I want to get into investing.
Hello all,
I currently work on Wall Street at a tech/financial firm. I work in network operations. I love it, I love the atmosphere of wall street. I'm making better money and want to invest it. My co-worker recommended this forum to me, and the book "A Random Walk Down Wall Street." I am half way through the book, and want to learn more. I'm not into a quick buck or gimmicks.
I'm looking to learn a ton, if you all have any tips it will be much appreciated.
You'll get the most out of this forum if you figure out what you are interested in first. Equity Research, Asset Management, Private Equity, Venture Capital, etc. Then have some specific questions to you that maybe haven't been answered before.
There are plenty of resources, guides and questions on this website. Just use the search function on the top right of the page.
You wanna learn how to bank investments bro? Just get on powerpoint and rearrange meaningless jargon and logos for 5 hours.
Seriously though get on SeekingAlpha and read up on stock analysis and find a particular industry you're interested in. Seems like you'd enjoy Tech Media and Telecom (TMT) which I am sure you are much more knowledgeable over than I am.
You don't necessarily need to learn financial modeling/valuation to put money in the stock market though. If that's what you mean by "skills of an investment banker". If you're really keen on doing so, there's plenty of free resources online like Breaking Into Wall Street or Wall Street Prep. They also have paid courses which I think WSO gives you a discount on. I've done Wall Street Prep and it's very helpful.
There are so many forms of investing that maybe your first action should be to explore what is available.
First there is the passive v active investing.
There is a misconception that passive investing is purely dump cash and withdraw either a profit or a loss. Investing in index's is a good way for most people to invest especially if they have time constraints. But there are so many types of index's that on a more macro level you can do research and invest in this way. A major benefit is the diversification that comes with an index.
Active investing can encompass anything from buying stock to selling credit default swaps to buying volatility and everything else under the sun (you can buy and sell volatility on an index too).
My advice would be to try and understand what you are interested in below I have listed some books to help you get started. Do not think you need to read them all nor read them all cover to cover some are simply good for reference / helping you to consider how to formulate investment ideas / how to look at companies. Some of these books are also very academic and in practice most people do not use that level of analysis to value a security.
John Maynard Keynes — 'It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong.'
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings (Wiley Investment Classics) Fisher, Philip A.
Trading Options Greeks: How Time, Volatility, and Other Pricing Factors Drive Profits (Bloomberg Financial) Passarelli, Dan
Dead Companies Walking: How a Hedge Fund Manager Finds Opportunity in Unexpected Places Fearon, Scott
Deep Value: Why Activist Investors and Other Contrarians Battle for Control of Losing Corporations (Wiley Finance) Carlisle, Tobias E.
Financial Statement Analysis and Security Valuation (Int'l Ed) Penman, Stephen H
Investment Valuation: Tools and Techniques for Determining the Value of Any Asset (Wiley Finance) Damodaran, Aswath
The Dark Side of Valuation: Valuing Young, Distressed and Complex Businesses Damodaran, Aswath
Business Analysis and Valuation Using Financial Statements: Text and Cases Palepu, Krishna G.
Valuation, University Edition, Sixth Edition: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies (Wiley Finance) McKinsey & Company Inc.
Investment Banking: Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts, and Mergers & Acquisitions (Wiley Finance) Rosenbaum, Joshua
good thoughts, +1. I help clients' kids with this all the time. here's all you need to know:
as for more book recs, here you go
interpretation of financial statements, ben graham version & warren buffett version
security analysis, 6th edition
intelligent investor, ben graham, skip the jason zweig commentary
millionaire next door, thomas stanley
not suggesting any bond books, this is not important from an investing standpoint, but you do need to understand how the bond market works. start with frank fabozzi, but that's less important than those basic principles.
also agree with DickFuld on automating it. if I didn't have the interest or time, I'd just buy VTWSX (or the ETF VT) on a monthly basis, set it and forget it, thank me in 20 years.