家鸡读书进阶
From 股通维基百科
from 资料库帖子
The difference between a person well versed in investment theory and one who only follows news is trivial to detect in, say, a job interview. Without a thorough background in the investment classics, it’s difficult to give true meaning to the constant stream of current news, and even more difficult to tie it all together to give a “big picture” of the economic climate. The trouble is where to start: like any profession, there are at least ten trash books written more to generate income for the author than the reader to every book offering real insights into the investment business. With that in mind, the following is a list of books categorized by level of sophistication. Reading all or most of the books on this list more or less guarantees an excellent education in investment theory that is sure to both impress any employer worth working for and will give the tools necessary to create long-term investment wealth. This list is certainly not comprehensive, so if there is a quality book not included here, send a suggestion (include a short summary if possible) to derekm@northwestern.edu or r-begelman@northwestern.edu.
Introductory
Peter Lynch’s two books
Peter Lynch, One up on Wall Street and Beating the Street. Two books on a strictly introductory level. There are no quantitative processes involved; rather, it’s a decent book on the techniques that Peter Lynch used in running his successful Magellan Fund. Useful in that we often divorce our investing thoughts from the rest of our lives, while he demonstrates that some of the most successful investments originate from thinking about investing when observing products in our daily lives. For example, one investor noticed a certain brand of equipment started appearing in McDonalds’ kitchens, invested in that company, and made a bundle as the company’s products expanded to other fast food companies. That kind of information is often overlooked by the quantitative analysts in New York.
How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffett
Lawrence Cunningham, How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffett. One of the better books covering the theory and practice behind value investing, and the methods used by Warren Buffett.
The Warren Buffett Way
Hagstrom, Robert. The Warren Buffett Way. An analysis of Buffett’s investment methodology. A good first book on Buffett.
The Essays of Warren Buffett
Lawrence Cunningham, editor, The Essays of Warren Buffett. To put it simply, don’t invest without reading this book. It’s a compilation of Warren Buffett’s (head of Berkshire Hathaway—learn to love him) annual shareholder essays dating to 1965. These letters are widely regarded as being the most lucid, persuasive, and enlightening chairman reports to shareholders of any large corporation. While other books will give you the technical details of valuation, this book will teach you the common sense of many aspects of business and investing. A quick and inexpensive read.
Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success
Lisa Endlich. Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success. Simon & Schuster. Today, the company’s name is the epitome of elite investment banks, but it did not start that way. This excellent book provides a history of the firm from its beginnings as a humble business started by an immigrant to its IPO and beyond. Although the book does not cover as much of the company after it became publicly traded, it’s essential reading for anyone interviewing with the company. McLean & Eldred, Investing in Real Estate. Wiley.
Investing in Real Estate
McLean & Eldred, Investing in Real Estate. Wiley. A favored introductory book on investing in real-estate. Covering the basics of property flipping, construction, property taxes, leveraging, handling tenants, foreclosures, and more, the book provides a solid base to go on to more specialized books.
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
Edwin Lefévre, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator. John Wiley & Sons. The classic story of a young man who got involved in speculating and trading in the 1910s through the 1920s. Although it gives little to no insight to fundamentals-based investing, it’s inspiring for those wanting to trade on the floor of an exchange or make frequent technical trades. A good book on the psychology.
Monkey Business/Liar’s Poker
Monkey Business/Liar’s Poker These two books are arguably the funniest business novels on the market. Liar’s Poker is the precursor to Monkey Business and covers the world of investment banking at Soloman Brothers in the 1980s and the rise of the mortgaged back security market. Monkey Business was written by two MBA graduates who worked at DLJ in the boom of the 90s and discusses the daily life of an I-Banker. Monkey Business was written with the purpose of convincing those considering a career in I-banking to consider another career that is more fulfilling. These are good books for i-banking interviews because most I-bankers have read them and love to joke about them. Furthermore, they will give you an insight into the actual daily like of an i-banker.
Barbarians at the Gate
Barbarians at the Gate This is a classic. At almost any interview, regardless of industry, you are bound to find people who have read this book. It follows the histories of Nabisco and RJR Tobaco from their origins to their merger and the provides an illustration of the dynamic personalities and the rapidly changing markets that made the merger possible.
Den of Thieves/Predators Ball
Den of Thieves/Predators Ball These two books are about the rapid rise of the “junk” bond industry (high yield bonds) in the 1980s and the rise of the corporate raiders. Den of Thieves is yet another classic that so many businessmen and women have read. These books are fun, easy reads and will teach you more about the bond markets and corporate America in general.
Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People
Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People Dale Carnegie wrote this book in the 1930s and it remains a best seller to this day. Many CEOs consider this book the quintessential guide to managing personal relations in the corporate world. It is incredibly simplistic in its content, but it is in its simplicity that
Intermediate
Competitive Strategy
Michael E. Porter, Competitive Strategy. Free Press. Learning the competitive environment of an industry and how a company within that industry should and does perform is essential to understanding business investment. This book is the definitive source for learning about industries and the methods that the companies within them use to maximize economic utility.
Creating Shareholder Value
Alfred Rappaport, Creating Shareholder Value. Free Press. The first edition of this book shook the world of corporate management. The author, a professor emeritus of the Kellogg management school, presented the idea that all management activity should be conducted with the sole goal of building shareholder value within legal limits. This approach clashes with the European ideal of a corporation that is responsible both to society and shareholders. More than waxing philosophically, the book delves into the technical methods of determining how exactly to build shareholder value: through the proper use of discounted cash flows. Oriented to both management and investors, this is the best book for learning how discounted cash flows work.
