Top 10 Books on Investment Banking

If you are interested in a career in Investment Banking and Finance, chances are good that you possess an energetic, detail mind, think fast on your feet, can tolerate stressful situations well and are a social creature by nature.  Trading securities, raising capital and managing mergers and acquisitions is not for everyone. The hours are long, the stakes are high but the rewards can be great.  No matter if you are already entrenched into this field starting out as a financial analyst or still a college student researching the career before jumping in, there are plenty of books on the subject that are good reads.

There are books that will entice and advance your ambition, explain basic methodologies and some that will explain past mistakes. Some well-written books explain specialties of investment bankers, or touch upon latest trends and fads.  It is no secret that a combination of luck, skill and risk are involved in the big picture of investing. The newest books are not necessarily the best; Warren Buffet , acclaimed by many as the most successful investor of the 20^th century, swears by the 1949 tome, The Intelligent Investor by Ben Graham, as the best investing book ever written; Since Warren Buffet is also one of the wealthiest men in the world and according to Time Magazine in 2012, one of the most influential; you will find the book as number one on this list, written for both defensive and enterprising strategies of investment banking.

There are books available on almost every wrong investment and mistakes made by corporations and wall street over the decades.  Individual interests will guide people to read about global financial management firms Lazard Freres and Company and Goldman Sachs, or to read about last days and failures of Bear Sterns or R. J. R. Nabisco. This reading list will not be so specific.

This list is not in chronological order of publishing, alphabetic order by title or author, or any kind of organised rating system; it merely integrates; basic understanding, starter guides, historical accounts of past crises and some tongue-in-cheek humour among valuable information that a good investment banker would benefit from by reading.

Our Top 10 (All Clickable Links):

1. The Intelligent Investor, Ben Graham.
   
2. Student to CEO: 97 Ways to Influence Your Way to the Top in Banking and Finance, Simon Dixon.
   
3. Wall Street Lingo: Thousands of Investment Terms Explained Simply, Nora Peterson.
   
4. Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking, Tom Loft.
   
5. Killer Investment Banking Resumes, Wetfeet. Also bonus guide: Insider Guide to Careers in Invest Banking.
   
6. Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle, Peter Troob.
   
7. The Accidental Investment Banker: Inside the Decade that Transformed Wall Street, Jonathan A Knee.
   
8. Liar's Poker, Michael Lewis.
   
9. House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street, William Cohan.
   
10. Black Box Casino: How Wall Street's Risky Shadow Banking Crashed Global Finance, Robert England.
    

Also highly recommended reading to those interested in, curious about or studying the field of Investment Banking: daily newspapers the Wall Street Journal and the Economist.

Some of these books are aimed at starting out in the career, and are quick reads with invaluable information for the inexperienced. The book Wall Street Lingo explains simply, thousands of terms in the banking and investment worlds that can help avoid embarrassing misuses for everyone, and obviously the Wetfeet guides are essential to college graduates. No matter what book list you look at, recommending publications for the investment banker field, number 4 on this list, Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking by Tom Loft will most likely be the most common match. 

Be sure to check out The Top 10 Finance Films as well.

 

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