It's extremely readable and funny and covers most of the situations in real life where you can apply economic concepts to understand why something is the way it is.
Understanding why countries and economies grow (and why some grow faster than others!) doesn't always fall under the "economics" umbrella but is really useful for informing policy (and a useful reminder these days, when both US presidential candidates rail against trade agreements). "From Poverty to Prosperity" lays out a very readable and convincing argument for how countries have grown and become rich. https://www.amazon.com/Poverty-Prosperity-Intangible-Liabili...
For finance I very much enjoyed The Intelligent Investor, which also (apparently) inspired Warren Buffett's investing philosophy. https://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Investor-Definitive-Inves...
Off the top of my head, I would add:
* "The Way to Wealth," by Benjamin Franklin: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0918222885 (also available online for free; it's in the public domain) -- no-nonsense practical advice from a super-successful individual
* Warren Buffett's Letters to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html (also available organized by topic, in a bound book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1611637589 which some will find much easier to read)
* "The Intelligent Investor," by Benjamin Graham (specifically the chapters titled "The Investor and Market Fluctuations" and "Margin of Safety"): https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060555661
* "Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion," by Robert Cialdini: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0688128165
Also:
* "Devil Take the Hindmost," by Edward Chancellor: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0452281806
* "A Short History of Financial Euphoria," by John Kenneth Galbraith: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140238565
* "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds," by Charles Mackay: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1586635581
Any good Economics Text book will do: like Principles of Economics/ Principles of Microeconomics, Gregory Mankiw
You can also try, although, personally I have not taken these:
https://www.coursera.org/course/microecon
https://www.coursera.org/learn/principles-of-macroeconomics
> FT and all the stats that CNBC shows me
For Investment valuation and Corporate Finance Damodaran is one of the best sources:
http://people.stern.nyu.edu/adamodar/
Visit his blog, read his books. He has online classes as well
Also you can try, (I've not taken this course): https://www.coursera.org/learn/financial-markets
For Value Investing, Benjamin Graham is a classic:
http://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Investor-Definitive-Invest...
> For Technical Analysis and Futures Trading though, there are tonnes of books. May be you can start with these:
http://www.amazon.com/Technical-Analysis-Financial-Markets-C...
http://www.amazon.com/Options-Futures-Other-Derivatives-Edit...
And lastly,
> combine my CS background with Finance and do something interesting in it
And by "done well" I do not mean predicting ups and downs, but having a diversified portfolio (investing everything in one company is not a good idea, does not matter how promising or established it looks), which is doable with all the investment funds out there that ask for a very low minimum investment.
Check these books:
http://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Investor-Definitive-Invest...
http://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Common-Sense-Investing/dp/...
To get a better idea of these two approaches: Read Ben Graham's book: http://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Investor-Definitive-Invest...
and Read Philip Fisher's book: http://www.amazon.com/Common-Stocks-Uncommon-Profits-Writing...
Both are good reads.
1. From The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham: "An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and an adequate return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative."
http://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Investor-Definitive-Invest...
2. From Mr. Buffett on the Stock Market: "The definition is simple but often forgotten: investing is laying out money now to get more money back in the future -- more money in real terms, after taking inflation into account."
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1999/...
> A stock analyst is going off of timing and trends more than data.
Not necessarily. You can broadly divide analysis into two camps - "technical analysis" [1] which is what you're describing, and "fundamental analysis" [2] which is looking more at intrinsic value, numbers, assets, things like that.
Warren Buffett, for instance, does plenty of stock analysis and he's not a technical trader at all. He repeatedly says he doesn't try to time the market. [3]
The first book I read on trading - Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets [4] - was from a technical analysis perspective, and I lost money trying to implement it.
Then I read about value investing and started trying to apply those principles - only buying fundamentally sound stocks trading at a favorable price earnings ratio, either in fundamentally defensible businesses or with lots of solid assets on their books, and buying with a big margin of safety.
I haven't had a losing trade since then, though in fairness my sample size is small and I don't sell unless the price of a stock I bought gets over what I consider reasonable. I'm currently holding Microsoft and HP which are down, but both I think are way undervalued (Microsoft is extremely stable, has some upside in the way of a strong research division, and could potentially translate a hit like the Kinect into alternate input devices. HP is being treated as toxic despite owning some nice high margin businesses that most people don't think about when they think of HP, as well as a huge patent portfolio and some good assets... yeah, their management sucks lately, but who cares if a company is trading below its liquidation value? anyways, do your own research, check the financials, etc, etc)
Anyways. Not all traders are technical traders. Fundamental analysis is also analysis, and probably easier to implement to be consistently successful. The top book on that is "The Intelligent Investor" [5] by Ben Graham, which Warren Buffets calls the best book on finance ever written (I agree).
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_analysis
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_analysis
[3] “If you’re an investor, you’re looking on what the asset is going to do, if you’re a speculator, you’re commonly focusing on what the price of the object is going to do, and that’s not our game.” (1997 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting)
[4] Generally considered one of the best intro books to technical analysis. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735200661/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...
[5] http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060555661/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...
I think that "in the process of" is critical. It hasn't yet stabilized. There are some genuinely weird things... for instance:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060555661?ie=UTF8&tag=... the paperback is half the price of the Kindle version!
I'm still not quite sure what I think about ebooks. Definitely convenient in some ways, but I like being able to hand a book I've read to my wife, or sell it used or whatever. Those things haven't quite been worked out, just yet.
Also, there's something a bit monotonous about reading everything in the same "form factor" with the same fonts.
I found this edition helpful in that regard: http://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Investor-Definitive-Invest...
Each of Graham's chapters is followed by another chapter of interpretation/reflection on his advice in a modern context.
