Goldman Sachs’ Favorite Books List

Goldman Sachs put together a list of the best books and it is impressive and long – unfortunately it is hard to sift through since it just has the title and the author without any information on the book so we are helping you out by filing in that info. If you want to find the full list go here we also list it below at the bottom along with descriptions. Note: we do not endorse the short term trading strategies (well we really do not officially endorse anything) but to keep the list complete we have included all descriptions of books below. Because this is lengthy we will be breaking them up by section so stay tuned for more!- which brings to Industry Background and Flavor – there are some real classics in here and a few lesser known names and many of the books only cost a few pennies from Amazon and even with shipping will cost you less than $5 TOTAL, a bunch only cost a penny plus a few dollars shipping – so make sure to check them out!! WARNING : Goldman says before introing these books:

The following popular works are, of course, exaggerated depictions of the darker side of the industry. However, they do provide some of the flavor of life on “The Street.”

Also see Bill Gates: 5 Books To Read This Summer

Also see Written About, By or For Money Managers and Traders -> here

[drizzle]

Also see Goldman Sachs’ Recommended Reading List – Industry Background and Flavor Part I

Goldman Sachs’ Recommended Reading List – Industry Background and Flavor Part II

Goldman Sachs reading list sections

Written About, By or For Money Managers and Traders

Industry Background and Flavor

Broad Industry History

Analytical and Reference

Periodicals

Wall Street Journal (daily, Monday through Friday)

Barron’s (weekly publication)

General

IMD

FICC & Equities

Options/Derivatives

Goldman Sachs’ Book List – Industry Background and Flavor is a lengthy section so we split them up below is part III (final) AKA The following popular works are, of course, exaggerated depictions of the darker side of the industry. However, they do provide some of the flavor of life on “The Street.”

Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco by Bryan Burroughs and John Helyar

One of the finest, most compelling accounts of what happened to corporate America and Wall Street in the 1980’s.”

—New York Times Book Review

A #1 New York Times bestseller and arguably the best business narrative ever written, Barbarians at the Gate is the classic account of the fall of RJR Nabisco. An enduring masterpiece of investigative journalism by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, it includes a new afterword by the authors that brings this remarkable story of greed and double-dealings up to date twenty years after the famed deal. The Los Angeles Times calls Barbarians at the Gate, “Superlative.” TheChicago Tribune raves, “It’s hard to imagine a better story…and it’s hard to imagine a better account.” And in an era of spectacular business crashes and federal bailouts, it still stands as a valuable cautionary tale that must be heeded.

From Library Journal

The leveraged buyout of the RJR Nabisco Corporation for $25 billion is a landmark in American business history, a story of avarice on an epic scale. Two versions of the fierce competition for the largest buyout ever consummated are presented by skilled journalists with contrasting styles. Burrough and Helyar are clearly fascinated with the personalities of the players in the deal and with the trappings of corporate wealth. The restless, flamboyant personality of Ross Johnson, CEO of RJR Nabisco, is portrayed as the key to the events that were to unfold. The colorful description of all of the players and the events will likely have broad appeal. Lampert signals the complexity of her story by introducing her narrative with a three-page cast of characters. Her focus on the strategy of the players and on the fast-paced action provides a more concise description of a deal big enough to augment the wealth of many rich people. Business libraries will want both versions of this story of capitalism drawn to the extreme, but students, looking for a more comprehensive treatment, will favor Lampert’s version.
– Joseph Barth, U.S. Military Acad. Lib., West Point, N.Y.

Review

“It’s hard to imagine a better story…and it’s hard to imagine a better account” (Chicago Tribune)

“A superlative book…steadily builds suspense until the very end.” (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

“The fascinating inside story of the largest corporate takeover in American history… It reads like a novel.” (Today Show)

“The most piercing and compelling narrative of a deal to date.” (Boston Globe)

“Impressive qualities… delicious scenes… a cinematic yet extraordinarily careful book.” (Ken Auletta, New York Daily News)

Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis

The time was the 1980s. The place was Wall Street. The game was called Liar’s Poker.

Michael Lewis was fresh out of Princeton and the London School of Economics when he landed a job at Salomon Brothers, one of Wall Street’s premier investment firms. During the next three years, Lewis rose from callow trainee to bond salesman, raking in millions for the firm and cashing in on a modern-day gold rush.

Liar’s Poker is the culmination of those heady, frenzied years—a behind-the-scenes look at a unique and turbulent time in American business. From the frat-boy camaraderie of the forty-first-floor trading room to the killer instinct that made ambitious young men gamble everything on a high-stakes game of bluffing and deception, here is Michael Lewis’s knowing and hilarious insider’s account of an unprecedented era of greed, gluttony, and outrageous fortune.

The Predators’ Ball: The Inside Story of Drexel Burnham and the Rise of the Junk Bond Raiders by Connie Bruck

During the 1980s, Michael Milken at Drexel Burnham Lambert was the Billionaire Junk Bond King. He invented such things as “the highly confident letter” (I’m highly confident that I can raise the money you need to buy company X) and “the blind pool” (Here’s a billion dollars: let us help you buy a company), and he financed the biggest corporate raiders-men like Carl Icahn and Ronald Perelman. And then, on September 7, 1988, things changed… The Securities and Exchange Commission charged Milken and Drexel Burnham Lambert with insider trading and stock fraud. Waiting in the wings was the U.S. District Attorney, who wanted to file criminal and racketeering charges. What motivated Milken in his drive for power and money? Did Drexel Burnham Lambert condone the breaking of laws? The Predator’s Ball dramatically captures American business history in the making, uncovering the philosophy of greed that has dominated Wall Street in the 1980s.

