Long Room Book List

Books for the Investment Professional

A Short List of Recommendations from the Long Room

Bagehot, Walter. Lombard Street: a description of the money market. 1873. “People panicked during a credit crunch or economic downturn on London’s Lombard Street of the 1800s just as they do on Wall Street today. That’s only one reason this reprint of the classic book by famed 19th-century economist Walter Bagehot offers lessons even now.” (nick)

http://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9781617430244/3331622882

Available free online:http://www.econlib...agehot/bagLom.html &http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4359

Carroll, Lewis. The Annotated Alice, Alice’s adventures in wonderland. Meridian. New York, 1960. Introduction and notes by Martin Gardner. The Pool of Tears and A Caucus–Race and a Long Tale chapters are instructive about the world of investment banks and some of the people who inhabit them: big egos, phony rewards, depression and tears. The book is filled with reasons why real professionals have to stay loose and be ready for anything (eg, Chuck Prince’s statement about dancing). (A Reader)


Clavell, James. Noble House. Delacorte Press, 1981. “Over one hundred years have passed since Dirk Struan founded Hong Kong’s oldest trading company. But now, the Noble House is in danger. As Hong Kong itself becomes the deadly playground of the CIA, the KGB and the People's Republic of China, rival tai-pans….” (mtm)


Churchill, Winston S. The Gathering Storm. Houghton Miff lin Company. Boston, 1948. “There are many tremendous books about failure and success in life. This one was selected because it is more contemporary and approachable than one about, say, the ups and downs of the Peloponnesian War. Financial professionals shouldn’t ever be too comfortable but be looking ahead for opportunities and, yes, a gathering storm. Be ready to cut losses (which means recognition and questioning). Never, ever, give up on trying to provide success to one’s clients. The crowd is not always right. (A Reader)


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http://www.econlib.org/library/Bagehot/bagLom.html

http://www.econlib.org/library/Bagehot/bagLom.html

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4359

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4359







Das, Sanjit. Traders Guns & Money: knowns and unknowns in the dazzling world of derivatives. Prentice Hall, Harlow, UK, 2006. “Ever since Warren Buffett memorably described derivatives as financial weapons of mass destruction there has been a thriller waiting to be written about them. Derivatives have frightened otherwise right-thinking people for some time. In part this ref lects a natural tendency to fear what we do not understand.” Financial Times

http://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9780273704744/4443216975 (A Reader)

Defoe, Daniel. The villainy of stock-jobbers detected, and the causes of the late run upon the bank and bankers discovered and considered. 1701. (corvid)

http://www.archive.org/details/villainyofstockj00defo &


Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. The Gambler. “Narrated by the character Alexei, who is addicted to gambling, this short novel is based on Dostoevsky’s own experiences as a compulsive gambler.” “Good, light reading.” (WEB)


Drobny, Steven. Inside the House of Money: top hedge fund traders on profiting in a global market. “Good insights.” “...lifts the veil on the typically opaque world of hedge funds offering a rare glimpse at how today’s highest paid money managers approach their craft. Author Steve Drobny demystifies how these star traders make billions for their well-heeled investors….” (HighFinancier)


Dunham, William. Anything on math. (Bagehot by-the-Bay)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dunham_(mathematician)

Galbraith, John Kenneth. The Great Crash 1929. “This work examines the ‘gold-rush fantasy’ in American psychology and describes its dire consequences. The Florida land boom, the operations of Insull, Kreuger and Hatry, and the Shandoah Corporation all come together in Galbraith’s study of concerted human greed and folly.” (Brian Marber)


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http://www.archive.org/details/villainyofstockj00defo

http://www.archive.org/details/villainyofstockj00defo







http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dunham_(mathematician

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Dunham_(mathematician



Gigerenzer, Gerd. Calculated Risks, how to know when numbers deceive you. Simon & Schuster. New York, 2002. “The author is a statistician who teaches in a law school. Subjects covered include uncertainty, the illusion of certainty, innumeracy and conditional probabilities (very important). Many financial professionals do not understand statistics—very dangerous for their clients. Go ahead, get this book—it’s a fun read. ( NB: the FT had a physician from Glascow as a columnist until last year, Margaret McCartney, whose writing also brings in statistics in a fascinating way. She still publishes at: http://www.margaretmccartney.com/blog/ ) (A Reader)


Hamsun, Knut. Hunger. New York Times review, 1920: “Its artistic quality is indisputable. The book is very real, very frank--distressingly and shockingly frank, some persons will no doubt consider it. But none can deny that it is life, genuine, if appalling.” (Mike13)


Kipling, Rudyard. Stalky & Co. 1899. “The psychology of Man and Boy as they are, not as political theorist and idealists want to believe they are.” (Itzman)


Klarman, Seth A. Margin of Safety: risk–averse value investing strategies for the thoughtful investor. HarperCollins, 1991. (NickClark) & (nick)

http://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9780887305108/4360185333 &

