Read any good books lately?

Water Cooler
#21

I enjoyed Grand Design by Hawking et al.

#22

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.

#23

Dupe.

#24

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

#25

because emotions are a result of reasoning. so it’s rational to be emotional about rationality.

#26

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.

#27

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.

#28

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.

#29

I thought the universe in a nutshell was really good.

#30

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.

#31

Two recent good reads:

The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature

The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome’s Deadliest Enemy

^ That guy was a BAMF

#32

I recently read: Vince Flynn - Kill Shot (Fiction) Vince Flynn - Assassin (Fiction) Chris Kyle - American Sniper (Non-Fiction) I hadn’t read any Vince Flynn before these two. They were like the Bourne movies in book form - fairly entertaining and quick reads. However, a bit unrealistic at times. American Sniper was ok. Just because Chris has 255 kills and 160 confirmed kills doesn’t make him a ‘super badass’ in my book. The battles were infantry-like and a bit repetitive. Definitely apparent that he was in SOCOM and not JSOC. He mentions briefly that he wished he tried out for JSOC’s DEVGRU in the book - would have made for an even more interesting story.

#33

“The age of deleveraging”.

The author is the most pretentious individual I ever read. He devotes every chapter in the book on how great his calls were. He apparently predicted 7 recessions and they all came true.

#34

I, Robot by Asimov. A good old classic.

#35

  1. The Greatest Trade Ever - The Behind-the-Scenes story of how John Paulson Defied Wall Street and made financial history.

  2. A Random Walk down Wall Street

#36

I’m no familiar with the book, but those pretentious guys can be pretty annoying. If you predict a recession every year, eventually you’ll predict them all.

#37

One Hundred Years of Solitude is a good book. I read it in HS, plan on reading it again.

I also thought Satanic Verses was great as well. Never bought into Midnight’s Children, but I like Rushdie’s other works.

#38

Also among the classics, I’d say Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky was really good too. Maybe someday I’ll read Brothers karamazov.

#39

i have only read one fiction in my adult life and i agree with Palantir the great, crime and punishment was very intriguing…

#40

just started reading ‘future shock’