Start here if you are aiming at a buy-side seat or you want a stock pitch that sounds like it came from someone who has held a position rather than modelled one.
One Up on Wall Street
Peter LynchEssentialBookStart here
What to notice. An edge usually starts as something you already understand better than the market.
The case for buying what you already understand, and the ancestor of every "tell me about a stock you like" answer that actually works.
Where it shows up in a roomWhere it shows up in a room
It is the model for the stock you bring to the room: a business you can explain without notes and a reason the market is wrong.
The Intelligent Investor
Benjamin GrahamRecommendedBookStart hereA long haul
What to notice. Price is what the market offers you today. Value is the separate question.
Margin of safety and Mr Market. Read chapters 8 and 20 first and take the rest slowly; much of it is a period piece and the two ideas are the point.
Where it shows up in a roomWhere it shows up in a room
Margin of safety is the phrase every value fund is listening for, and chapter 8 is where you learn to use it without sounding like a quotation.
Where Are the Customers' Yachts?
Fred Schwed Jr.RecommendedBookStart hereAn evening
What to notice. Follow the fee before you follow the advice.
A 1940 book about fees and incentives that has not dated in a single respect. Short, funny and quietly the most cynical thing on this list.
Where it shows up in a roomWhere it shows up in a room
Asked why active management is under pressure, the fee answer is the one that does not need a chart.
The Psychology of Money
Morgan HouselRecommendedBookStart here
What to notice. A handful of outcomes carries a portfolio, and a career.
Why sensible people do unsensible things with money. The chapter on how a few outcomes carry an entire portfolio is worth the book on its own.
Where it shows up in a roomWhere it shows up in a room
It gives you a non-technical answer to how you think about risk, which is what wealth and asset management interviews are actually probing.
The Smart Money Method
Stephen ClaphamEssentialBookIntermediate
What to notice. An analyst’s day is idea generation, evidence and sizing, in that order.
A hedge fund analyst’s working process, from idea generation through to position sizing. The closest thing in print to a job description for a research seat.
Where it shows up in a roomWhere it shows up in a room
Asked how you would spend your first week as an analyst, this is the book that makes the answer specific.
Market Wizards
Jack D. SchwagerRecommendedBookIntermediate
What to notice. Traders who agree on nothing else all agree about risk control.
Interviews with traders who made money in incompatible ways, which is the point of it. Read across the volumes and the only factor left in common is risk control.
Where it shows up in a roomWhere it shows up in a room
It stops you claiming there is one right way to trade, which is the answer a markets interviewer is hoping you will not give.
The Dhandho Investor
Mohnish PabraiRecommendedBookStart hereAn evening
What to notice. Low risk and high uncertainty are not the same thing.
Low risk and high uncertainty are not the same thing, and the gap between them is where returns come from. A short book built entirely on that distinction.
Where it shows up in a roomWhere it shows up in a room
The distinction gives you a precise answer when you are asked what makes a situation attractive rather than merely cheap.
How to Invest
David M. RubensteinRecommendedBookStart here
What to notice. Each seat on the buy side is a different job, not a different asset.
Interviews across every asset class, conducted by someone who built one of them. The fastest way to learn what each seat on the buy side does all day.
Where it shows up in a roomWhere it shows up in a room
It is the cheapest way to stop confusing private equity, growth and credit, which candidates do constantly.
The Little Book of Commodity Investing
John StephensonFor the curiousBookIntermediate
What to notice. A commodity index does not return what the spot price did.
Contango, backwardation and why a commodity index does not return what the spot price did. Thinly covered elsewhere, which is what earns it a place.
How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market
Nicolas DarvasFor the curiousBookIntermediate
What to notice. One person’s record is a story about survivorship until proven otherwise.
A 1960s account of trend following by a dancer reading cables on tour. Treat it as a document about discipline and survivorship rather than a method to copy.
Mastering the Trade
John F. CarterFor the curiousBookDeeper dive
What to notice. A setup without an exit rule is not a strategy.
Setups, stops and the machinery of short-term trading. Relevant if you are aiming at a markets desk rather than a deal team, and largely wasted effort if you are not.