When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management by Roger Lowenstein

With a new Afterword addressing today’s financial crisis

A BUSINESS WEEK BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

In this business classic—now with a new Afterword in which the author draws parallels to the recent financial crisis—Roger Lowenstein captures the gripping roller-coaster ride of Long-Term Capital Management. Drawing on confidential internal memos and interviews with dozens of key players, Lowenstein explains not just how the fund made and lost its money but also how the personalities of Long-Term’s partners, the arrogance of their mathematical certainties, and the culture of Wall Street itself contributed to both their rise and their fall.

When it was founded in 1993, Long-Term was hailed as the most impressive hedge fund in history. But after four years in which the firm dazzled Wall Street as a $100 billion moneymaking juggernaut, it suddenly suffered catastrophic losses that jeopardized not only the biggest banks on Wall Street but the stability of the financial system itself. The dramatic story of Long-Term’s fall is now a chilling harbinger of the crisis that would strike all of Wall Street, from Lehman Brothers to AIG, a decade later. In his new Afterword, Lowenstein shows that LTCM’s implosion should be seen not as a one-off drama but as a template for market meltdowns in an age of instability—and as a wake-up call that Wall Street and government alike tragically ignored.

Fiasco: The Inside Story of a Wall Street Trader by Frank Portnoy

FIASCO is the shocking story of one man’s education in the jungles of Wall Street. As a young derivatives salesman at Morgan Stanley, Frank Partnoy learned to buy and sell billions of dollars worth of securities that were so complex many traders themselves didn’t understand them. In his behind-the-scenes look at the trading floor and the offices of one of the world’s top investment firms, Partnoy recounts the macho attitudes and fiercely competitive ploys of his office mates. And he takes us to the annual drunken skeet-shooting competition, FIASCO, where he and his colleagues sharpen the killer instincts they are encouraged to use against their competitiors, their clients, and each other.

FIASCO is the first book to take on the derivatves trading industry?the most highly charged and risky sector of the stock market. More importantly, it is a blistering indictment of the largely unregulated market in derivatives and serves as a warning to unwary investors about real fiascos, which have cost billions of dollars.

Confessions of a Street Addict by James J. Cramer Den of Thieves by James B. Stuart

Bestselling author Jim Cramer takes readers on a wild Wall Street ride—revealing how to play the game, who breaks the rules, and who gets hurt.

Everyone on Wall Street knows Jim Cramer, and Cramer knows Wall Street better than anyone. In the most candid and outrageous look at Wall Street since Liar’s Poker, Cramer, co-founder ofTheStreet.com, radio and television commentator, and for years a premier money manager, takes readers on the wild ride that is Wall Street — revealing how the game is played, who breaks the rules, and who gets hurt.

Confessions of a Street Addict takes us from Cramer’s roots in the middle-class Philadelphia suburbs to Harvard, where he began managing money, and then to Goldman Sachs, where he went into business with his wife — Karen, the “Trading Goddess” — as his partner. He brilliantly describes the life of a money manager: the frenetic pace, the constant pressure to outperform the market and other fund managers, and the sharklike attacks fund managers make as they circle a fund perceived to be in trouble.

Throughout the book Cramer is characteristically outspoken, offering his hard-won insights about the market and everyone in it, himself included. There has never been a more eloquent market insider than Cramer, nor a more high-octane book about Wall Street.

Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle by John Rolfe and Peter Troob

They Hit “The Street.” Forget what you’ve read, forget what you’ve heard, forget what you’ve been taught. Monkey Business pulls off Wall Street’s suspenders and gives the reader the inside skinny on real life at an investment bank, where the promised land is always one more twenty-hour workday and another lap dance away. “The Street” Hit Back. Fresh out of Wharton and Harvard business schools, John Rolfe and Peter Troob ran willingly into the open arms of investment bank giant Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette. They had signed on as foot soldiers in a white-collar army of overworked and frustrated lemmings furiously trying to spin straw into gold. They escaped with the remnants of their sanity-and, ultimately, this book. Uncensored, unsanitized, and uncut, it captures the chaotic essence of the Wall Street carnival and the outlandish personalities that make it all hum…and it will become the smartest, most entertaining investment you’ll make this year.

Next: The Future Just Happened by Michael Lewis

The New York Times bestseller. “His book is a wake-up call at a time when many believe the net was a flash in the pan.”?BusinessWeek

With his knowing eye and wicked pen, Michael Lewis reveals how the Internet boom has encouraged changes in the way we live, work, and think. In the midst of one of the greatest status revolutions in the history of the world, the Internet has become a weapon in the hands of revolutionaries. Old priesthoods are crumbling. In the new order, the amateur is king: fourteen-year-olds manipulate the stock market and nineteen-year-olds take down the music industry. Unseen forces undermine all forms of collectivism, from the family to the mass market: one black box has the power to end television as we know it, and another one may dictate significant changes in our practice of democracy. With a new afterword by the author.

The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by Michael Lewis

New York Times Bestseller. “A superb book. . . . [Lewis] makes Silicon Valley as thrilling and intelligible as he made Wall Street in his best-selling Liar’s Poker.”?Time

In the weird glow of the dying millennium, Michael Lewis set out on a safari through Silicon Valley to find the world’s most important technology entrepreneur. He found this in Jim Clark, a man whose achievements include the founding of three separate billion-dollar companies. Lewis also found much more, and the result?the best-selling book The New New Thing?is an ingeniously conceived history of the Internet revolution.