III

The Market Practitioner

Execution, instruments, and microstructure

Learn how markets actually work: commodities, derivatives, portfolio management, and the microstructure of trading. Theory meets practice in the mechanics of price discovery and execution.

L2
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
Edwin Lefevre
The thinly veiled biography of Jesse Livermore. Timeless lessons on speculation, crowd psychology, and the art of tape reading.
L2
Druckenmiller: Principles from Practice
Stanley Druckenmiller (via Schwager, interviews)
The greatest macro trader of his generation never wrote a book. Synthesized from three decades of interviews, conference talks, and Schwager's New Market Wizards: concentration, liquidity, fat pitches, and radical flexibility.
L2
Market Wizards
Jack Schwager
Jack Schwager's interviews with the greatest traders of the 20th century. Discretionary and systematic, fundamental and technical — the common threads of risk management, discipline, and edge that separate survivors from blowups.
L3
The Alchemy of Finance & Reflexivity
George Soros
Soros' theory of reflexivity: feedback loops between market prices and fundamentals that create boom-bust cycles. The philosophical foundation behind the Quantum Fund.
L4
Technical Analysis: Price Action, Patterns & Indicators
Edwards & Magee, Nison, Murphy, Chaikin
The complete technical toolkit: Dow Theory, chart patterns, candlesticks, moving averages, RSI, MACD, Bollinger Bands, Chaikin Money Flow, volume analysis, and the honest debate about when technicals work and when they don't.
L6
From Theory to Application
Various
Bridging the gap between academic finance theory and practical portfolio construction. How to turn research insights into implementable strategies.
L7
Physical & Financial Commodities
Various
The intersection of physical commodity markets and financial derivatives. Supply chains, storage, term structure, and the financialization of commodities.
L7
Model Implementation
Various
Taking quantitative models from prototype to production. Software engineering practices, numerical methods, and the engineering of trading systems.
L7
Derivative Portfolio Management
Various
Managing a portfolio of derivative instruments. Greeks, hedging strategies, and the practical challenges of options book management.
L7
Fixed Income Fundamentals
Various
Bonds, yield curves, duration, convexity, and rate trading. The largest asset class in the world, and the one most finance curricula cover worst.
L8
Market Microstructure & Trading
Various
How orders become trades: market microstructure, order book dynamics, information asymmetry, and the economics of market making.