaling thing but I find it so cumbersome to keep up with. Always think faster than I can type and that frustrates me. Any tips for keeping everything nice and coherent, and more importantly, making it actually valuable as a resource that aids work?
I'd add, you can't read your way to success. However, investing is an area when you can get very close to reading your way to success because creates the knowledge base.
For example, if you want to play a sport, reading 1,000 books on basketball won't help as much as practicing shots. Reading a lot of books about investing or on topic verticals doesn't automatically make you a great investor, but the knowledge obtained does give you a leg up.
Not for markets, but for IB/PE/RX: Finance (Fabozzi), Corporate finance (Brealey + Berk + Vernimmen + Ross), IB (Rosenbaum), Distressed (Moyer), Valuation (McKinsey), Valuation (Damodaran), Accounting Principles (Kieso), Private Debt (Nesbit), Mezzanine (Nijs), Investments (Bodie) & Anatomy of Corporate Law (Kraakman). Not precisely textbooks, but as I come from a legal background, I also had read some of the guides around here (they're updated each year to remain relevant).
Also, the first 500-pages-textbooks may be harder because everything is new, and you expend more brain power/energy to assimilate the info, but after reading 2/3 textbooks, you'll read way faster because you get the idea, you understand where the argument is heading, and mostly you already came across this topic in another book; so it feels more like a 200 pages textbooks. Also, keep in mind that maybe 100 pages are introductions/questions/additional resources, etc. so it's easily bearable.
I will add that even for practicioners it's extremely important to read those books to refresh some perspecives that were lost by the monotony of the day-to-day activities, and sometimes, even to not forget the basics (maybe more relevant for the market guys lol)
Does Valuation by McKinsey and Damadoran offer different perspectives? They sound like the same thing. I am moreso worried about money spent on the books than the effort I am willing to put.
one book on each is enough, no worries
From gathering what people have said, my personal take on this has been:
Increasing your potential is always easier than actually achieving your potential.
Context: Got this from studying economic growth under Mark Meldrum. There are certain empirical drivers of economic output that countries can invest in, e.g., education, infrastructure, but that only raises potential output. No guarantee that the country can actually achieve that output.
Similarly, it's way easier to just sit, read, and think all day. You'll definitely become much more knowledgeable for sure, and your potential ceiling goes up. But actually achieving that potential is hard af. You gotta go out there, take risks and make bets, time things right, stick it out while being publicly wrong and ridiculed. You gotta get rejected by a hundred firms which pass you over for some guy's nephew or a diversity candidate. Being the smartest guy doesn't mean jack if you don't take action to break in and thus can't use all that knowledge.
Increasing your potential is also largely within your control (e.g., reading and thinking) but actually achieving that is not.
Blindly increasing your potential without taking steps to actually achieving that potential can also become dangerously comfortable. Yes, you're doing smtg productive so you feel good about yourself, but does that actually bring you closer to your goals? I think this is applicable to life and careers more broadly as well.
But on the other hand, lots of kids also go too deep down the other side. So many kids just focus on blindly cold emailing firms and memorizing canned answers to interview questions instead of rlly having an investment philosophy.
I’ve never read a finance book or taken a finance class in my life and I’m in the process at a top MMHF
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