A Random Walk Down Wall Street - Malkiel

I'm working on reading through this book. It's a book about the financial markets written with the intended audience of investors. It has been recommenced to me off-handedly by my Money and Banking professor from spring '09. I'm a third to a fourth of the way through.

It's funny to hear descriptions of quants being able to value a firm with, 'a few presses of a calculator'. Now-a-days valuation of firms seems to be done in time measurements where electron cycles are a relevant time division.

The best part of reading this book is the history it provides. The author is attempting to explain contemporary methods for picking stocks. But because this 4th edition book was published in 1985 it's now an explanation of history. Understanding the Firm Foundations theory and Castles in the Sky theory helps to contextualize the criticism of economists and other thinkers of speculation in the stock market today. The "Black Swan" gains additional meaning now that I understand the object of critique as well as the critique.

(MORE TO COME...)