Learning stock trading financing etc for someone from mathematical background [duplicate]
Security Analysis(very difficult for beginners )& Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. All about(book series by McGraw) on Stocks,Derivatives,Options,Futures,Market Timings. Reminiscence of a Stock Operator (Life of jesse Livermore). Memoirs , Popular Delusions and Madness of the Crowds by Charles Mackay. Basics of Technical analysis includig Trading Strategies via Youtube videos & Google. Also opt for Seeking alpha free version to learn about portfolio allocation under current scenario there will be few articles as it will ask for premium version if you love it then opt for it. But still these books will do.
Here's a very good series of classroom lectures by Robert Schiller, one of America's top economists and a prof at Yale:  http://www.youtube.com/user/YaleCourses#g/c/8F7E2591EE283A2E  This should give you some general insight into basic principles of finance and give you a framework to learn more later. Try downloading a finance app like yahoo finance. Follow a few stocks, read through the articles - look up terms you don’t understand. Search them on YouTube, Investopedia, - note book recommendations. Learn some economics as well.  Even if you’re not interested in trading, this should help you learn the language enough to get an idea of what’s out there - how money is thought of in different time periods, etc.  Finance can be very opaque when you first dip your feet in. You’ll find you only understand 75% - 25% of what you’re reading but that’s ok just keep looking things up. I guarantee your understanding of what “finance” means will slowly evolve as you keep learning.   Expect to spend maybe a few years to a lifetime figuring this stuff out. I'm in the same position as you. I've found YouTube to be a great resource, as well as reading things from outlets like the WSJ. Having a close friend in a target school studying finance also helps a ton, as I have someone to talk to casually about things, as well as ask questions.  Check out [this](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUl4u3cNGP63B2lDhyKOsImI7FjCf6eDW) playlist on YouTube. I've seen the professor (Lo) mentioned more than once in articles in the WSJ. He's written some books too that I'd like to read. I haven't watched that whole playlist, but the first few videos are helpful.  Martin Shkreli's YouTube channel is a great resource. It's mentioned constantly on this sub. His finance lessons as well as his weekly podcast are great. I also like to listen to (via YouTube Red) talks given by execs like Ackman, Gray, Simons, Dalio, etc. [this](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVJalJNQWimC2zWrIHR_bSQ) channel uploads tons of interviews and talks that I find interesting. They can get repetitive, but I find it fun to listen to these guys.   You can also get a student membership to the American Finance Association for free. Academic papers are still way above my level, but if you really get into it, those could be fun.  You can subscribe to email newsletters for some free content. Almost Daily Grant's is a good one, the normal journal costs like 2k a year.   Feel free to message me. as someone who made a fair attempt at understanding money subjects, I'd like some more writing from you.  I took high school level Marketing; Business economics; commercial law. it took six months on top of my previous High school ( with high level maths).  during those months I got medium grades, and failed  in- can you believe it - marketing. I had a go at The intelligent investor. I made it to page 96. But honestly I felt like I needed a lot of background in order for me to understand it. English is my second language. Sure I can understand  words like liability vs assets. but to this day i still can't remember the difference between a bull and bearish market. I know its about risk assesment on a national/ global level.  So who honestly gave finance a go but got their ass kicked. What would you say?  any books? Your question just doesn't make sense in terms of finance. The reason I recommended those questions is because it'll make yours more coherent.  There's deep confusion in your question, put another way. I don't think you're thinking about money properly, specifically the ownership and it doesn't appear you've read much about trading.  If you're interested in a financial career, you need to be very willing to learn independently. I think my questions are a good place to start.  Honestly, you should buy a finance textbook and just go through it. It's insanely complex at the top levels so reinforcing the foundation stuff is extremely beneficial. "I have an MScF (Undergrad Math/Econ) and I currently work in algo trading, I started off on the buy side and then went off on my own after I got a large enough bonus for seed capital,.... :)  Quantitative Finance is not a ""small field"" within it there are subfields (there are much more subfields that these).  Econometrics/Statistical/Research methods, time series analysis, statistics, stochastic calculus, data mining  Asset Management/Trading: Building testing and implementing models, usually you have an idea, test it and implement it, requires a lot of good time series skills, statistical skills and programming and be good at research.  Modelling/Pricing/Risk, building better pricing models, coming up with elegant solutions, so a strong knowledge of stochastic calc, Differential Equations, Partial Differential Equations, Monte Carlo Simulations, etc  12 Months will not make you an expert in any of the above. You may learn enough to understand it. Quant Finance is something you learn by doing, yes you need to understand the theory but its just theory until you start to implement it.   Finally if you do an MFin/MscF/MFE make sure there is a THESIS otherwise it will be tough to do a PhD after.  