5 ms·

This article highlights something for me, I've recently started working in a large financial entity in London and. . . I have no idea what they actually do here

by Tarks 17y ago

This article highlights something for me, I've recently started working in a large financial entity in London and. . . I have no idea what they actually do here, I have very basic understanding of trades and options/exotics etc, can anyone point me to a book or something that would give me a decent understanding?

lliiffee 17y ago
If you really have no idea about anything in finance, a good place to start would be "A Random Walk Down Wall-Street". Edit: Sorry-- I forgot to say this is a book! It's by Burton Malkiel. (It's not particularly US-centric.)
sharpn 17y ago
There are some good free resources, like this one: http://www.classiccmp.org/transputer/finengineer/ http://www.classiccmp.org/transputer/finengineer/ But there's probably also lots of information available on your intranet - there's bound to be a wiki with some good information. And if your company subscribes to the ISDA library (about £11k pa) you can get a userid & dig out stuff there. What I found most useful was to get a copy of trade confirms & read them until I understood - plus copy some modelling spreadsheets & tinker with the inputs to see what effect they have on the outputs. For really heavy financial maths subscribe (for free) to Willmott & search around there. Good luck.
rfreytag 17y ago
Study the advice of Charlie Munger: http://tinyurl.com/ycmpo9v http://tinyurl.com/ycmpo9v
- Tichy 17y ago
  Why the downvotes? I don't know Munger, but the book sounds reasonable?
  - rfreytag 17y ago
    I think people think I didn't answer the question which pertained narrowly to learning how financial firms operated. The thing is - Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett, Philip Carret, and a few others DON'T operate like normal financial firms and have done spectacularly better. To understand financial firms you need to know what works better - and Berkshire Hathaway works a whole lot better. And Charlie Munger is Warren Buffett's sounding board. Read Charlie Munger's advice and compare it to what you read elsewhere about financial firms knowing that Charlie is right. In fact, the OP reasons in much the way of Buffett (I read several of his eariler articles), except that his noodling around with shorts is a departure from what I take to be Buffett's strategy of buying good management and good companies at good prices, and waiting as long as it takes to get good prices.
tortilla 17y ago
Two other financial blogs I follow: http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/ http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/ http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/ http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/
tptacek 17y ago
You could do a lot worse than _Trading and Exchanges_ by Larry Harris. The first couple chapters in particular do a fantastic job at giving a laypersons tour of the operations side of trading and finance. The problem with things like _A Random Walk..._ is that they're geared towards helping independent investors; that's great, but it's not super relevant to a tech career in finance. On the other hand, knowing how shopping a block works: pretty handy.
dave_au 17y ago
I really liked "The Complete Guide to Capital Markets for Quantitative Professionals"

by Tarks 17y ago

lliiffee 17y ago

If you really have no idea about anything in finance, a good place to start would be "A Random Walk Down Wall-Street". Edit: Sorry-- I forgot to say this is a book! It's by Burton Malkiel. (It's not particularly US-centric.)

sharpn 17y ago

There are some good free resources, like this one: http://www.classiccmp.org/transputer/finengineer/ http://www.classiccmp.org/transputer/finengineer/ But there's probably also lots of information available on your intranet - there's bound to be a wiki with some good information. And if your company subscribes to the ISDA library (about £11k pa) you can get a userid & dig out stuff there. What I found most useful was to get a copy of trade confirms & read them until I understood - plus copy some modelling spreadsheets & tinker with the inputs to see what effect they have on the outputs. For really heavy financial maths subscribe (for free) to Willmott & search around there. Good luck.

rfreytag 17y ago

Study the advice of Charlie Munger: http://tinyurl.com/ycmpo9v http://tinyurl.com/ycmpo9v

Tichy 17y ago
Why the downvotes? I don't know Munger, but the book sounds reasonable?
- rfreytag 17y ago
  I think people think I didn't answer the question which pertained narrowly to learning how financial firms operated. The thing is - Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett, Philip Carret, and a few others DON'T operate like normal financial firms and have done spectacularly better. To understand financial firms you need to know what works better - and Berkshire Hathaway works a whole lot better. And Charlie Munger is Warren Buffett's sounding board. Read Charlie Munger's advice and compare it to what you read elsewhere about financial firms knowing that Charlie is right. In fact, the OP reasons in much the way of Buffett (I read several of his eariler articles), except that his noodling around with shorts is a departure from what I take to be Buffett's strategy of buying good management and good companies at good prices, and waiting as long as it takes to get good prices.

tortilla 17y ago

Two other financial blogs I follow: http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/ http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/ http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/ http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/

tptacek 17y ago

You could do a lot worse than _Trading and Exchanges_ by Larry Harris. The first couple chapters in particular do a fantastic job at giving a laypersons tour of the operations side of trading and finance. The problem with things like _A Random Walk..._ is that they're geared towards helping independent investors; that's great, but it's not super relevant to a tech career in finance. On the other hand, knowing how shopping a block works: pretty handy.

dave_au 17y ago

I really liked "The Complete Guide to Capital Markets for Quantitative Professionals"