Now that the CFA is over, I am feeling a bit useless at home… Any books that you recommend?
The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene. Don’t waste your time with any more books about how brilliant some investor was by discussing some lucky trades that you don’t really care about. Hidden Reality is a great mind bender. If you must read something finance-related, then Thinking, Fast and Slow by Dan Kahneman is a sure winner.
I started the wolf of wall street on the plane home from last holiday before the joys of CFA so planning on finishing that. Good book so far.
I’ve only really read lighter stuff and only on holidays over the last 3 years, i might now read some non fiction or deeper stuff. probably won’t though
“The Woman Who Lost Her Soul” by Bob Shacochis.
Renowned through four award-winning books for his gritty and revelatory visions of the Caribbean, Bob Shacochis returns to occupied Haiti in The Woman Who Lost Her Soul before sweeping across time and continents to unravel tangled knots of romance, espionage, and vengeance. In riveting prose, Shacochis builds a complex and disturbing story about the coming of age of America in a pre-9/11 world. When humanitarian lawyer Tom Harrington travels to Haiti to investigate the murder of a beautiful and seductive photojournalist, he is confronted with a dangerous landscape riddled with poverty, corruption, and voodoo. It’s the late 1990s, a time of brutal guerrilla warfare and civilian kidnappings, and everyone has secrets. The journalist, whom he knew years before as Jackie Scott, had a bigger investment in Haiti than it seemed, and to make sense of her death, Tom must plunge back into a thorny past and his complicated ties to both Jackie and Eville Burnette, a member of Special Forces who has been assigned to protect her. From the violent, bandit-dominated terrain of World War II Dubrovnik to the exquisitely rendered Istanbul in the 1980s, Shacochis brandishes Jackie’s shadowy family history with daring agility. Caught between her first love and the unsavory attentions of her father—an elite spy and quintessential Cold War warrior pressuring his daughter to follow in his footsteps—seventeen-year-old Jackie hatches a desperate escape plan that puts her on course to becoming the soulless woman Tom equally feared and desired. Set over fifty years and in four countries backdropped by different wars,The Woman Who Lost Her Soul is a magnum opus that brings to life, through the mystique and allure of history, an intricate portrait of catastrophic events that led up to the war on terror and the America we are today.
Anything by Brian Greene is great. I, obviously, also have to mention A Song of Ice and Fire. Also, The First Law Trilogy is pretty awesome as well.
American Gods, American Psycho, Hyperion, Dune, Ringworld, Ender’s Game, and The Stand (though it comes with the usual Steven King sub-par ending - it’s still worth it).
That’s off the top of my head.
“Girlvert” by Orianna Small. The author is a porn star and this is her autobiography about her life in the industry. I actually own it and read it. It’s an easy read and quite entertaining, if you’re into that kind of stuff. Lots of graphic details. Some sound fun–some sound disgusting.
If you like smartass urban fantasy, the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. For another in the fantasy vein (also smartass - there’s definitely a trend here), Larry Correia’s Monster Hunters International.
I am currently reading this book: http://www.amazon.com/Financial-Modeling-Simon-Benninga/dp/0262026287
Hedgehogging from Barton Biggs is a fun book.
Art of War from Sun Tzu is a brilliant short read.
Question:
What are some books that Investment Banks make you read or recommend you to read when they hire you?
level III
The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss
Moral Calculations by Laszlo Mero
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
*Walks in*
Sees no mention of the man Archer
*Walks back out in disgust*
The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein
What women want, what men want.
I picked up “Flash Boys” the day after the test. So far, so good.
^ That’s next for me.
“Flash Boys” is really nice to read.
I ordered “The big short”, “Liar´s poker” and “When genius failed” for my holidays, but you guys might have already read that stuff…
Total War: Rome 2( Pc game) and movies for me ! 
All 3 are great reads.
BTW, Liar’s poker is where the term BSD started.
Viking Raid
Inventing money
Thinking Fast and Slow