If you want a taste, grab some R/Matlab/Whatever and try and program some common SSRN papers.." "practice using excel more  read more books on investing, practice making investing thesis, practice remaining ""nice"" while getting good and bad critique, expand your knowledge (it is impossible to be the best at everything in investing due to the multiple forms of investing that have contradicting principles), and think economics.  Finance will be useless if you have a very limited understanding of ""scarcity""" "I highly recommend http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/ Professor Damodaran. He's written some of the best valuation books in existence (my favorite, simply ""Investment Valuation""). On his website you'll find a big pile of spreadsheets, that are models for working the various approaches to valuing a company.  Also, he teaches an MBA-level valuation course at Stern School of Business in NYC. And he videotapes it and you can watch it for free. Very smart, kind, generous man." Got a degree in finance and I'll talk about simple ways to really improve your learning experience:  excel will be your best friend. Get comfortable with it. Learn; pivot tables, formulas, formatting, and macros.  Learn to type at a decent speed. Many students still type slow. It will hinder you  Current events is the best way to stay informed. Always be reading up on business information. Pretty much twice a day.   Join a free stock market game and track how you do. Get on it twice a week and make trades frequent based on what you think.   I can elaborate more if you have any more questions ! Frederic Mishkin wrote a few text books on financial concepts that are widely used in colleges.  If you're not looking for a textbook - I'd really recommend Khan Academy on YouTube.  He's got some great videos on supply and demand - bonds, exchange rates - monetary policy by the federal reserve. All academically sound. They're very easy to digest and watch over again for reference. Now it's been a while since I read these, and I'm not complete sure if these are the kinds of books that you're looking for, but I found them quite good:  Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives by Hull: http://amzn.com/0133456315  Investments and Portfolio Management by Bodie, Kane &amp; Marcus: http://amzn.com/0071289143  I hope this helps! If you've already done some micro and macro, you are on the right track to learn finance. What you should study next depends on what kind of finance you want to know more about. Is it M&amp;A and corporate finance, more macro would not help much, but maybe some financial accounting. You could see if you could get your hands on a corporate finance text book since they are a good starting place to learn more about finance in general (and such a book is a relatively easy read). Much finance, however, requires good quantitative skills so probability, statistics, linear algebra and calculus, and their applications to finance, is never a bad thing to look into. This would open up for understanding e.g. derivatives that played a huge role in the financial crisis and in financial markets today. cfa here  what sort of valuation/modeling/analysis do you do? is it similar to the cfa curriculum? just because you're good at math doesn't mean you'll be good at cfa math.  and do you have a good knowledge of econ, quantitative methods, and equity/debt concepts?  keep in mind you only need to pass and not get everything right. for the most part i feel that people who come from a finance background in terms of education and/or work experience has it easier. ~150 hours seems to be cutting it close personally The quant aspect '''''. This is the kind of math I was wondering if it existed, but now it sounds like it is much more  complex in reality then optimizing by evaluating different cost of capital. Thank you for sharing As JoeTaxpayer has commented, the markets are littered with the carcasses of those who buy into the idea that markets submit readily to formal analysis.   Financial markets are amongst the most complex systems we know of.  To borrow a concept from mathematics - that of a chaotic system - one might say that financial markets are a chaotic system comprised of a nested structure of chaotic subsystems. For example, the unpredictable behaviour of a single (big) market participant can have dramatic effects on overall market behaviour. In my experience, becoming a successful investor requires a considerable amount of time and commitment and has a steep learning curve.  Your actions in abandoning your graduate studies hint that you are perhaps lacking in commitment. Most people believe that they are special and that investing will be easy money.  If you are currently entertaining such thoughts, then you would be well advised to forget them immediately and prepare to show some humility. TL/DR; It is currently considered that behavioural psychology is a valuable tool in understanding investors behaviour as well as overall market trends.  Also in the area of psychology, confirmation bias is another aspect of trading that it is important to keep in mind.  Quantitative analysis is a mathematical tool that is currently used by hedge funds and the big investment banks, however these methods require considerable resources and given the  performance of hedge funds in the last few years, it does not appear to be worth the investment. If you are serious in wanting to make the necessary commitments, then here are a few ideas on where to start : There are certain technical details that you will need to understand in order to quantify the risks you are taking beyond simple buying and holding financial instruments.  For example, how option strategies can be used limit your risk; how margin requirements may force your hand in volatile markets; how different markets impact on one another - e.g., the relationship between bond markets and equity markets; and a host of other issues.  Also, to repeat, it is important to understand how your own psychology can impact on your investment decisions.