Free version: http://www.my10000dollars.com/MS.pdf

Koo, Richard. The Holy Grail of Macroeconomics: lessons from Japan’s great recession. John Wiley & Sons, 2009. “This book is about Japan’s 15-year long recession and how it affected current theoretical thinking about its causes and cures.” (praxis22)

http://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9780470824948

Krugman, Paul. The Return of Depression Economics. WW Norton & Co, 1999. “The author of ‘The Age of Diminished Expectations’ returns with a sobering tour of the global economic crises of the last two years.” (praxis22)


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http://www.margaretmccartney.com/blog/






http://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9780374505202/4426677411(Mike13

http://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9780374505202/4426677411(Mike13





http://www.my10000dollars.com/MS.pdf

http://www.my10000dollars.com/MS.pdf





LeFevre, Edwin. Reminiscences of a Stock Operator. 1923. “Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is the thinly disguised biography of Jesse Livermore, a remarkable character who first started speculating in New England bucket shops at the turn of the century.” (corvid & WEB)

http://www.archive.org/details/ReminiscencesOfAStockOperator &


Lowenstein, Roger. When Genius Failed: the rise and fall of Long–Term Capital Management. Financial Times: “Roger Lowenstein’s book is the closest anyone is likely to get to an authoritative account of the saga....[T]his is a meticulous account of how a financial and academic elite fell to earth.” (praxis22)


Mackay, Charles. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Barnes & Nobel, 2004. “Why do otherwise intelligent individuals form seething masses of idiocy when they engage in collective action? Why do financially sensible people jump lemming-like into hare-brained speculative frenzies--only to jump broker-like out of windows when their fantasies dissolve?” (Brian Marber)


Mandelbrot, Benoit and Richard L. Hudson. The (mis) behavior of markets, a fractal view of risk, ruin, and reward. Basic Books. New York, 2004. “Mandelbrot convincingly demolishes modern portfolio theory, which is based on the Normal ‘bell curve’ distribution. Professionals are fooling themselves thinking the mathematics of finance are correct. Real prices misbehave very badly, and the book provides information on how to face the high odds of catastrophic price changes. What you learned in business school is Wrong. Read the book and get on the right side of the business. (A Reader)


Mauboussin, Michael J. More Than You Know, finding financial wisdom in unconventional places. Columbia University Press, New York, 2006. “...is a good book on how to think about the market, there is clearly more to it than meets the eye :)” (praxis22)


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http://www.archive.org/details/ReminiscencesOfAStockOperator

http://www.archive.org/details/ReminiscencesOfAStockOperator











Mortimer, Thomas. Every man his own broker; or, A guide to Exchange-Alley. In which the nature of the several funds, vulgarly called the stocks, is clearly explained; ... (1769) (corvid)

http://www.archive.org/details/everymanhisownbr00mort &


Narang, Rishi K. Inside the Black Box: the simple truth about quantitative trading. John Wiley & Sons, 2009. “A well-written, thoughtful book.” (WEB)


Osband, Kent. Iceberg Risk: an adventure in portfolio theory. Texere, 2002. “A rare and sincere investigation looking beyond the crust and into the guts of financial risk.” -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb. (paver)


Pearl, Judea. Causality: models, reasoning and inference. Cambridge University Press, 2000. “Written by one of the pre-eminent researchers in the field, this book provides a comprehensive exposition of modern analysis of causation. It shows how causality has grown from a nebulous concept into a mathematical theory with significant applications in the fields of statistics, artificial intelligence, philosophy, cognitive science, and the health and social sciences.” (Bagehot by-the-Bay)


Poundstone, William. Fortune’s Formula: the untold story of the scientific betting system that beat the casinos and Wall Street. Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2006. “Filled in a few gaps in my financial history knowledge. It also discusses Claude Shannon who ranks as one of the true geniuses of the last century.” “...a fascinating study of the connections between such seemingly unrelated topics as gambling, information theory, stock investing, and applied mathematics.” (paver)


Ringer, Robert J. Winning through Intimidation. 1976. “If you've ever found yourself coming out on the short end of the stick, you’ll appreciate the rewards that can be yours when you take the initiative in every area of your life.” (Itzman)


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http://www.archive.org/details/everymanhisownbr00mort

http://www.archive.org/details/everymanhisownbr00mort













Rogers, Jim. A Gift to My Children: a father’s lessons for life and investing. Random House, 2009. “...shares a heartfelt, indispensable guide for his daughters….” (praxis22)


Schwager, Jack D. Market Wizards: interviews with top traders. HarperCollins, 1990. “This is one of the best-selling investment titles of all time. A collection of interviews with top traders gives insights into their stories of extraordinary investment success. Learn how these pros converted financial set-backs into greater-than-ever riches.” (big cat & Brian Marber; Marber also recommends the New version)


Schwed, Fred. Where Are the Customers’ Yachts? or a good hard look at Wall Street. John Wiley & Sons, 2006. “Insights delivered with gentle humour, and some good cartoons too.” Michael Lewis: “Once I picked it up I did not put it down until I finished...What Schwed has done is capture fully-in deceptively clean language-the lunacy at the heart of the investment business.” (big cat)


