Post: #26

Does any one have a recommendation on the best negotiation book ever?

Post: #27

Just remembered another one. This is from one of my favourite writers and is one of the best books I have read.

It is by John Allen Paulos. As well as being a mathematician, he is also a brilliant writer. In this book he gives a fascinating overview of the puzzles and paradoxes of the stock market as he recounts his unsuccessful investing career.

Quote:In A Mathematician Plays the Stock Market best-selling author John Allen Paulos demonstrates what the tools of mathematics can tell us about the vagaries of the stock market.

Employing his trademark stories, vignettes, paradoxes, and puzzles (and even a film treatment), Paulos addresses every thinking reader's curiosity about the market:

Is it efficient? Is it rational? Is there anything to technical analysis, fundamental analysis, and other supposedly time-tested methods of picking stocks? How can one quantify risk?

What are the most common scams? What light do fractals, network theory, and common psychological foibles shed on investor behavior?

Are there any approaches to investing that truly outperform the major indexes? Can a deeper knowledge of mathematics help beat the odds?

It is a great book. And throughout it all - Paulos recounts his unhappy experience losing money in WorldCom stocks just before it went bust.

http://www.amazon.com/Mathematician-Play...0465054811

Post: #28

Best negotiation book I have read is Chinese Negotiating Style: Commercial Approaches and Cultural Principles but that is specific to doing business in China.

(06-23-2013 10:41 PM)bars Wrote:  Does any one have a recommendation on the best negotiation book ever?

Post: #29

I'm currently reading The Great Deformation by David Stockman. It's long at 700 pages, but he does a great job of describing how we got from Roosevelt's New Deal to the shit we're in now, via Nixon, Reaganomics, Friedman and Keynes. It's very well argued and you can't help but learn a lot about the limitations of economic theory.

I have an epub version if anyone wants it, or find a torrent.

Post: #30

This a great overall introduction to the field.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Economics-Book...0756698278

That said, bear in mind that Economics rests on certain fundamental assumptions about humans and economic forces, some of which are very outdated. Alot of economic theory is being seriously challenged by findings from both psychology and the study of complex systems/system dynamics/emergent behaviour. Economists are naturally resistant to it though.

The book Economyths is a great overview of the shortcomings of classic Economics.

Post: #31

(06-23-2013 10:41 PM)bars Wrote:  Does any one have a recommendation on the best negotiation book ever?

http://pitchanything.com/book/

Check this one out. I haven't finished it yet, but it incorporates a lot of game stuff - frame control, situational alpha status, engaging emotions, etc. Enjoying it so far.

Post: #32

Thanks for all the feedback

Post: #33

Check out Zeal Speculation and Investment when you get the chance.

This site has really helped my dad with his investment portfolio. Their essays (free) and reports (paid) have both been more right than wrong over the past 5 years.

Post: #34

What do you guys think of 'Mad Money' by Jim Cramer? I never take his recommendations seriously - but I am a big fan of him. He is one of the most entertaining people on TV.

Post: #35

I study economics at university just now, if you are really only looking for the basics then you probably don't need a text book. Biz.ed has a good range of economics and finance lessons.

Post: #36

If you aren't afraid of a little math, I strongly recommend John Cochrane's readings from his empirical asset pricing class.

http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/john.coc...t_Pricing/

Regardless of what you think of his politics, he's a really talented economist.

Post: #37

A random walk down Wall Street by B.Malkiel (Princeton professor).

Terrific book that clearly explains why it's impossible to beat the market in the long run.

Post: #38

Doug Stanhope had a brilliant economics rant in his comedy set from last year. Very funny and pretty smart!

[I have linked to the relevant bit below]

http://youtu.be/f6U9EspKoko?t=24m19s

Post: #39

Dr. Robert Murphy's "Lessons For The Young Economist" is pretty good.

Post: #40

Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates is one of the great economic thinkers of our time. And he is a practitioner, not just an ivy tower theorist like Paul Krugman. I'll start a thread with some links.

