Bear Stearns was about to announce profits of $115 million for the first quarter of 2008, had $17.3 billion in cash on hand, and, as the company incessantly boasted, had been a colossally profitable enterprise in the eighty-five years since its founding.Ten days later, Bear Stearns no longer existed, and the calamitous financial meltdown of 2008 had begun.How this happened – and why – is the subject of William D. Cohan’s superb and shocking narrative that chronicles the fall of Bear Stearns and the end of the Second Gilded Age on Wall Street. Bear Stearns serves as the Rosetta Stone to explain how a combination of risky bets, corporate political infighting, lax government regulations and truly bad decision-making wrought havoc on the world financial system.Cohan’s minute-by-minute account of those ten days in March makes for breathless reading, as the bankers at Bear Stearns struggled to contain the cascading series of events that would doom the firm, and as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, New York Federal Reserve Bank President Tim Geithner, and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke began to realize the dire consequences for the world economy should the company go bankrupt. But HOUSE OF CARDS does more than recount the incredible panic of the first stages of the financial meltdown. William D. Cohan beautifully demonstrates why the seemingly invincible Wall Street money machine came crashing down. He chronicles the swashbuckling corporate culture of Bear Stearns, the strangely crucial role competitive bridge played in the company’s fortunes, the brutal internecine battles for power, and the deadly combination of greed and inattention that helps to explain why the company’s leaders ignored the danger lurking in Bear’s huge positions in mortgage-backed securities.The author deftly portrays larger-than-life personalities like Ace Greenberg, Bear Stearns’ miserly, take-no-prisoners chairman whose memos about re-using paper clips were legendary throughout Wall Street; his profane, colorful rival and eventual heir Jimmy Cayne, whose world-champion-level bridge skills were a lever in his corporate rise and became a symbol of the reasons for the firm’s demise; and Jamie Dimon, the blunt-talking CEO of JPMorgan Chase, who won the astonishing endgame of the saga (the Bear Stearns headquarters alone were worth more than JP Morgan paid for the whole company). Cohan’s explanation of seemingly arcane subjects like credit default swaps and fixed- income securities is masterful and crystal clear, but it is the high-end dish and powerful narrative drive that makes HOUSE OF CARDS an irresistible read on a par with classics such as LIAR’S POKER and BARBARIANS AT THE GATE.Written with the novelistic verve and insider knowledge that made THE LAST TYCOONS a bestseller and a prize-winner, HOUSE OF CARDS is a chilling cautionary tale about greed, arrogance, and stupidity in the financial world, and the consequences for all of us.

    government's credit? I mean, if the U.S. defaults, "what bank" is going to be able to make good on that contract? Who are you going to buy that contract from, the Martians? n+1: When does this begin to feel like less of a cyclical thing, like the weather, and more of a permanent, end-of-the-world kind of thing? HFM: When you see me selling apples out on the street, that's when you should go stock up on guns and ammunition.

    

    Investments, Finance, Business

    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.

    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.

    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.

    Peter Bernstein has written a comprehensive history of man's efforts to understand risk and probability, beginning with early gamblers in ancient Greece, continuing through the 17th-century French mathematicians Pascal and Fermat and up to modern chaos theory. Along the way he demonstrates that understanding risk underlies everything from game theory to bridge-building to winemaking.

    It worked for me and it can work for you too. What's stopping you? Read the book and learn how One Rental at a Time can lead to financial independence.

