The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution


Gregory Zuckerman - 2019
    No other investor--Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Ray Dalio, Steve Cohen, or George Soros--can touch his record. Since 1988, Renaissance's signature Medallion fund has generated average annual returns of 66 percent. The firm has earned profits of more than $100 billion; Simons is worth twenty-three billion dollars.Drawing on unprecedented access to Simons and dozens of current and former employees, Zuckerman, a veteran Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, tells the gripping story of how a world-class mathematician and former code breaker mastered the market. Simons pioneered a data-driven, algorithmic approach that's sweeping the world.As Renaissance became a market force, its executives began influencing the world beyond finance. Simons became a major figure in scientific research, education, and liberal politics. Senior executive Robert Mercer is more responsible than anyone else for the Trump presidency, placing Steve Bannon in the campaign and funding Trump's victorious 2016 effort. Mercer also impacted the campaign behind Brexit.The Man Who Solved the Market is a portrait of a modern-day Midas who remade markets in his own image, but failed to anticipate how his success would impact his firm and his country. It's also a story of what Simons's revolution means for the rest of us.

What Hedge Funds Really Do: An Introduction to Portfolio Management


Philip J. Romero - 2014
    We’ve comea long way since then. With this book, Drs. Romero and Balch liftthe veil from many of these once-opaque concepts in high-techfinance. We can all benefit from learning how the cooperationbetween wetware and software creates fitter models. This bookdoes a fantastic job describing how the latest advances in financialmodeling and data science help today’s portfolio managerssolve these greater riddles. —Michael Himmel, ManagingPartner, Essex Asset ManagementI applaud Phil Romero’s willingness to write about the hedgefund world, an industry that is very private, often flamboyant,and easily misunderstood. As with every sector of the investmentlandscape, the hedge fund industry varies dramaticallyfrom quantitative “black box” technology, to fundamental researchand old-fashioned stock picking. This book helps investorsdistinguish between these diverse opposites and understandtheir place in the new evolving world of finance. —Mick Elfers,Founder and Chief Investment Strategist, Irvington Capital

Philip A. Fisher Collected Works: Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits / Paths to Wealth through Common Stocks / Conservative Investors Sleep Well / Developing an Investment Philosophy


Philip A. Fisher - 2012
    FisherRegarded as one of the pioneers of modern investment theory, Philip A. Fisher's investment principles are studied and used by contemporary finance professionals including Warren Buffett. Fisher was the first to consider a stock's worth in terms of potential growth instead of just price trends and absolute value. His principles espouse identifying long-term growth stocks and their emerging value as opposed to choosing short-term trades for initial profit. Now, for the first time ever, Philip Fisher Investment Classics brings together four classic titles, written by the man who is know as the "Father of Growth Investing." Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits was the first investing book to reach the New York Times bestseller list. Outlining a 15-step process for identifying profitable stocks, it is one of the most influential investing books of all time Paths to Wealth Through Common Stocks, expands the innovative ideas in Fisher's highly regarded Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, and explores how profits have been, and will continue to be made, through common stock ownership—asserting why this method can increase profits and reduce risk Also included is Conservative Investors Sleep Well and Developing an Investment Philosophy Designed with the serious investor in mind, Philip Fisher Investment Classics puts the insights of one of the greatest investment minds of our time at your fingertips.

A Man for All Markets


Edward O. Thorp - 2016
    Thorp invented card counting, proving the seemingly impossible: that you could beat the dealer at the blackjack table. As a result he launched a gambling renaissance. His remarkable success--and mathematically unassailable method--caused such an uproar that casinos altered the rules of the game to thwart him and the legions he inspired. They barred him from their premises, even put his life in jeopardy. Nonetheless, gambling was forever changed.Thereafter, Thorp shifted his sights to "the biggest casino in the world" Wall Street. Devising and then deploying mathematical formulas to beat the market, Thorp ushered in the era of quantitative finance we live in today. Along the way, the so-called godfather of the quants played bridge with Warren Buffett, crossed swords with a young Rudy Giuliani, detected the Bernie Madoff scheme, and, to beat the game of roulette, invented, with Claude Shannon, the world's first wearable computer.Here, for the first time, Thorp tells the story of what he did, how he did it, his passions and motivations, and the curiosity that has always driven him to disregard conventional wisdom and devise game-changing solutions to seemingly insoluble problems. An intellectual thrill ride, replete with practical wisdom that can guide us all in uncertain financial waters, A Man for All Markets is an instant classic--a book that challenges its readers to think logically about a seemingly irrational world.Praise for A Man for All Markets"In A Man for All Markets, [Thorp] delightfully recounts his progress (if that is the word) from college teacher to gambler to hedge-fund manager. Along the way we learn important lessons about the functioning of markets and the logic of investment."--The Wall Street Journal"[Thorp] gives a biological summation (think Richard Feynman's Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!) of his quest to prove the aphorism 'the house always wins' is flawed. . . . Illuminating for the mathematically inclined, and cautionary for would-be gamblers and day traders"-- Library Journal

