The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It


Scott Patterson - 2010
     They were preparing to compete in a poker tournament with million-dollar stakes, but those numbers meant nothing to them.  They were accustomed to risking billions.     At the card table that night was Peter Muller, an eccentric, whip-smart whiz kid who’d studied theoretical mathematics at Princeton and now managed a fabulously successful hedge fund called PDT…when he wasn’t playing his keyboard for morning commuters on the New York subway.  With him was Ken Griffin, who as an undergraduate trading convertible bonds out of his Harvard dorm room had outsmarted the Wall Street pros and made money in one of the worst bear markets of all time.  Now he was the tough-as-nails head of Citadel Investment Group, one of the most powerful money machines on earth. There too were Cliff Asness, the sharp-tongued, mercurial founder of the hedge fund AQR, a man as famous for his computer-smashing rages as for his brilliance, and Boaz Weinstein, chess life-master and king of the credit default swap, who while juggling $30 billion worth of positions for Deutsche Bank found time for frequent visits to Las Vegas with the famed MIT card-counting team.     On that night in 2006, these four men and their cohorts were the new kings of Wall Street.  Muller, Griffin, Asness, and Weinstein were among the best and brightest of a  new breed, the quants.  Over the prior twenty years, this species of math whiz --technocrats who make billions not with gut calls or fundamental analysis but with formulas and high-speed computers-- had usurped the testosterone-fueled, kill-or-be-killed risk-takers who’d long been the alpha males the world’s largest casino.  The quants believed that a dizzying, indecipherable-to-mere-mortals cocktail of differential calculus, quantum physics, and advanced geometry held the key to reaping riches from the financial markets.  And they helped create a digitized money-trading machine that could shift billions around the globe with the click of a mouse.     Few realized that night, though, that in creating this unprecedented machine, men like Muller, Griffin, Asness and Weinstein had sowed the seeds for history’s greatest financial disaster.     Drawing on unprecedented access to these four number-crunching titans, The Quants tells the inside story of what they thought and felt in the days and weeks when they helplessly watched much of their net worth vaporize – and wondered just how their mind-bending formulas and genius-level IQ’s had led them so wrong, so fast.  Had their years of success been dumb luck, fool’s gold, a good run that could come to an end on any given day?  What if The Truth they sought -- the secret of the markets -- wasn’t knowable? Worse, what if there wasn’t any Truth?   In The Quants, Scott Patterson tells the story not just of these men, but of Jim Simons, the reclusive founder of the most successful hedge fund in history; Aaron Brown, the quant who used his math skills to humiliate Wall Street’s old guard at their trademark game of Liar’s Poker, and years later found himself with a front-row seat to the rapid emergence of mortgage-backed securities; and gadflies and dissenters such as Paul Wilmott, Nassim Taleb, and Benoit Mandelbrot.     With the immediacy of today’s NASDAQ close and the timeless power of a Greek tragedy, The Quants is at once a masterpiece of explanatory journalism, a gripping tale of ambition and hubris…and an ominous warning about Wall Street’s future.

Buffett Beyond Value: Why Warren Buffett Looks to Growth and Management When Investing


Prem C. Jain - 2010
    Jain uncovers the key elements of Buffett's approach that every investor should be aware of.With Buffett Beyond Value, you'll learn that, contrary to popular belief, Warren Buffett is not a pure value investor, but a unique thinker who combines the principles of both value and growth investing strategies. You'll also discover why understanding CEOs is more important than studying financial metrics; and why you need an appropriate psychological temperament to be a successful investor.Reveals Buffett's multifaceted investment principles Discusses how Buffett thinks differently from others about portfolio diversification, market efficiency, and corporate governance Highlights how you can build a diverse and profitable investment portfolio With this book as your guide, you'll learn how to successfully invest like Warren Buffett.

Millionaire Traders: How Everyday People Are Beating Wall Street at Its Own Game


Kathy Lien - 2007
    And while you might not be a financial professional, that doesn't mean you can't win this battle. Through interviews with twelve ordinary individuals who have worked hard to transform themselves into extraordinary traders, Millionaire Traders reveals how you can beat Wall Street at its own game. Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, this book introduces you to a dozen successful traders-some who focus on equities, others who deal in futures or foreign exchange-and examines the paths they've taken to capture considerable profits.With this book as your guide, you'll quickly become familiar with a variety of strategies that can be used to make money in today's financial markets. Those that will help you achieve this goal include:Tyrone Ball: trades Nasdaq stocks almost exclusively, and his ability to change with the times has enabled him to prosper during some of the most treacherous market environments in recent history. AShkan Bolour: one of the earliest entrants into the retail forex market, he trades in the direction of the major trend, rather than trying to find reversals. Frank Law: a technician at heart, identifies a trading zone, commits to it, and scales down as long as the zone holds. Paul Willette: has mastered a method that allows him to harvest some profits right away, while ensuring that he can still benefit from an occasional extension run in his favor. Order your copy today and beat the Street.

