alchemy of finance by soros might be a good read though it's a little dense. However it's interesting if your motivated enough...

if you are "entertaining" yourself with a career in finance you should stick away from "mass media" books and try fabozzi's fixed income analysis or more technical books. This will see if you are really interested in finance or just "entertaining the idea."

You can search the forum on some other fixed income recommended books.

 

I am by no means one of those kids posting topics like "What should I wear to get an BB IBD position" or "What specific major and college should I be going to if I wanna be a MD in 2.3 years" as I've seemed to notice so much of on my short time on this board. What are some books that give specific insight into the basics of investing though? I really don't have even the remotest idea on how to value a stock and wonder if there was a good overview book that just gave me the fundamentals.

 
calisurf:
I really don't have even the remotest idea on how to value a stock and wonder if there was a good overview book that just gave me the fundamentals.

Well if you are talking about fundamentals the balance sheet and other financials would be a good place to start. If you didn't know about those then I would suggest business school.

 
Best Response

one of the things you have to understand about most of the kids posting here is they have focused so much time and energy into their learning, studying and overall education that its not completely surprising the majority (including myself) have no idea how to dress. theres a sub-conscious part here that they want to "play the part" of the position they are interviewing for.

the kids asking about education or clothes actually have more merit then you asking about books. there is no real "written" path to becoming an MD (you used the example). the only real one is climbing the ladder in IB until you get that position, some kids want confirmation if theyre major, curriculum, sacrifices, etc will make them competent, they want to be competitive in becoming an MD and thus asking the more senior members for advice.

the kids asking those questions understand there is an emphasis on being perfect or as close to it, i.e. good school, right major, high gpa, contacts, clothing, background, internships, etc. these kids are asking advice here because the reality is they are going to be "players"

i only wrote this post because there a part of me that got extremely irritated when you had the audacity to bash posters here when your question could have been easily answered by A) using the search function at WSO and B) using a search engine

it surprises me that someone who is a physics major (as so you say) is so clueless on how to find sources for information on the internet.

for future reference;

fundamental analysis and technical analysis are different as night and day. fundamentals focus more on the balance sheet of the company and are generally geared towards "investors" who tend to be longer term in nature (6,8,12+ months). technicals focus more on the charts and price action and tend to be speculated by traders who are mostly short term (intra day, swing trade over the course of a day or week)

 

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