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
Philip A. Fisher, Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits. Wiley. A book that Buffett drew heavily on in his evolution as an investor. Where Benjamin Graham focused heavily on quantitative value calculations and virtually ignored the qualitative analysis of a company, Fisher does exactly the opposite. Fisher suggests that calling competitors, employees, suppliers and customers can reveal a great deal about a company’s operations that is not available in their SEC documents. Do they treat their employees well? Are the suppliers happy? What do customers think of the product, and are they repeat buyers? A company that cannot evolve healthy relationships with those it does business with cannot survive long, and this book teaches you how to understand the quality of those relationships.
The Intelligent Investor
Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor. Graham in many ways founded the field of security analysis. Buffett learned his techniques as an analyst at his small New York investment firm, Graham-Newman. This is in essence a ‘light’ version of the larger Security Analysis, allowing an introductory look into the concepts and reason behind investing for value.
You Can Be a Stock Market Genius
Joel Greenblatt, You Can Be a Stock Market Genius. While the title may suggest that it belongs with trash such as “How I Made $2 Million in Two Weeks,” it is in reality an excellent book with material rarely seen elsewhere. Greenblatt headed up Gotham Capital, a hedge fund that returned 50% annually for ten years prior to Greenblatt’s liquidation to partners, cementing one of the most incredible records in hedge fund history. Greenblatt often used quirks of the market to buy derivatives for obscenely cheap prices: for example, when two companies merge, and one pays the shareholders of the other company with a few derivatives along with a lot of stock or cash, many of those shareholders sell off the excess derivatives without paying attention to its value. The market then creates an incorrectly low price, which Greenblatt used to create significant wealth. Many such tricks are explained in this quick book.
A Random Walk Down Wall Street
Burton Malkiel, A Random Walk Down Wall Street. This book outlines the concept of an efficient market: that is, a market in which goods are priced accurately all the time given available public information. While it’s not yet clear whether markets are perfectly efficient—if they are, we should funnel all of our investment funds into low-cost Vanguard index funds—the book does present evidence against the creations of overactive imaginations, such as technical analysis. An important read to understand the difference between informed investing and delusional speculation on Wall Street.
The Interpretation of Financial Statements
Benjamin Graham, The Interpretation of Financial Statements. A small and inexpensive book that can prove to be quite valuable in navigating through financial statements. If your accounting background is limited, it’s a good introductory title to understand a company through its financial data.
Pre-Advanced
Investment Valuation
Aswath Damodaran, Investment Valuation. Wiley. One of two industry-standard references on business valuation. The work is well written, and covers valuation methods for almost any type of cash-producing assets, including stocks, bonds, derivatives, real-estate, and more. It is useful to have some understanding of the terminology and background of investing to learn the most from this book, although it explains quite a bit of accounting as well.
Security Analysis
Benjamin Graham, David Dodd, Security Analysis. McGraw-Hill. A large volume extending Graham’s The Intelligent Investor into a thorough book on the techniques of corporate analysis. Note that while the Intelligent Investor is an easy read, Security Analysis is thick and sometimes foreboding, but serves as an excellent reference. However, this applies only to the fifth edition, which has been highly modified by outside parties since his first 1934 edition. For a true bearing on how Graham worked, try to obtain the first edition.
Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies
Tom Copeland, McKinsey & Company Valuation. The other valuation bible. Reportedly not as well written as Damodaran’s, more disorganized, and paradoxically explains basic information while assuming more advanced knowledge. While Damodaran is suggested in its place, it is still a decent text on business valuation.
Financial Statement Analysis
Martin Fridson, Financial Statement Analysis. Wiley. Similar in concept to Graham’s The Interpretation of Financial Statements, this book delves deeper into understanding financial statements beyond what is learned in accounting 101. To truly grasp the meat of an annual report (i.e., the 10K form filed with the SEC), you must read a book like this one, and this is one of the better books of its kind in publication.
Fabozzi’s The Guide to Fixed Income
Fabozzi’s The Guide to Fixed Income Every bond trader has this book somewhere near his trading desk (and traders bring almost nothing personal to work including family photos!). Fabozzi explains everything from the basics to the more advanced concepts behind the numerous forms of fixed income in a clear and concise format that is easy to handle. This is the first book to go to when learning about bonds and other forms of fixed income, like derivatives.
Advanced
Financial Calculus
Baxter & Rennie, Financial Calculus. Cambridge. Those professors that teach derivative theory will generally prefer this book over Hull’s Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives because it treats the mathematical background more thoroughly. Principally, it presents the stochastic calculus used in the Black-Scholes equation in a more academically proper format. Although this book isn’t what most might call a fun read, it’s necessary to understand for professionals entering the derivatives market. Much of the concepts contained—binomial stock price trees, Brownian motion, Martingales, interest rate swaps and more—will be useful as a framework to better understand the markets.
Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives
John Hull, Options, Futures, and Other Financial Derivatives. Prentice Hall. This book is the preferred reference for most professionals. Although some academics will rail against its poor treatment of stochastic differential calculus, this book covers much more ground than the Baxter & Rennie book does. It covers hedging strategies, such as straddles and bull spreads, the Greek letters of portfolio theory (deltas, gammas and Vegas), and much more. Organized at a more introductory level, this book is preferred for a decent understanding of derivative theory, and for a thorough understanding, is best paired with Baxter & Renny.