Post: #41

(08-12-2013 05:56 PM)pointbreak Wrote:  A random walk down Wall Street by B.Malkiel (Princeton professor).

Terrific book that clearly explains why it's impossible to beat the market in the long run.

This is bullshit. There are a lot of really rich dudes who will tell you the market isn't random who have proven it with their track records, and there are a lot of middle class professors with ugly wives who will tell you it is impossible to beat the market. Check out the Market Wizards series of books by Jack Schwager. It's a collection of interviews with fund managers and traders, all of whom have beat the shit out of the market. It's the toughest game in the world and it takes a lot of smarts, but just because some professor says it's impossible doesn't make it so.

Post: #42

Thought it said "Comic books".

Post: #43

(06-23-2013 03:51 PM)n0000 Wrote:  Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. It will teach you not only how to think economically but also how to consider the subtle realities of human interactions. You will realise the benefits of thinking with a mind towards a subtle, nuanced and accurate view of reality in all your intellectual endeavours.

I was revisiting this thread and Mises.org, and realized that I had intended to post the link to the free pdf of Hazlitts' Economics in One Lesson, but it somehow slipped my mind. Here you go: http://mises.org/document/6785/Economics-in-One-Lesson

Post: #44

(06-23-2013 03:10 PM)_DC_ Wrote:  I've always had an interest in economics, but still don't understand it to the level I wish I did. I suppose im most interested in economics from a stock market standpoint. Not a trading book, but rather how markets interrelate: interest rates, pricing of the us dollar, inflation etc.

I feel like a solid understanding of the basics would help me make better trading decisions. Any great book recommendations?

"How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes" by Peter D. Schiff.

This is an economics book in a "comic book" format about a growing economy on a primitive island that evolves over time. It teaches the difference between the Austrian ("hard money") and Keynesian ("free lunch") economic philosophies. It is extremely well done and teaches that what many believe is a complex topic should have a common-sense approach.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Economy-Grows-...+D.+Schiff

Post: #45

I liked what I read from Steve Keen's Debunking Economics. Goes a long way in explaining some of the flawed assumptions with how mainstream economics is taught at the university level.

Post: #46

Economist Richard Wolff has several books, articles and even a podcast. He gives a very poignant and accurate portrait of the US economic developments since the 1930s, which sheds light on the current status of the world and the predicaments and desperation we find in US politicians

http://rdwolff.com/

Post: #47

http://www.johnkay.com/2013/10/16/the-no...-economics

Quote:Eugene Fama made his name by developing the efficient market hypothesis, long the cornerstone of finance theory. Robert Shiller is the most prominent critic of that hypothesis. Giving them both the Nobel Prize in Economics this year “is like awarding the physics prize jointly to Ptolemy for his theory that the Earth is the centre of the universe, and to Copernicus for showing it is not”

It is worth remembering that the Nobel prize for Economics is often not thought of as being a 'proper' one since it was not part of the original set of prizes created by Alfred Nobel.

Post: #48

(10-16-2013 04:19 PM)cardguy Wrote:  http://www.johnkay.com/2013/10/16/the-no...-economics

Quote:Eugene Fama made his name by developing the efficient market hypothesis, long the cornerstone of finance theory. Robert Shiller is the most prominent critic of that hypothesis. Giving them both the Nobel Prize in Economics this year “is like awarding the physics prize jointly to Ptolemy for his theory that the Earth is the centre of the universe, and to Copernicus for showing it is not”

It is worth remembering that the Nobel prize for Economics is often not thought of as being a 'proper' one since it was not part of the original set of prizes created by Alfred Nobel.

It has certainly been a joke ever since the Nobel Committee awarded it to Paul Krugman. It is hard to fathom such a moron as an economist, much less a winner of any type of award.

Post: #49

Boom. Save yourself some reading:

Post: #50

Yep, that is a great thirty minutes. Far more informative and practical than any economics course I took in college. Guess where the United States (and really the whole developed world) is in the long term debt cycle...