Expectations Investing: Reading Stock Prices for Better Returns


Alfred Rappaport - 2001
    Rappaport and Mauboussin provide everything the reader needs to utilize the discounted cash flow model successfully. And they add an important twist: they suggest that rather than forecasting cash flows, investors should begin by estimating the expectations embedded in a company's stock price. An investor who has a fix on the market's expectations can then assess the likelihood of expectations revisions. To help investors anticipate such revisions, Rappaport and Mauboussin introduce an "expectations infrastructure" framework for tracing the process of value creation from the basic economic forces that shape a company's performance to the resulting impact on sales, costs, and investment. Investors who use Expectations Investing will have a fundamentally new way to evaluate all stocks, setting them on the path to success. Managers will be able to use the book to devise, adjust, and communicate their company's strategy in light of shareholder expectations.

The Warren Buffett Way: Investment Strategies of the World's Greatest Investor


Robert G. Hagstrom - 1997
    Buy it and read it." -Kenneth L. Fisher Forbes The runaway bestseller-updated with new material included for the first time! "The Warren Buffett Way outlines his career and presents examples of how his investment techniques and methods evolved and the important individuals in that process. It also details the key investment decisions that produced his unmatched record of performance." -from the Foreword by Peter S. Lynch Bestselling author, One Up on Wall Street and Beating the Street ." . . an extraordinarily useful account of the methods of an investor held by many to be the world's greatest." -The Wall Street Journal "Robert Hagstrom presents an in-depth examination of Warren Buffett's strategies, and the 'how and why' behind his selection of each of the major securities that have contributed to his remarkable record of success. His 'homespun' wisdom and philosophy are also part of this comprehensive, interesting, and readable book." -John C. Bogle Chairman, The Vanguard Group "It's first rate. Buffett gets a lot of attention for what he preaches, but nobody has described what he practices better than Hagstrom. Here is the lowdown on every major stock he ever bought and why he bought it. Fascinating. You could even try this at home." -John Rothchild Financial columnist Time magazine

Options Trading Crash Course: The #1 Beginner's Guide to Make Money With Trading Options in 7 Days or Less!


Frank Richmond - 2017
    All that jargon, all those calculations – it’s a hard game to break into and even harder to get right from the start. On the other hand, learning the ropes opens the door to an exciting new way to calculate risk, find the right investments and ultimately make your bank balance happy.This book is here to teach you how to understand the options market from scratch. By the time you finish reading, you’ll know exactly how to navigate your choices – and how to make them with wisdom. Let's Get Started With Option Trading! Options trading is all about understanding what lies beneath the market and this guide will walk you through that exciting process.Give it ONE WEEK and you'll TRIPLE your chances of making a profit on the options market. Give it a month and you'll see you're not just confident enough to make investments at will, you’re doing so in the right way to make a tidy deposit into your trading account. In this book, we’ll cover: ·         The types of trade and how each one can bring you a profit.·         Strategies to make the very best use of your investment capital.·         How to see patterns in the market, how to spot great investments – and how to make money.·         And much, MUCH more. If You Don't Read This Guide, You Risk LOSING YOUR LIFE SAVINGS on the Options Market These methods has been proven to work – a hundred times over. This book will show you that understanding the basic principles of the options market is not nearly so unfathomable as it appeared from a distance. All it takes is a few easy steps and you’ll start to feel a difference within a few short days – and all for less than the cost of a pocket calculator. See the Difference in Less Than a Week... or Your Money Back! If you follow the chapters in this guide and you find they don't work (not gonna happen) or you feel like they’re not for you, simply click one button within 7 days and Amazon will return 100% of your money. That’s how confident I am the answer to your problem is found inside – You will learn how to successfully trade options.Just scroll up now and click the BUY NOW button to start making a profit, today!

Masterclass with Super-Investors


Vishal Mittal - 2018
    Each of these investors has at least a few decades of experience investing in the Indian stock markets, and have successfully navigated the highs and lows of the market. They bring together different investment styles, thus giving us a variety of perspectives and tools to use in the market.The areas covered in the book are:– their background and how they started in the stock markets– evolution of the investment framework– case studies of their past investment successes– case studies of their mistakes (both omission and commission)– the process of idea generation and portfolio construction– views of investing in cyclicals, taking leverage, going short, timing the markets at the extremes– views on macros– developing the right temperament and habits– the process of wealth creation with capital milestones– advise to new investors

Graham and Dodd's Security Analysis


Sidney Cottle - 1980
    Now the fifth edition of this classic updates the application of the Graham and Dodd valuation approach for today's greatly changed investment environment.

