Read any good books lately?

Men in Black: How The Supreme Court is Destroying America by Mark Levin

The Fatal Conceit by FA Hayek

^ I read Creature.  A little too conspiracy theory for me.  And the footnotes are a bit of a stretch.  Basically there are 3 or 4 authors who come up with these theories and then use each other as references in their buooks to make it look like some rigorous research has been done.

But the basic premise on the effect of a fiat system is correct.

Right now I’m reading Ayn Rand’s Introduction to Objectivism – fascinating read.  Bchad, I suggest you read it so you will no longer misrepresent her philosophy on this forum.

SUGGESTION:  The forum has hyperlinks.  Link to your books on Amazon to help people who might want to buy stuff.

I just read 1776, which was quite good, as well as A money mind at 90, which was not.  Next up will probably be John Adams.

CFAvsMBA wrote:

I nominate a sticky of books to read. 

I also enjoy fiction to give the old brain a rest.  Stephen Frey is a private equity MD and writes fiction with financial undertones.  Facinating stuff. 

The Chairman has to be one of my favorite pieces by him.

Good rec, I’ll have to check that out. Not too many authors tackling the high finance genre – I guess the idea of a “finance thriller” is a bit of a stretch… or maybe not: Anything is possible with enough HCBs and murder / mayhem.

Thecodont wrote:

Men in Black: How The Supreme Court is Destroying America by Mark Levin

The Fatal Conceit by FA Hayek

FA Hayek and Mark Levin in the same sentance.  Hayek most be rolling in his grave. 

Ponzi’s Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend

ISBN: 0812968360

Great book.  The Madoff story broke right after I finished reading it.

I just read White Tiger by Aravind Adiga.

Turd Fergeson wrote:

But the basic premise on the effect of a fiat system is correct.

Right now I’m reading Ayn Rand’s Introduction to Objectivism – fascinating read.  Bchad, I suggest you read it so you will no longer misrepresent her philosophy on this forum.

I finally decided to pick up Atlas Shrugged.  Taken a long ass time, but I’m finally nearing the end.  Got to say, even though I’m predisposed to liking her work, it’s been a surprisingly good read. 

Also, for anyone that hasn’t read Hawking’s The Universe in a Nutshell, you need to.  For a slightly deeper dive, check out Brian Greene’s work.  The Elegant Universe or The Fabric of the Cosmos are both great.

Those books have helped me more in finance than just about any investment tome.

/would have hyperlinked, but the formatting toolbar is about as intuitive as MS DOS

STL please expand on why those books are helpful in finance. Do you know if there’s a ton of overlap between them and Grand Design? I imagine there would be.

Turd Fergeson wrote:

Sweep the Leg wrote:

Turd Fergeson wrote:

But the basic premise on the effect of a fiat system is correct.

Right now I’m reading Ayn Rand’s Introduction to Objectivism – fascinating read.  Bchad, I suggest you read it so you will no longer misrepresent her philosophy on this forum.

I finally decided to pick up Atlas Shrugged.  Taken a long ass time, but I’m finally nearing the end.  Got to say, even though I’m predisposed to liking her work, it’s been a surprisingly good read. 

Nice, we haven’t had a good Librul vs rationality/morality throw down in a while. Let’s get it on!

Hahaha, how can you write like that and pretend that you are rational at the same time?

Sweep, could you elaborate on how those books are helpful in finance?  I’ve read through all of Green’s, Hawkings and some other guy I forget’s books on physics / cosmology and while somewhat interesting I didn’t find them helpful at all for finance or even real life.

The only thing I felt was usefull for finance from physics was the uncertainty principal, and not really for use in practice, but rather just as a useful antidote in conversation.

Sweep the Leg wrote:

Turd Fergeson wrote:

STL please expand on why those books are helpful in finance. Do you know if there’s a ton of overlap between them and Grand Design? I imagine there would be.

I haven’t read Grand Design, so I’m not sure…probably though.

I’ve always been fascinated by the way things work; cause and effect basically.  Something happening on one side of the universe having an impact on something billions of light years away.  From gigantic objects to quantum mechanics.  I don’t pretend to have a working knowledge of any of this…the math is way beyond me.  But the concepts are amazingly captivating.

I’m a big believer that after one has gained a certain level of knowledge around financial markets - let’s say being a charterholder is the baseline here - you have to think outside the box to find outsized returns.  Creativity is an undervalued attribute in our field.  By having a passing understanding of astrophysics, it’s helped me, for lack of a better phrase, “connect the dots.” 

Understanding relationships, whether it’s between planets, companies, particles, or industries…it’s all pretty much the same.  It’s not a directly related to finance, but it gives me a different perspective.

Haven’t read any of the books, but this sounds right. In general, most first order effects are embedded in securities prices. This is why a lot of people mistakenly think the market is efficient, and if you hire some really smart math guys, they might even be able to “prove” that efficiency. The money, however, is made on the second order effects. In other words, “connecting the dots” on something that is not at all obvious based on the short-term thinking of the herd.

I spend almost all of my time (especially on the short side) looking for structural changes that are very likely to happen but which the market is not anticipating or is overly discounting. At any one time, there are plenty of stocks poised to go to zero due to negative trends that are developing or will develop soon – most of which are “light years away” (but inevitable) and completely outside of the company’s control. The market is really good (much better than me) at pin pointing results over the next 6 months or so, but is pretty damn bad at getting the bigger picture.