How a Second Grader Beats Wall Street: Golden Rules Any Investor Can Learn


Allan S. Roth - 2009
    Page by page, you'll learnhow to create a portfolio with the widest diversification andlowest costs; one that can move up your financial freedom by adecade and dramatically increase your spending rate duringretirement. And all this can be accomplished by using some commonsense techniques.Along the way, Kevin and his dad discuss fresh, new approachesto investing, and detail some tried-and-true, but lesser knownapproaches. They also take the time to debunk the financial mythsand legends that many of us accept as true, and show you what itreally takes to build long-term wealth with less risk.Discusses how to design a portfolio composed of a few basicbuilding blocks that can be "tweaked" to fit your personalneedsAddresses how you can reengineer your portfolio in order tostop needlessly paying taxesReveals how you can increase returns, regardless of whichdirection the market goes, by picking the "low-hanging fruit" weall have in our portfoliosWith just a little time and a little work, you can become abetter investor. With this book as your guide, you'll discover howa simpler approach to today's markets can put you on the path tofinancial independence.

Momentum Masters: A Roundtable Interview with Super Traders


Mark Minervini - 2015
    Mark Minervini returned 36,000% - a 220 percent average annual return with only one losing quarter. He won the U.S. Investing Championship with a 155% return. Mark is the Author of the best-selling book Trade Like A Stock Market Wizard; How to Achieve Superperformance in Stocks in Any Market. He is featured in Jack Schwager's Stock Market Wizards: Conversations with America's Top Stock Traders. David Ryan is a protégé of the legendary William O'Neil and a former money manager at O'Neil & Co. He won the U.S Investing Championship three years in a row, scoring triple-digit returns every year - his total return was 1,379%. David is featured in Jack Schwager's Market Wizards: Interviews with Top Traders. Dan Zanger turned $11,000 into $18 million in less than one-year during the late nineties. In two years, the former pool contractor's personal trading account ballooned to $42 million! Mark Ritchie II is the son of the legendary Mark Ritchie (Market Wizards, God in the Pits). He achieved a +100% return in his own trading account in less than 6-months to win Mark Minervini's 2010 Triple-Digit Challenge. Since then Ritchie II is up 540% - his total return since 2010 is over 1,000%.

Greenspan's Bubbles: The Age of Ignorance at the Federal Reserve


William A. Fleckenstein - 2008
    Fleckenstein, Greenspan's nearly 19-year career as Federal Reserve Chairman is even worse than anyone imagined. Labeled "Mr. Bubble" by the New York Times, Greenspan was nothing less than a serial bubble blower with a long history of bad decision-making. His famous "Greenspan Put" fueled the perception of a Goldilocks economy-but, as this explosive expose reveals, the bear has finally caught up with Goldilocks.Using transcripts of Greenspan's FOMC meetings as well as testimony before Congress, this eye-opening book delivers a timeline of his most devastating mistakes and weaves together the connection between every economic calamity of the past 19 years:The stock market crash of 1987The Savings & Loan crisisThe collapse of Long Term Capital ManagementThe tech bubble of 2000The feared Y2K disasterThe credit bubble and real estate crisis of 2007Fleckenstein explains just how far-reaching Greenspan's mess has been flung, and presents damning evidence that contradicts the former Fed chief's public naivete concerning shifts in the market and economy. He also points to a disturbing fact, that throughout his career, Greenspan not only made costly mistakes, but made the same ones-over and over again. And not only was he never able to recognize or admit to those mistakes, he constantly rewrote his own history to justify them.Greenspan's Bubbles offers a lock-stock-and-barrel portrait of a flawed but fascinating man whose words and actions have led a whole generation astray, and whose legacy will continue to challenge us in the years ahead.

Queen of Penny Pinching: Living a Royal, Spiritual and Joyful LIfe on Pennies


Kate Singh - 2016
    Learn all this and more in this fabulous little book packed with advice and tips to run your home, create household budgets, cut cost, reduce the grocery bill and keep those organics, garden in small spaces, and much, much more. This is a great book for everyone on a tight budget, in debt, one income families, or those of you living on fixed incomes.

