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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2838 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 12, 2025

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Can people suggest a good way to learn the ropes of finance and playing markets? I am shamefully un-learned in these things. I would like to learn about how modern finance, investments, banking, markets, financial regulations, etc. all work. More from a pragmatic than from a theoretical motivation (I want to start being more of a capitalist and less of a wagie), but theory is good too.

You should read books.

I recommend Peter Lynch (One Up on Wall Street, amusing as well as informative) and Howard Marks (Mastering the Market Cycle) for starters.

Others have hopefully properly warned you off from becoming a day trader, YOLOing on 0days and HODLing TVIX. As for "modern finance, investments, banking, markets, financial regulations," a couple things I would recommend are Matt Levine's Money Stuff column in Bloomberg and Patrick McKenzie's Bits about Money. They're not what you would get if you pounded the textbooks, but they cover a pretty wide array of random happenings, at which point, they dig in enough for you to get a sense for how such folks think. Then, if there are any particular areas you're interested in, you at least have some of the right terminology to help you dive in more. They're also both hilarious.

Ah, the days of TVIX. One of my most interesting experiences in finance was the presentation by the risk manager who had stopped my then-employer from offering a TVIX-equivalent explaining just how XIV and TVIX died.

a couple things I would recommend are Matt Levine's Money Stuff column in Bloomberg and Patrick McKenzie's Bits about Money.

I second this recommendation, and add Byrne Hobart's The Diff.

There are various "stock market games" you can play online where you make investments with fake money and software tracks how you're doing. You'll quickly realize how quickly your money disappears when you put it in the market expecting quick returns. Unless you're looking to put your money into traditional investments and wait decades for it to grow, you might as well start playing ponies since they're about as predictable.

I don't think this is totally true. Unless you go full degenerate, the modal outcome of self-directed investment is lower returns while having wasted a bunch of time, or a level of outperformance so low that doesn't justify the amount of time invested, not ruin.

you might as well start playing ponies since they're about as predictable

As the old saying goes, if you want to bankrupt yourself, horse bets are the quickest way, women are the nicest and agriculture is the surest.

In the words of Sam Altman "you can just do stuff".

Of course, in the words of another sage "experience is a dear school", so don't expect the lessons to come cheap.

Playing the markets is probably negative EV, so I'd advice you to read "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" before getting started.

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