Currently have a plan to start with "Principles of Corporate Finance" (by Richard Brealey and Stewart Myers), followed by "Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives" (by Hull). Then perhaps "Security Analysis" (by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd). These seem to be of quite seminal nature in finance literature according to most sources.<p>Not very sure what to do after that. Would really appreciate any guidance in this direction, or if there is a better/efficient way to go about gathering solid applicable knowledge in this area.
Want to acquire solid finance foundations, so as to be able to implement the complex financial processes & systems (like marketplaces, securities & OTC instrument contracts, trading bots, etc.) on my own.<p>Additional background info if it helps:
Current skill sets I have: Economics & Stats (MS level knowledge) | R, SAS, Stata, MATLAB, etc. (2 years as data science guy) | Python (2 years as full stack dev); basic Java (coding challenges level only) | Also good college level calculus, linear algebra, basic optimization techniques etc. so won't shy away from complex Maths.
Brealey+Myers, Hull, and Graham+Dodd are good starters. Trading and Exchanges by Harris is great for understanding the actual mechanisms of markets. Try and find "Max Dama on
Automated Trading" (it's a pdf that's floating around) for some pretty decent advice on building trading systems.
If possible, get an internship, or placement, or something. You seem to be quantitative, so send a million emails / LinkedIn requests to people in charge of quantitative things and be fast to follow-up. Practice and theory are aligned, but getting to the nuts-and-bolts of a few practical, current problems can be a great education. Even something seemingly simple, like constructing a proxy for an index, is practical and skills learnt applicable.<p>Focus on getting the foot in the door, as long as you ace the above, that's enough academically. Your academic drive (having mastered the above) should be enough to problem-solve and push forward.
The three books you mentioned focus on three different areas of finance with very little overlap. And all three books are not considered basic text and are much more theoretical. Are you trying to learn basics of different segment of Finance? Then these books are more advanced.<p>What is your goal? What do you expect to achieve after finishing these books? Why do you want to learn three very different segments of Finance: Corporate Finance, Options, and Fundamental Security Analysis? Do you want to work in Corporate Finance or Options Trading or Security Analysis? You can't be all three at the same time.
I am an ex-commodities trader. My advice is to get some used CFA lvl 1 materials or you can download the pdfs online through torrent. they arent up to date but they should be cheap. the corp fin, accounting, and portfolio sections are great. derivatives, fixed income and equities are ok; also to learn about the market and how it works better to read materials from the exchanges and articles then textbooks. ALSO cant stress enough that to know finance you need to learn accounting and how to read company's annual reports and financials.