Finance Book of the Week

“ESG Investing For Dummies” provides a user accessible guide to investing for a more sustainable world. "This book will allow us to hit this new investing landscape running," - albeit in a sustainably violent way…

If you are seeking measurable ways to factor ESG into company performance, this is an excellent starting point…

“The (Mis)Behaviour of Markets” foreshadowed a market crash, explains why it could happen again if we don't act now. With his fractal tools, Mandelbrot has got to the bottom of how financial markets really work. He finds they have a shifting sense of time and wild behaviour that makes them volatile, dangerous - and beautiful. In his models, the complex gyrations of the FTSE 100 and exchange rates can be reduced to straightforward formulae that yield a much more accurate description of the risks involved.

"The Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" exposes international intrigue, corruption, and little-known government and corporate activities that have dire consequences for American democracy and the world. It is a compelling story that also offers hope and a vision for realizing the American dream of a just and compassionate world that will bring us greater security.

Or to put it in PLY speak: It's the equivalent of taking emerging nations and encouraging them to gorge at the "all you can eat" buffet of debt.

“Investment Biker: On the Road with Jim Rogers” is the fascinating story of legendary investor Jim Rogers's global motorcycle journey/investing trip, with hardheaded advice on the current state and future direction of international economies that will guide and inspire investors interested in foreign markets.

This book was written by George Goodman who was best known by his pseudonym Adam Smith with which he wrote his most famous book “The Money Game.”

A 1969 bestseller, it’s as relevant today as it was then…

“If you don’t know who you are, the stock market is an expensive place to find out.”
― George Goodman

“The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story Of The New Billionaire Wildcatters,” is a dramatic narrative tracking of a brutal competition among headstrong drillers known as “Wildcatters,” who solved America’s dependence on imported energy in the process making and losing astonishing fortunes. The Wildcatters transformed the economic, environmental, and geopolitical course of history by using their wealth and power to influence politics, education, entertainment, sports, and many other fields. Their story is one of the most important of our time fanning out from the fracking hotspots of the United States to reach the boardrooms of Wall Street and beyond...

This week’s book was written by Michael Lewis, featuring our IPO-VID guest 019 & one of the Flash Boys, Ronan Ryan.

“Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt,” a game-changing bestseller, a small group of Wall Street iconoclasts realize that the U.S. stock market has been rigged for the benefit of insiders. They band together―some of them walking away from seven-figure salaries―to investigate, expose, and reform the insidious new ways that Wall Street generates profits. If you have any contact with the market, even a retirement account, this story is happening to you.

“Reinventing Banking and Finance: Frameworks to Navigate Global Fintech Innovation” provides a thorough overview of the global fintech ecosystem and the drivers behind innovation in technologies, business models and distribution channels. Examples of key institutions and interviews with innovators and experts shine a light on key financial innovation hubs across the world, covering genuine innovations in AI, machine learning, blockchain and digital identity.

In Daylight Robbery, Dominic Frisby offers an alternative vision of a system that is as old as civilisation itself. It will take you on a whirlwind journey through the history of taxation, from ancient Mesopotamia right up to the present day, explaining the key dynamics of taxation around the world and arguing that governments are going to have to radically change who they tax and how if they are to succeed in the future.

“Candlestick Charts: An Introduction To Using Candlestick” aims to enable the simple viewing of a candlestick chart to answer the perennial question: "Who's controlling the market; the Bulls or the Bears?"

This book is a no-nonsense guide to the methodology and practical usage of this ancient Japanese charting technique and essential reading for anybody involved in markets, regardless of their level of experience across any traded market.

Today marks the 24th anniversary of my very first book "Capital Market Revolution! - The Future of Finance in an Online World.” I remember the week well, it was published in London with a launch party at the British Library in the middle of IDW.

Thos picking up the book now might struggle to recall the ‘radical’ nature of the tome at the time as - with hindsight - so much seems just so logical but at the time it was not and I can well recall the luddites eager to stop the message!

In retrospect, “CMR!” was the first bestselling book of fintech, a decade before that term even gained traction. It’s a pacy read and there’s all manner of stuff in there like electronic money, the future of financial centres, the rise of prediction markets, how the ETF would become the staple of the fund industry and much more including of course how electronic for profit exchanges would become the dominant model of commerce in 21st century markets with CCPs becoming increasingly the epicentre of market probity.

“Capital Market Revolution!” delivered a new vision of financial markets outlined clearly and succinctly in print for the first time. The career of its author, Patrick L Young remains a matter of life and pith.

An insider's account of the rise of digital money and cryptocurrencies.

CryptoDad is Giancarlo's own personal story, detailing his forays into the world of Wall Street to his tenure as the 13th Chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), where he pushed for the agency to recognize the digitization of markets.

CryptoDad argues that the next digital wave will be the coming Internet of Value, where cryptocurrencies will do what the Internet of Information did to immaterial things: make them accessible, distributable, and movable instantly across the globe.

To coincide with the 300th anniversary of Adam Smith’s birth, we’re highlighting his masterpiece “The Wealth of Nations” which endured a 17 year gestation period including extensive conversations with contemporary economists such as Nicholas Magens.

The result is a masterpiece that frames so many aspects of society, the industrial revolution and more in a readable format which endures in its insights to this day thanks to its practical application of a reformed economic theory to replace the mercantilist and physiocratic economic theories that were becoming outmoded as the enlightenment was powered by industrial change driving societal improvement for all.

The Wealth of Nations does for economics what Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason achieved for philosophy.

"In Defense of Capitalism.” Rainer Zitelmann examines the ten most common objections to capitalism: capitalism leads to hunger and poverty, to rising inequality, to unnecessary consumption, to environmental destruction, to climate change and wars. Capitalism, its critics say, prioritizes profits over humanity, creates dominant monopolies, and undermines democracy. Zitelmann scrutinizes each of these arguments in turn and reveals the critical flaws that debunk them. He offers counter arguments to each charge, deploying a wealth of historical evidence and eye-opening facts to prove that it is not capitalism that has failed, but a century of anti-capitalist experiments.

The second part of the book explores popular perceptions of capitalism in Europe, the USA, Latin America and Asia and is based on a specially commissioned Ipsos MORI poll of 21 countries, the results of which are presented here for the first time.

Shut Up and Keep Talking, is a magnificent compendium of captivating stories that reveal what he has learned about life and investing through the most incredible forum of all: a seat in the epicentre of capitalism, the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Part investment primer, part stories of meeting the great and the good such as Fidel Castro, Robert Downey Jr., Walter Cronkite, Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow and Jack Ma to name but six, Shut Up and Keep Talking also delves into the structure of markets.

Bob elegantly describes how the investment world has changed, the almost total transition of trading from floor to screen, the collapse in fees for many investment products and services most notably via index funds, making “Shut Up and Keep Talking” a unique memoir from CNBC’s voice on the NYSE floor for over 25 years.

“Financial Cold War: A View of Sino-US Relations from the Financial Markets” is a fascinating read, discussing many issues including the inherent plausibility of a longstanding linkage to benefit both contemporary superpowers - the growing nation of China and the more mature USA in a manner - that can positively impact the world’s economy.

Our IPO-VID guest 105 Philip Roscoe creates a cautionary tale about the drive of financial markets towards expropriation, capture and exclusion. A must read book from University of St Andrews Reader in Management, Philip Roscoe, even if it’s much more about socioeconomics than anything remotely like a build manual for a marketplace (if you need one of those DM me…).