    This is a complete guide to developing your own systems to help you make and execute trading and investing decisions. It is intended for everyone who wishes to systematise their financial decision making, either completely or to some degree.Author Robert Carver draws on financial theory, his experience managing systematic hedge fund strategies and his own in-depth research to explain why systematic trading makes sense and demonstrates how it can be done safely and profitably. Every aspect, from creating trading rules to position sizing, is thoroughly explained. The framework described here can be used with all assets, including equities, bonds, forex and commodities.There is no magic formula that will guarantee success, but cutting out simple mistakes will improve your performance. You'll learn how to avoid common pitfalls such as over-complicating your strategy, being too optimistic about likely returns, taking excessive risks and trading too frequently.Important features include:- The theory behind systematic trading: why and when it works, and when it doesn't.- Simple and effective ways to design effective strategies.- A complete position management framework which can be adapted for your needs.- How fully systematic traders can create or adapt trading rules to forecast prices.- Making discretionary trading decisions within a systematic framework for position management.- Why traditional long only investors should use systems to ensure proper diversification, and avoid costly and unnecessary portfolio churn.- Adapting strategies depending on the cost of trading and how much capital is being used.- Practical examples from UK, US and international markets showing how the framework can be used.Systematic Trading is detailed, comprehensive and full of practical advice. It provides a unique new approach to system development and a must for anyone considering using systems to make some, or all, of their investment decisions.

    You can live and work anywhere in the world, be independent from the routine, and not answer to anybody. This is the life of a successful trader.Many aspire to it but few succeed. Newcomers often fail to prepare for the markets’ tough challenges. They keep making serious mistakes that could easily be avoided.This book will help you decide whether trading is for you and teach you its key essential rules.Success in trading is based on three Ms: Mind (psychology), Method (tactics), and Money (risk management). Each of these areas is covered in its own section of this ebook. The final section covers such practical topics as record-keeping, finding a broker, beginning to trade and continuing education.CONTENTSHow this book is organized / Free updates & the honor code / Is it possible to trade for a living? / Can anyone become a successful trader?MIND - Trading Psychology for BeginnersWhat you need to succeed / Who should not trade? / No illusions / A trading aptitude test / Trading psychology resourcesMETHOD: Trading Rules for BeginnersTwo ways to analyze markets / Mind the gap between price and value / Live data and day-trading / Going long, selling short, or spreading / What stocks to trade / Futures, options, and forex / Use multiple timeframes / Discretionary and systematic trading / Placing orders / Profit targets / Protective stopsMONEY MANAGEMENT for BeginnersThe three essential numbers for every trade / The 2% Rule / The 6% RuleTrade sizing - the iron triangle of risk control / What account size is good for beginners?PRACTICALITIES for BeginnersPaper trading / Record-keeping / What is your edge? / Opening a brokerage account / Taxes / Continuing education: books, software, etc.Alexander Elder, M.D. is a professional trader based in New York. He is the author of several best-selling books: Trading for a Living, Come into My Trading Room, Entries & Exits, and The New Sell and Sell Short (all with Study Guides). Dr. Elder taught psychiatry at Columbia University. His experience provides him with unique insight into the psychology of trading. Dr. Elder is a sought-after speaker at worldwide conferences.

    Read this sensational and controversial account of the often dazzling business of derivatives trading, and see if you agree.No money is ever really made in financial markets. Markets merely transfer wealth. As to how to make money? Well, it is basically theft, misrepresentation, lies, cheating, deception or force. It is impossible to make the staggering amounts made in derivatives in good years honestly.Traders, Guns & Money is a wry and wickedly comic exposé of the culture, games, and pure deceptions played out every day in trading rooms around the world, usually with other people's money. Whether you move in the financial world yourself, know people who do, or have money invested in stocks, shares or derivatives, this is a fascinating read guaranteed to make you think.

    Stewart shows for the first time how four of the eighties’ biggest names on Wall Street—Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Martin Siegel, and Dennis Levine —created the greatest insider-trading ring in financial history and almost walked away with billions, until a team of downtrodden detectives triumphed over some of America’s most expensive lawyers to bring this powerful quartet to justice. Based on secret grand jury transcripts, interviews, and actual trading records, and containing explosive new revelations about Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky written especially for this paperback edition, Den of Thieves weaves all the facts into an unforgettable narrative—a portrait of human nature, big business, and crime of unparalleled proportions.

