It's been forever since I read it, but Fortune's Formula [1] is an entertaining read that goes into Shannon's investment methodology, alongside Edward Thorp [2].

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Fortunes-Formula-Scientific-Betting-C... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_O._Thorp

The re-balancing system (of which dollar averaging is a variant) is described in the Fortune's Formula book [1] as something that Claude Shannon [2] would demonstrate in his lectures at MIT as a mathematically proven guaranteed winning strategy. At the end of the talk there was a Q and A, and the first question always was "do you yourself use this system", to which he replied "Naw, the commissions alone would kill you".

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Fortunes-Formula-Scientific-Betting-C...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon

I have a feeling this could be one of those stories on HN where it gets a bunch of upvotes but not very much discussion.

If you enjoy pop economics/trading books ala Michael Lewis then I'd recommend Fortunes Formula. Great book focusing mostly on Ed Thorpe who is one of the fathers of modern day quantitative trading.

https://www.amazon.ca/Fortunes-Formula-Scientific-Betting-Ca...

I don't want to speak for an industry, but I don't see it used very much in practice in investing anymore, mostly because firms nowadays seem to make much smaller bets much more frequently( think HFT firms) so even pension funds that don't do investments under say $20-$30 million are usually doing sizes that amount to 1/50 of Kelly.

It may have use for very small individual investors, think someone with under $100,000 to invest that wants to pick their own holdings and not jut buy the market via an ETF.

Having said that, if you want to work on the buy side soon er or later someone will ask you about it during an interview so its in your best interest to understand it.

FWIW this would be my list of books every investor should read, which is different from what you should read to work in finance but anyway ...

Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street by Peter L. Bernstein. A lively introduction to the theoretical foundations of modern finance and their history, Markowitz, Sharpe, etc. https://www.amazon.com/Capital-Ideas-Improbable-Origins-Mode...

The Essays of Warren Buffett : Lessons for Corporate America by Warren E. Buffett. In his own words...you can also find many if not all online, on Berkshire website https://www.amazon.com/The-Essays-Warren-Buffett-Corporate/d...

Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist by Roger Lowenstein. Insightful biography...The Snowball was written more recently with Buffett's approval, but would read this one first https://www.amazon.com/Buffett-American-Capitalist-Roger-Low...

Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings by Philip A. Fisher. It's not widely appreciated, but Warren Buffett's method is 50% Ben Graham and 50% Phil Fisher. If you can find value stocks that are also great franchises, and hold onto them for dear life, you will be rich... if you also bet big, operate companies well, don't screw up, live in a bull market era and survive long enough, maybe as rich as Buffett. https://www.amazon.com/Common-Stocks-Uncommon-Profits-Writin...

The Intelligent Investor: A Book of Practical Counsel by Benjamin Graham. Classic introduction to value investing https://www.amazon.com/The-Intelligent-Investor-Practical-Co...

Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment by David F. Swensen. Asset allocation, and the perils of mutual funds...leading endowment investor of our time (Yale) gives his advice for individuals https://www.amazon.com/Unconventional-Success-Fundamental-Ap...

The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor by Howard Marks. Lessons in investing... at any time, any one of them can be 'the most important thing' and so they all are jointly and severally 'the most important thing'. https://www.amazon.com/The-Most-Important-Thing-Thoughtful/d...

The Investor's Anthology: Original Ideas from the Industry's Greatest Minds (Vols 1 and 2) by Charles D. Ellis (Editor), James R. Vertin (Editor). Essays from a broad selection of writers https://www.amazon.com/The-Investors-Anthology-Industrys-Inv... https://www.amazon.com/Classics-II-Another-Investors-Antholo...

The Money Masters; The New Money Masters; Money Masters of Our Time, by John Train. Methodologies of all-time great money managers, in their own words https://www.amazon.com/The-Money-Masters-John-Train/dp/08873... https://www.amazon.com/Money-Masters-Time-John-Train/dp/0887... https://www.amazon.com/New-Money-Masters-John-Train/dp/08873...

Market Wizards; The New Market Wizards; Hedge Fund Market Wizards, by Jack D. Schwager. Interviews of successful traders https://www.amazon.com/Market-Wizards-Jack-D-Schwager/dp/088... https://www.amazon.com/The-New-Market-Wizards-Conversations/... https://www.amazon.com/Hedge-Fund-Market-Wizards-Winning/dp/...

Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises by Charles P. Kindleberger. Why good markets go bad https://www.amazon.com/Manias-Panics-Crashes-Financial-Inves...

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre. Fictionalized biography of a famed early-20th century trader https://www.amazon.com/Reminiscences-Stock-Operator-Edwin-Le...

A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Best and Latest Investment Advice Money Can Buy by Burton G. Malkiel. Reality check from an efficient market theorist https://www.amazon.com/Random-Walk-Down-Wall-Street/dp/03933...

This is a rollicking good read on links between Shannon, Kelly, Thorpe, who wrote 'Beat the Dealer' and was maybe the first hedge fund legend https://www.amazon.com/Fortunes-Formula-Scientific-Betting-C...

And maybe something on technical analysis, but not really sure what to recommend...a lot of people view it kind as mumbo jumbo, but I kind of think fundamentals are like playing your poker hand, technicals are like playing the opponents' tells...the chart gives you an idea of who owns it at what price, what levels might make people rethink positions. Maybe this one as an easy intro, dumb title notwithstanding https://www.amazon.com/Stan-Weinsteins-Secrets-Profiting-Mar...

A great book on Shannon's work and other things is "Fortune's Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street". Easy and entertaining to read, as are all William Poundstone books.

http://www.amazon.com/Fortunes-Formula-Scientific-Betting-Ca...

If anyone is interested in more reading on the history of algorithmic trading, I've posted a screen grab of the top half of one of my book shelves.

Some of this maybe a repeat to people as I often get asked for recommendations on how to get into algorithmic trading.

http://imgur.com/OdzB4aW

http://www.amazon.ca/Fortunes-Formula-Scientific-Betting-Cas... The history of hte first real quant

http://www.amazon.ca/Dark-Pools-Machine-Traders-Rigging-eboo... The history of the rise of algorithmic trading

The phyisics of wall street was mentioned by someone else, great book

http://www.amazon.ca/Quants-Whizzes-Conquered-Street-Destroy... This profiles 4 famous traders including Simons, alos a great book

http://www.amazon.ca/Heard-Street-Quantitative-Questions-Int... A must read if you want to get into quantitative finance.

As always, email if you'd like to chat.

The Intelligent Investor is good, however, it's a bit dated. It's from an age when values could be found by carefully checking the companies books (and or paper files) and finding it owned a utility that had a book value worth more than the stock of the owning company.

Even Graham has said that for most people a low cost index fund is the way to go. Competing against a computerized/connected/inside information Wall Street is very hard and because of transaction costs (higher to the individual than the institution) winning stock trading strategies are non-trivial.

However, Claude Shannon (famous computer science guy) was a pretty good investor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_criterion

Fortune's Formula http://www.amazon.com/Fortunes-Formula-Scientific-Betting-Ca... details some of Shannon's methods and covers some other interesting stories like LTCM, Mathematician Edward O. Thorp's black jack schemes and later his creation of the one of the first "computerized" hedge fund.

claude shannon = biggest stud ever.

i highly recommend "Fortune's Formula".

Great read. Smart dudes (Shannon, Ed Thorpe), blackjack, casinos, financial markets, and more.

http://www.amazon.com/Fortunes-Formula-Scientific-Betting-Ca...