Fooling Some of the People All of the Time, a Long Short (and Now Complete) Story, Updated with New Epilogue


David Einhorn - 2007
    Short sell Allied Capital. At the time, Allied was a leader in the private financing industry. Einhorn claimed Allied was using questionable accounting practices to prop itself up. Sound familiar? At the time of the original version of "Fooling Some of the People All of the Time: A Long Short Story" the outcome of his advice was unknown. Now, the story is complete and we know Einhorn was right. In 2008, Einhorn advised the same conference to short sell Lehman Brothers. And had the market been more open to his warnings, yes, the market meltdown might have been avoided, or at least minimized.Details the gripping battle between Allied Capital and Einhorn's Greenlight CapitalIlluminates how questionable company practices are maintained and, at times, even protected by Wall StreetDescribes the failings of investment banks, analysts, journalists, and government regulatorsDescribes how many parts of the Allied Capital story were replayed in the debate over Lehman Brothers"Fooling Some of the People All of the Time" is an important call for effective government regulation, free speech, and fair play.

Money, Banking, International Trade and Public Finance


M.L. Jhingan - 1989
    

The Age of Deleveraging


A. Gary Shilling - 2010
    Shilling explains in clear language and compelling logic why the world economy will struggle for several more years and what investors can do to protect and grow their wealth in the difficult times ahead. The investment strategies that worked for last 25 years will not work in the next 10 years. Shilling advises readers to avoid broad exposure to stocks, real estate, and commodities and to focus on high-quality bonds, high-dividend stocks, and consumer staple and food stocks. Written by one of today's best forecasters of economic trends-twice voted by Institutional Investor as Wall Street's top economist Clearly explains what to invest in, what to avoid, and how to cope with a deflationary, slow-growth economy Demonstrates how Shilling has been consistently right about major economic trends since he began forecasting in the early 1980s Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, this timely guide lays out a convincing case for why investors need to be prepared for a long period of weak growth and deflation-not inflation-and what you can do to prosper in the difficult times ahead.

Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes - And How to Correct Them: Lessons from the New Science of Behavioral Economics


Gary Belsky - 1999
    Most important, they focus on the decisions we make every day and, using entertaining examples, provide invaluable tips on avoiding the financial faux pas that can cost thousands of dollars each year.

Mad Money Journey


Mehrab Irani - 2014
    John Pinto decides to end it all by walking into oncoming traffic. But Life has other plans from him! Through a quirky twist of fate, John finds himself saved and launched into a financial pilgrimage across the world. Through a whirligig of exotic, shocking and sometimes dangerous encounters, he learns what it means to be financially independent.The school of Life introduces him to people who have learned the 10 commandments of financial freedom the hard way. From Afghani terrorists to Kenyan marathon runners, from Bangkok prostitutes to Chinese mystics and many more. Each soul on this incredible journey holds a key insight into the relationship between man and money. To achieve true freedom, he will have to face it all-a turbulent odyssey of hair-raising adventure, unexpected teachers, monetary rewards and an overarching mission.A dazzling novel, written with wit, compassion, intelligence and deep humanity, travel with John Pinto to unearth the secrets of a rich life.

The Money Game


George Goodman - 1967
    Samuelson, First American Nobel Prize Winner in Economics "The best book there is about the stock market and all that goes with it." —The New York Times Book Review "Anyone whose orientation is toward where the action is, where the happenings happen, should buy a copy of The Money Game and read it with due diligence." —Book World " 'Adam Smith' is a veteran observer and commentator on the events and people of Wall Street.... His thorough knowledge of financial affairs gives his observations a great degree of authenticity. But the joy of reading this book comes from his delightful sense of humor. He is a lively and ingeniously witty writer who never stoops to acerbity. None of the solemn, sacred cows of Wall Street escapes debunking." —Library Journal

The Bank Investor's Handbook


Nathan Tobik - 2017
    Perhaps you thought of grocery stores or something sexy like internet retailing, but chances are you didn’t think of banking. Yet, most likely you interact with a bank every time you’re paid and when you pay your bills. Banks facilitate the flow of money through the economy and even if you don’t interact with a bank daily, the businesses you deal with on a daily basis do. For all the interaction people have with banks, few understand how they work or why they work. Even fewer understand why they should consider including bank stocks in their investment portfolio. There are a lot of misconceptions about banks, including understanding what they are and what they do. For many people the word “bank” evokes images of receiving a toaster upon opening an account, or thoughts of security related to the storing of precious items in a safety deposit box. Others might go further and tap their inner Michael Moore and talk about how banks are greedy and evil. It’s our belief that banks aren’t just places to store idle savings (on which you receive virtually nothing in interest) or to cash checks, but that they should be an integral part of an investor’s portfolio. The goal of this book is to provide you with a foundation and framework with which you can both begin to understand banks, but also learn the basic tools used to analyze banks as investments.