Simmons, Matthew R. Twilight in the Desert: the coming Saudi oil shock and the world economy. John Wiley & Sons, 2005. “Twilight in the Desert reveals a Saudi oil and production industry that could soon approach a serious, irreversible decline.” (praxis22)


Sloman, Steven. Causal Models: how people think about the world and its alternatives. Oxford University Press, 2009. “...a sadly amazing number of writers in the dismal ‘science’ and finance let alone financial reporters seem unaware of the basics of cause-and-effect, so I recommend a readable primer like Steven Sloman’s ‘Causal Models’.” (Bagehot by-the-Bay)


Smith, Adam. The Money Game. Random House, 1976. “Discusses the human factor in big business and offers behavioral studies of the professionals and amateurs of Wall Street.” (Brian Marber)


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Stephenson, Neal. Baroque Cycle. William Morrow & Co, 2003.“Which explains inter alia what Newton did to make money sound, the origins of English banking, the BoE and the stock market, what the South Sea Company really did, why Ireland and India are like they are and why the French are not that good with money (too snobbish). Plus a lot of picaresque romping.” (BBB+)

Volume 1 http://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9780380977420/4357008727

Tainter, Joseph. The Collapse of Complex Societies. Cambridge University Press, 1990. “Relax folks its happened before, it’s happening again and it’s all completely to be expected.” Itzman also recommends, in conjunction with this book, any book on chaos mathematics. (Itzman)


Taleb, Nassim Nicholas. Fooled by Randomness, the hidden role of change in life and in the markets. Random House. New York, 2005. “This is a much more approachable book than the more recent ‘The Black Swan.’ How to (try to) resist being fooled by randomness, and to (try to) not be fooled by nonsense, despite its polish and refinement. Also f logs modern portfolio theory, but not as devastatingly as Mandelbrot. If you want a video to review, check out Taleb at San Francisco’s Long Now Society back in 2008. (A Reader)

http://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9780141032740/4443723463 &

http://fora.tv/2008/02/04/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb_A_Crazier_Future

Thomas, Michael M. The Ropespinner Conspiracy. 1987. Amazon: “Taking its cue from Lenin’s line about capitalism selling the rope with which it will hang, the novel traces a long and complex plot, the brainchild of a Communist and an American economist, in which the underpinnings of the Western economy will be undermined from within.” “Paperback page turner perfect for a wet weekend or enforced rest/convalescence. Astonishingly prescient.” (zoomy boy)


Tolkien, J. R. R. R. (Lord of the Rings). “Let's face it, it’s big and long, and unlike Joyce, has some narrative. After 1,2,3 and 4, you will need some totally nostalgic escapist trash to recover a positive outlook, and when the lights go out, it will be something to do in the long summer evenings when you realise that despite knowing all the answers there was Sweet Fanny Adams to be done, to change anything at all.” (Itzman)

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&tn=lord+of+the+rings&x=0&y=0

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Trester, Jeffrey. Obscene Gestures of an Invisible Hand: financial doom and the death of culture—the lighter side. Lulu.com, 2004. “Jack Klein is a young theoretical physicist turned Wall Street wizard, using chaos theory to beat markets and questioning why he left the life of the mind. Then a f lammable hairpiece and irate commuters trigger a bizarre chain of events, collapsing a foreign currency and raising him to the pinnacle of finance.” (paver)


Triana, Pablo. Lecturing Birds on Flying, can mathematical theories destroy the financial markets? John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2009. Gillian Tett: “A thoroughly readable explanation of the problems that have beset the models and quantitative techniques that have underpinned so much of finance in recent years. If only the bankers had heeded this message a few years before, we might not be in such a big mess today.” (A Reader)


Tufte, Edward R. The visual display of quantitative information. Graphics Press. Cheshire, Connecticut, 1983. “Just one of Tufte’s books, this is about how to make information–packed graphs that also are attractive.” (A Reader)


Tufte, Edward R. Everything else he’s written. “If you work with quantitative information all of 4 of Tufte’s books belong on your bookshelf and a print of Minard’s Napoleon’s March to Moscow poster belongs on your wall.” (Bagehot by-the-Bay)

http://cartographia.wordpress.com/2008/04/30/napoleons-invasion-of-russia/

http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/

Vega, Josseph de la. Confusion de Confusiones. Amsterdam, 1688. “Chosen by the Financial Times as (one of) the Ten Best Books Ever Written on Investment.” (corvid)

www.dbnl.org/tekst...ga002conf01_01.pdf & http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=4432583963&searchurl=sts%3Dt%26tn%3DConfusion%2Bde%2BConfusiones%26x%3D0%26y%3D0

Wolf, Martin. Fixing Global Finance. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. “The latest book from Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf explains why global imbalances cause financial crises -- including the one ravaging the United States right now -- and outlines the steps for ending this destructive cycle.” (praxis22)


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http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/vega002conf01_01/vega002conf01_01.pdf

http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/vega002conf01_01/vega002conf01_01.pdf

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=4432583963&searchurl=sts%3Dt%26tn%3DConfusion%2Bde%2BConfusiones%26x%3D0%26y%3D0








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Long Room Book List