Markets

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations 《国富论》 Adam Smith Smith examines the sources of national wealth and argues that it comes from the division of labour and capital accumulation rather than from… Economics Classic Index 97

The Black Swan 《黑天鹅》 Nassim Nicholas Taleb Taleb argues that history and markets are shaped mainly by a very small number of extreme events — precisely the ones existing models cannot… Finance Classic Index 95

Security Analysis 《证券分析》 Benjamin Graham Graham and Dodd turned security valuation from a matter of personal judgment into a testable method: estimate intrinsic value from balance sheets… Investment Classic Index 95

A Random Walk Down Wall Street 《漫步华尔街》 Burton Malkiel Malkiel uses the efficient-market hypothesis and random-walk theory to argue that most active managers cannot beat the market consistently, which… Investment Classic Index 92

Against the Gods 《与天为敌》 Peter Bernstein Bernstein tells how humans learned to live with risk: from gambling and the mathematics of probability to insurance, statistics, and financial… Finance Classic Index 90

Manias, Panics, and Crashes 《疯狂、惊恐和崩溃》 Charles Kindleberger Kindleberger breaks financial crises into a recognizable sequence: a new opportunity appears, credit expands, speculation builds, insiders exit… Finance Classic Index 89

The Most Important Thing 《投资最重要的事》 Howard Marks Marks sets out, in short memo-like chapters, what he calls second-level thinking: do not ask whether a company is good, ask what consensus the… Investment Classic Index 89

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator 《股票作手回忆录》 Edwin Lefèvre A narrative based on Jesse Livermore, tracing a speculator’s rise and ruin in early twentieth-century American markets. Its subject is not technique… Investment Classic Index 89

Irrational Exuberance 《非理性繁荣》 Robert Shiller Shiller uses valuation data, survey evidence, and psychological research to explain how asset bubbles form: feedback loops, news and narrative, herd… Investment Classic Index 88

Free to Choose 《自由选择》 Milton Friedman The Friedmans argue in accessible terms, using policy cases and historical examples, that economic freedom is a necessary condition of political… Economics Classic Index 88

Capital in the Twenty-First Century 《21 世纪资本论》 Thomas Piketty Piketty uses tax and inheritance records going back to the eighteenth century to argue that when the return on capital exceeds the growth rate over… Economics Classic Index 88

The Ascent of Money 《货币崛起》 Niall Ferguson Ferguson strings world history on a few financial innovations — bonds, equities, insurance, mortgages, and derivatives — each tied to a shift in… Finance Classic Index 87

One Up on Wall Street 《彼得·林奇的成功投资》 Peter Lynch Lynch argues that amateur investors hold an information advantage over institutions in industries and consumer situations they know firsthand, and… Investment Classic Index 87

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds 《大癫狂》 Charles Mackay Writing in the nineteenth century, Mackay compiled a dossier of collective illusions: tulip mania, the South Sea Bubble, alchemy, the Crusades, and… Finance Classic Index 86

When Genius Failed 《赌金者》 Roger Lowenstein Long-Term Capital Management gathered two Nobel laureates and some of Wall Street’s best traders, then collapsed under leverage within months in… Finance Classic Index 86

The Big Short 《大空头》 Michael Lewis Lewis follows a handful of small funds and traders who noticed that US mortgage securities were systematically mispriced, bet against subprime debt… Finance Classic Index 85

The Battle for Investment Survival 《投资生存之战》 Gerald Loeb Loeb’s practical handbook from the 1930s argues that the first task of investing is to protect capital, which requires a willingness to cut losses… US Stock Investment Classic Index 81