Red-Blooded Risk: The Secret History of Wall Street

One Hundred Useful Books

I've been interested in this stuff for many years, and I read a lot. This chapter lists 100 of the more useful books. I did not limit the list to books I agreed with; I wanted to present a range of opinions. I tried to include mostly books of about the same technical level as this one, and I have noted the ones that require more or less math. I do not list more than one book per author. Many of the authors mentioned here are prolific. I have picked the book most directly relevant to mine and leave it to you to select among their other books if you are so inclined. By that logic I had to regretfully omit my other books (but they're great). In addition, I have picked mostly recent books and relatively obscure books. The classics everyone likes are easy to find.

I start with the books that take on the subject of Red-Blooded Risk most directly. Nassim Taleb is best known for his Black Swan, but his earlier book, Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, tackles many of the same issues as my book, with somewhat different results. We more or less agree on the problem, but go in opposite directions to find solutions. A Demon of Our Own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils of Financial Innovation by Richard Bookstaber comes at things from a third direction. Dylan Evans's forthcoming Risk Intelligence: How to Live with Uncertainty focuses on similar ideas in settings beyond finance. Iceberg Risk: An Adventure in Portfolio ...