Niederhoffer did his PhD in statistics. He is nuts but he basically invented quantitative trading. Maybe you read his book "Education of a trader" and the "New Yorker" article about him ("The Blow up artist").
borowitz report
Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
221–230 of 274 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#222If you're looking for the nuts and bolts on how capital markets around the world work this book is hands down the best there is. https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Quantitative-Professionals-M... Equities, Futures, Rate Swaps, Options, Credit, Treasury, Corporate, Municipal, Mortgage and Agency Bonds. Then the technology that supports it all. It is not only a fantastic high level view, but it get granular enough to expl…
+1 - excellent book!
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#223Read 10-Ks and 10-Qs and build operating models in excel.
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#224Please do not look upon popular economics best sellers as a good way to get a rounded economics education. While many have value in critical insight and entertainment, they often offer only a narrow perspective on economics. Novice economists typically lack the ability to critically appraise them without a wider economic framework to work from. An academic reading list (i.e. university course texts) will provide you…
Would an economist go through an entire career and never read, say, John Locke? I don't know the answer. I'm genuinely curious.
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#225These are important books but obviously not a comprehensive list. * John Locke's Two Treatises of Government - It's political philosophy but it's hard to understand Classical Liberalism without having read some Locke. * Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations - He and Locke are the two main guys to read for a solid start on Classical Liberalism, which is completely different than modern political liberalism. It's like having…
Galbraith could be more of polar opposite (than Keynes); if one is pressed to have the balance.
Not pressed but it's a good idea isn't it? I considered Galbraith for my list but wasn't sure if he was a fit and only vaguely remember what Theory of the Leisure Class was about to be honest. Thank you.
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
>The stagflation of the 1970s seriously attacked the very foundation of Keynes ideas. It was literally impossible for it to happen How so? Most of his ideas seem pretty valid. The 70s stagflation was set off by the oil shock when oil prices rapidly increased four fold. I'm not sure how his failure to analyse that happening after his death invalidates that his ideas worked ok under normal circumstances?
Perhaps start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips_curve And the oil shock was sort of a one time thing, and can't be viewed in isolation of Nixon having to close the gold window, more specifically how the US took advantage of the previous fixing of the US dollar price of gold before that fell apart ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis#End_of_the_Bre... ). In other words, these were discontinuous a…
I still have a job seeing what Phillips proposing a relationship between inflation and unemployment in 1958 has to do with Keynes theories of insufficient aggregate demand causing deflation in the 1930s. Keynes's ideas seem pretty good and still relevant, and Phillips' ideas a bit dubious and largely unrelated.
I get the impression much criticism of Keynes is better directed at his followers who called themselves Keynesians and came up with various nonsense after his death than at Keynes himself.
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#227Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt Human Action by Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises. The master of market economics that never understood capitalism. "This country, and with it most of the Western world, is presently going through a period of inflation and credit expansion. As the quantity of money in circulation and deposits subject to check increases, there prevails a general tendency for the prices of commodities and services to rise. Business is booming. Yet such a boom, artific…
Downvote but no reply. Wow. Arguments... :-)
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
Legal ebooks and audiobooks of various formats provided gratis from some fine nonprofits: Henry Hazlitt - 'Economics in One Lesson': https://fee.org/resources/economics-in-one-lesson-2/ Mises - 'Theory of Credit and Money': https://mises.org/library/theory-money-and-credit Adam Smith - 'Wealth of Nations': http://www.ibiblio.org/ml/libri/s/SmithA_WealthNations_p.pdf Murray Rothbard - 'For a New Liberty': https://mise…
That's the neo-liberal cannon. Also Marx, Das Capital?
Nobody in their right mind would try to read Capital. It's a massive, unreadable tome that you could summarize in an article online somewhere. That's borderline sadistic to suggest someone try to get through that thing. :-)
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#229"The Great Transformation" by Karl Polanyi. It's a tough read, because it was translated from Hungarian. It's an important read, because it provides an alternative analysis to both Smith and Marx. Polanyi was informed by recent developments in anthropology which contradicted the major theories of how modern economies had formed.
Re: Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't say that he wasn't important. I definitely think he's foundational especially to center-left political economics. I just said that nobody is a Keynesian in the original sense anymore. You have to be a neo-Keynesian now. I think it is safe to say that most of his theories are dead as a doornail. Keynesian thought always had this problem melding macro and microeconomics (similar to physicists have with relativ…
>The stagflation of the 1970s seriously attacked the very foundation of Keynes ideas. It was literally impossible for it to happen How so? Most of his ideas seem pretty valid. The 70s stagflation was set off by the oil shock when oil prices rapidly increased four fold. I'm not sure how his failure to analyse that happening after his death invalidates that his ideas worked ok under normal circumstances?
Is the fact that people still vigorously debate whether Keynes is dead reason enough to read him or at least have the basics down?