MODERN VALUE INVESTING: 25 Tools to Invest With a Margin of Safety in Today's Financial Environment


Sven Carlin - 2018
    One way of doing that is through investing education. The book is my attempt to help with the development of a strong investing mindset and skillset to help you make better investment decisions. There is a gap in the value investing world. Benjamin Graham published The Intelligent Investor in 1949 with several subsequent editions up to 1972, while Seth Klarman published Margin of Safety in 1991. With more than 50 years since Graham published his masterpiece and almost 30 since Klarman's, there was the need for a contemporary book to account for all the changes in the financial environment we live in.Modern Value Investing book does exactly that, in 4 parts.Part 1 discusses the most important psychological traits a successful investor should have. Part 2 describes 25 tools that help with investment analysis.Part 3 applies those tools on an example. Part 4 is food for investing thought as it discusses modern approaches to investing. Approaches range from an all-weather portfolio strategy to hyperbolic discounting and others you can take advantage of when the time is right.

Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation


Edward Chancellor - 1996
    A lively, original, and challenging history of stock market speculation from the 17th century to present day.Is your investment in that new Internet stock a sign of stock market savvy or an act of peculiarly American speculative folly? How has the psychology of investing changed--and not changed--over the last five hundred years? In Devil Take the Hindmost, Edward Chancellor traces the origins of the speculative spirit back to ancient Rome and chronicles its revival in the modern world: from the tulip scandal of 1630s Holland, to "stockjobbing" in London's Exchange Alley, to the infamous South Sea Bubble of 1720, which prompted Sir Isaac Newton to comment, "I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people."Here are brokers underwriting risks that included highway robbery and the "assurance of female chastity"; credit notes and lottery tickets circulating as money; wise and unwise investors from Alexander Pope and Benjamin Disraeli to Ivan Boesky and Hillary Rodham Clinton.From the Gilded Age to the Roaring Twenties, from the nineteenth century railway mania to the crash of 1929, from junk bonds and the Japanese bubble economy to the day-traders of the Information Era, Devil Take the Hindmost tells a fascinating story of human dreams and folly through the ages.

An Altcoin Trader's Handbook


Nik Patel - 2018
    To you, I present An Altcoin Trader's HandbookThe exponential growth of the cryptosphere over the previous half-decade has brought with it a plethora of life-changing speculative opportunities. Where traditional financial markets seem inaccessible and ineffectual due to the prevalence of high fees and low returns, the emergence of a worldwide market of decentralised alternatives to Bitcoin allows for those unable (or unwilling) to navigate the often-slippery world of hedge funds and investment banks the chance to realise financial freedom.This, of course, is no effortless journey, and this book does not profess to be a get-rich-quick scheme of any sort. Instead, An Altcoin Trader's Handbook merges almost five years of tragicomic yet insightful anecdotes on the ever-evolving nature of the cryptosphere with a comprehensive strategy for profitable altcoin speculation. The book focuses on maximising the upside potential of capital whilst diminishing downside risks, both of which are possible with speculation on so-called 'microcap' and 'lowcap' altcoins, given the application of proper risk management. Above all, the reader will learn, in exhaustive detail, the three-stage process of research, accumulation and distribution that has been the bedrock of my own success in the space. The journey will be intensive - often arduous - but will, with some good fortune, result in an individual most well-equipped to capitalise on the greatest glut of financial opportunity the world has ever seen.

The Barefoot Investor: 2018/2019 Edition: The Only Money Guide You'll Ever Need


Scott Pape - 2018
    

The Great Reflation: How Investors Can Profit from the New World of Money


J. Anthony Boeckh - 2010
    But the full impact of the crises we have recently faced will create far more problems, and unless you're prepared, you'll struggle to regain your financial footing.In The Great Reflation, author Tony Boeckh helps you understand how these crises, and the policies passed to jumpstart the economy, will play out for investments and business, and provides you with the tools to excel in today's rapidly evolving financial landscape. He reveals how similar episodes compare with the current crises and what this could mean for your financial future.Arms you with practical insights that will allow you to evaluate different investment options Explores the implications of the end of the private debt cycle, the possible rise of a new age of thrift, and the new government debt crisis Reveals how you can profit from once-in-a-lifetime opportunities as well as proper portfolio allocation strategies While things may never return to "normal," you can still make choices that will allow you to prosper. This book will show you how.

Dirt Rich: How One Ambitiously Lazy Geek Created Passive Income in Real Estate Without Renters, Renovations, and Rehabs


Mark Podolsky - 2018
    Yet with Mark Podolsky’s tried-and-true technique of raw land investment, you can become Dirt Rich without ever having to battle with a tenant, toilet, or termite. In this step-by-step guide, Mark breaks down his “ultimate subscription model” for creating passive income through the niche of raw land investment. Featuring details on common pitfalls, tips on cultivating an investor’s mind, and advice on working smart instead of hard, this handbook will show you how to obtain a life of fiscal independence, with the flexibility to work where you want, when you want, and with whom you want. Financial freedom is within your reach. It’s time to make your dreams a reality by starting to think dirty.

Think Rich, Pinoy! An expose on why most Pinoys are poor while others are rich.


Larry Gamboa - 2004
    They set the ball rolling and wealth simply accumulates. They let their money work for them. For the author, the combination of a book, a game, a woman and an opportunity helped him get out of the rat race onto the fast track. Discover why most Pinoys are poor and the secrets of the rich Tsinoys.