We dazzle you with our radiant erudition every day, but now Dealbreaker reader, it is your turn. We are looking to compile a firm canon of Wall Street literature and in the spirit of blogspheric democracy, we’re taking your suggestions. Please give us the classics, your favorites, must-reads, oldy-but-goodies, contemporary standouts, whatever you would anthologize in the Dealbreaker Authoritative Compendium of Business and Wall Street Literature. What makes a canonical Wall Street text? Prescient insight? Elegant prose? Amusing Anecdotes? You decide!
We will review the suggestions and compile the canon in good time.
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every post made by BSD
When Genius Failed, definitely
Thank you, my adoring fan.
I would, however, prefer that F.I.A.S.C.O. by Frank Partnoy make the list. It’s what got me into this business and inspired me to become the BSD that I am.
Barbarians at the Gates
ugly americans
Fabozzi’s “Handbook of Mortgage-Backed Securities” aka theBible
if you want to really experience the mind numbing drudgery of working in finance reading this 1,500 page dinosaur is the way to go
perhaps the sarcasm was too sublte….anyway, my real picks would be Liar’s Poker, Den of Thieves, and Buffett: Making of an american capitalist
obv the unfinished sykes novel
Equities in Dallas!!
CFAI readings
* Options, Futures and Other Derivatives by John Hull
* Principals of Corporate Finance by Brealey and Myers
* Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went by John Kenneth Galbraith
That’s my 2 yuans…
smartest guys in the room
Where Are The Customers’ Yachts by Fred Schwed Jr. (1940).
The Myth of the Robber Barons, Burton Folsom (1993).
Payback, Daniel Fischel (1996).
Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, Peter Bernstein. Actually an entertaining read, and covers risk control and risk taking since Renaissance times — dice games, Casanova, etc., to modern day.
couldn’t do this kind of list without Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
also, to stay in the old books theme, “Adam Smith”‘s The Money Game
Should probably put Random Walk Down Wall Street on there
american psycho- in case your md asks you to cook up some brains for the next client meeting
Moneyball
Little light on the literary.
To amend:
1. Bonfire of Vanities – Tom Wolfe
2. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott F.
3. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit – Sloan Wilson
Read ‘em and weep. We’re not doing anything new, just the same shit adjusted for inflation.
DEN OF THIEVES.
Fuck Wolfe, but word to F-Scott & Gatsby – the original models & bottles gangsta.
Fooled by Randomness
When Genius Failed
Den of Thieves
Monkey Business
Liar’s Poker
Predator’s Ball
Barbarians at the Gate
Smartest Guys in the Room
Buffett: Making of an American Capitalist
Intelligent Investor
Common Stocks Uncommon Profits
bess levin’s diary from jr. high
Barton Biggs’ Hedge Hogging is my fav
Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee (www.minjinlee.com)!
Fischer Black and the Revolutionary Idea of Finance
Arguably non-canonical, but quite good.
The Vulture Investors by Hilary Rosenberg.
Hands down, best narrative on distressed.
Sun Tzu’s Art of War
Discipline and Punish, Michel Foucault
vendetta burroughs
financier reichs
money bazaar krieger
the chairman bird
towers of debt foster
My incomplete list can be found here.
I second Where Are the Customers’ Yachts? by Fred Schwed, Jr.
Can’t leave off Po Bronson’s “The Bombardiers”!
The Art of War by Sun Tzu…to hone those killer instincts
Intelligent Investor – Graham
Security Analysis – Graham
The Art of Short Selling – Kathryn Staley
You Can Be a Stock Market Genius – Greenblatt
Buffett – Roger Lowenstein
Forget the barbarians and just about every other book. The are self indulgent author masturbation.
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator-Lefevre:
-everything you need to know about the “stock” market was written long long ago.
Bible of Option Strategies-Cohen
-Learn it, love it, live it. Even if you do not trade options you have to understand the mechanics here to understand that one guy on the floor that makes 100M+ for the bank.
Patton (the movie): the definitive cautionary tale of an superstar in a political environment.
September 11 Wall Street Sonnets and Other New York City Poems
by Eugene Schlanger, The Wall Street Poet
http://www.September11WallStreetSonnets.com
I second the motion for “September 11 Wall Street Sonnets and Other New York City Poems”, Eugene Schlanger, The Wall Street Poet
http://www.underbahn.net/wallstreetpoet