Gaining market intuition

Hey guys, so I've just accepted an S&T offer at a BB starting this summer. However, even though I'm mildly familiar with option pricing, I feel like I still know next to nothing about financial markets. I was wondering if any of you had any suggestions as to resources I can look into to try to gain some intuition on what makes the financial markets tick. Perhaps some books on market microstructure? Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have little money, so investing is out of the question. Thanks guys.

11 Comments
 

Congrats on your offer. The best book on market microstructure is 'Trading and Exchanges': http://www.amazon.com/Trading-Exchanges-Market-Microstructure-Practitio…

In my opinion, market intuition is developed by consistently following the markets to the extent that you can eventually recognize patterns as events event. This process is grounded on past experience and cannot be captured in a book, but Soros' 'Alchemy of Finance', Schwager's 'Market Wizards' and Sperandeo's 'Trader Vic' present some interesting frameworks for analyzing the markets.

 
junior2012trade your own money actively. it gives you a much greater incentive to follow the markets and a different perspective on things

This.

I've been trading since I was 12, and I have completely abandoned hope on trading. It just never made much sense to me. What does make sense is investing in fundamentally sound companies when you see nothing but negative news in the newspaper and everyone else thinks you're crazy for buying.

Competition is a sin. -John D. Rockefeller
 

Don't stress about it too much, the intuition comes with experience of being around it 14 hours a day every day. Yeah maybe trading your own account will help (but it is different than being on an institutional desk, especially options desk), but at this point I'd say relax, you'll be surrounded by it and learning a ton in about 6 months. Congratulations on the offer. The best advice I can give is have a fun rest of the year.

Jack: They’re all former investment bankers who were laid off from that economic crisis that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have zero real world skills, but God they work hard. -30 Rock
 
junior2012is 14 hours a day standard for s&t at BB's?

I work 6:45-5:30 most days, sometimes more sometimes less.

Jack: They’re all former investment bankers who were laid off from that economic crisis that Nancy Pelosi caused. They have zero real world skills, but God they work hard. -30 Rock
 

you know next to nothing about the financial markets yet you get an S&T offer at a BB???

pardon my ignorance, but how did you get past the elevator doors?

 

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