Finance Book of the Week

In response to reader’s queries , we’re adding a book column to the weekend edition - We’ll be choosing some interesting books pertaining to exchanges and markets, investment et al going forward.

We’re choosing interesting books pertaining to exchanges and markets, investment et al.

This week's featured finance book of the week is our biased staff choice! It holds a very special place not only because it was authored by our founder Patrick L. Young', but because it originated from our Exchange Invest Newsletter. The Exchange Invest 1000, or EI1000, serves as an index showcasing the world's most influential figures in market structure, encompassing exchanges and clearing houses. This index relies on specialized algorithms developed by PLY.

The publication includes about 30 sub-lists, covering various categories like regional leaders, women, and experts in "Dealmakers," "Visionaries," "Blockchain," "FinTech," and more. 


Our next Book of the week will be unveiled Saturday in the EI Weekend Edition.

& don’t forget if you want all the news on the bourse business sent daily to your Inbox subscribe to Exchange Invest - via Exchange Invest.com - it’s only $349 per annum to join “The Exchange of Information.”

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Suggestions welcome if you would like to nominate a book for us to cover!

Previous Finance Book of the Week

September 9th: ESG Investing For Dummies by Brendan Bradley

“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…

September 2nd: The (Mis)Behaviour of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin and Reward by Benoit B. Mandelbrot

“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.

August 26th: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins

"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.

August 19th: Investment Biker: On the Road with Jim Rogers by Jim Rogers

“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.

August 12th: The Money Game by Adam Smith

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

August 5th: The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters by Gregory Zuckerman

“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...

July 26th: Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis

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.

July 22nd: Reinventing Banking and Finance: Frameworks to Navigate Global Fintech Innovation by Alessandro Hatami

“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.

July 15th: Daylight Robbery: How Tax Shaped Our Past and Will Change Our Future by Dominic Frisby

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.

July 8th: Candlestick Charts: An introduction to using candlestick charts by Clive Lambert

“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.

July 1st: Capital Market Revolution: The Future of Markets in an Online World by Patrick L. Young

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.

June 23rd: CryptoDad: The Fight for the Future of Money by J. Christopher Giancarlo

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.

June 17th: The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

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.

June 10th: In Defense of Capitalism by Rainer Zitelmann

"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.

June 3rd: Shut Up and Keep Talking: Lessons on Life and Investing from the Floor of the New York Stock Exchange by Bob Pisani

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.

May 27th: Financial Cold War: A View of Sino-US Relations from the Financial Markets by James A. Fok

“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.

May 20th: How to Build a Stock Exchange: The Past, Present and Future of Finance by Philip Roscoe

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…).