    Only billionaire J.P. Morgan was able to save the stock market.Black Tuesday (1929): As the newly created Federal Reserve System repeatedly adjusted interest rates in all the wrong ways, investment trusts, the darlings of that decade, became the catalyst that caused the bubble to burst, and the Dow fell dramatically, leading swiftly to the Great Depression.Black Monday (1987): When "portfolio insurance," a new tool meant to protect investments, instead led to increased losses, and corporate raiders drove stock prices above their real values, the Dow dropped an astonishing 22.6 percent in one day.The Great Recession (2008): As homeowners began defaulting on mortgages, investment portfolios that contained them collapsed, bringing the nation's largest banks, much of the economy, and the stock market down with them.The Flash Crash (2010): When one investment manager, using a runaway computer algorithm that was dangerously unstable and poorly understood, reacted to the economic turmoil in Greece, the stock market took an unprecedentedly sudden plunge, with the Dow shedding 998.5 points (roughly a trillion dollars in valuation) in just minutes.The stories behind the great crashes are filled with drama, human foibles, and heroic rescues. Taken together they tell the larger story of a nation reaching enormous heights of financial power while experiencing precipitous dips that alter and reset a market where millions of Americans invest their savings, and on which they depend for their futures. Scott Nations vividly shows how each of these major crashes played a role in America's political and cultural fabric, each providing painful lessons that have strengthened us and helped us to build the nation we know today.A History of the United States in Five Crashes clearly and compellingly illustrates the connections between these major financial collapses and examines the solid, clear-cut lessons they offer for preventing the next one.

    Authored by Product Managers from Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, Bubble or Revolution cuts through the hype to offer a balanced, comprehensive, and accessible analysis of blockchains and cryptocurrencies.You'll learn the core concepts of these technologies and understand their strengths and weaknesses from real-world case studies; dive deep into their technical, economic, political, and legal complexities; and gain insights about their future from exclusive interviews with dozens of tech industry leaders. No coding or math needed!Are cryptocurrencies and blockchains a bubble or a revolution? We'll help you decide for yourself.What's inside:Bitcoin and the blockchainHow Bitcoin and blockchains work from a technical perspective with no assumed technical knowledgeSatoshi Nakamoto and the history of Bitcoin, the original blockchainA thorough overview of crucial crypto concepts (eg. blocks, keys, mining, nodes, etc.)Frameworks for understanding when it actually makes sense to use blockchainMajor application scenarios for blockchain and cryptocurrencies and where it'll fall flatPublic blockchains and altcoinsEmerging trends in blockchain technologyWhat you should know before buying any cryptocurrencyAn overview of Etherum and smart contractsAn overview of the strengths and weaknesses of the top altcoins and stable coins, including Monero (XMR), Tether (USDT), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH)Alternatives to blockchain and cryptocurrenciesNew kinds of decentralized ledger technology (dlt)The economics of both traditional payment methods and cryptocurrenciesCryptocurrency security best practices and major breach case studiesPrivate blockchainsHow blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and traditional banking and finance will interact with one another in the futurePublic blockchains vs private blockchainsLimitations and shortcomings of public blockchains and cryptocurrenciesThe role of blockchain in the strategy of top tech companies like Facebook and MicrosoftCase studies of how non-tech companies are effectively utilizing blockchain (eg. Walmart using it to prevent foodborne illness)Business blockchain case studies ranging from gaming (e.g. Xbox) to cloud services (e.g. Microsoft Azure's blockchain-as-a-service and Amazon's AWS offering)Blockchain's use for big data, internet of things (IoT), and machine learning (ML)Cryptocurrency regulation and policyICOs vs STOs vs IPOsICOs' status as securitiesThe SEC's STO rules and Reg A+/CF/D/SKYC and AML lawsThe debate over whether cryptocurrencies are securitiesThe official stance of various countries on cryptoAn overview of crypto policy and regulatory hurdlesThe role of crypto in emerging markets and ChinaDigital democracy and voting on the blockchainThe future of decentralized technologyIf, how, and when the tokenization of national currencies will play outFacebook and WhatsApp's upcoming cryptocurrenciesCurrency tokenization and China's efforts to tokenize the yuanBlockchain, IoT, and the tangleCryptocurrencies vs. fiat vs. the gold standardPredictions about the future of money, business, and currencyWhy blockchains would do better on Mars than Earth