Rock-Solid Reads
26 Must-Read Books About Markets
Alphabetical by the author’s last name:
Bass, Thomas A. - The Predictors-How a Band of Maverick Physicists Used Chaos Theory to Trade Their Way to a Fortune on Wall Street - An excellent and entertaining history of the origins of today’s high-frequency trading strategies
Bernstein, Peter L. - Against the Gods-The Remarkable Story of Risk - A history of managing uncertainty
Bollinger, John - Bollinger on Bollinger Bands - The rare technical analysis book on our list, and worth a read
Bonner, William & Rajiva, Lila - Mobs, Messiahs, and Markets-Surviving the Public Spectacle in Finance and Politics - An irreverent and entertaining examination of the dangers of groupthink and bad incentives
Bruner, Robert F. & Carr, Sean D. - The Panic of 1907-Lessons Learned from the Market’s Perfect Storm - A play-by-play accounting of one of the greatest liquidity crises of all time
Das, Satyajit - Traders, Guns & Money-Knowns and Unknowns in the Dazzling World of Derivatives - A deep dive into the world of complex derivatives and their association with the Great Financial Crisis
Faber, David - The Faber Report - A critical look at the machinery of the “sell side.”
Geisst, Charles R. - Wheels of Fortune-The History of Speculation from Scandal to Responsibility - A great book for history buffs
Green, Ben K. - Horse Tradin’ - An entertaining look at a different kind of trading
Hull, John C. - Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives - Widely considered the textbook on all things derivative
Kahneman, Daniel - Thinking Fast and Slow - An excellent look at the psychology that drives human decision-making
LeFevre, Edwin - Reminiscences of a Stock Operator - One of the single-most important books ever written about markets
Levitt, Steven D. & Dubner, Stephen J. - Freakonomics-A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything - An interesting look at correlation, causation, and incentive structures
Lewis, Michael - Liar’s Poker - A peek into the origins of the financialization of everything, and the dangers of ego
Lowenstein, Roger - When Genius Failed - A treatise on having too much confidence in one’s knowledge
Mandelbrot, Benoit & Hudson, Richard L. - The (Mis)behavior of Markets-A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin, and Reward - One of the most important mathematicians in history applies his innovative outlook to the markets
Natenberg, Sheldon - Option Volatility & Pricing - An in-depth guide to the nuts and bolts of options
Niederhoffer, Victor - The Education of a Speculator - This is one of our absolute favorites, and a must read
Parks, Tim - Medici Money-Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence - A great history book that shows the game has always been the same
Poundstone, William - Fortune’s Formula-The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street - A great history and explanation of ideal bet-sizing
Pring, Martin J. - Technical Analysis Explained-The Successful Investor’s Guide to Spotting Investment Trends and Turning Points - If you’re going to read a broad book about technical analysis, this should be the one
Schwed, Fred Jr. - Where Are the Customers’ Yachts?-or A Good Hard Look at Wall Street - A convincing look at who has your best interest in mind
Soros, George - The Alchem of Finance - Insights from one of the masters
Taleb, Nassim - Dynamic Hedging-Managing Vanilla and Exotic Options - One of the best manuals on practical risk management involving options
Taleb, Nassim - Fooled by Randomness - A thought-provoking book on mindset and uncertainty
Taleb, Nassim - The Black Swan - An eye-opening look at tail risk and the inability of traditional statistical models to work with extremely rare events