Barry Ritholtz's Book Recommendations (Updated for 2026)

1

The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution

Gregory Zuckerman

4.3

Gregory Zuckerman, the bestselling author of The Greatest Trade Ever and The Frackers, answers the question investors have been asking for decades: How did Jim Simons do it?

Shortlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award

Jim Simons is the greatest money maker in modern financial history. No other investor--Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, Ray Dalio, Steve Cohen, or George S

Recommended by Abhishek Kar, Andy Sum, Barry Ritholtz, and 6 others.

Barry Ritholtz

Great read: Fascinating book that tells the tale of a enigmatic hedge fund, it’s secretive founder, and the team of brilliant data scientists who managed to “solve the market.” Nice work @GZuckerman ! https://t.co/QVgG546flw [source]

Abhishek Kar

@Singh7575 ~The man who solved the market Nice book and interesting insights from Jim's life. Read it last month. Happy reading👍 [source]

Andy Sum

I finished reading a book! Pretty interesting biography and background on some of the emotions involved in quantatative trading. Worth reading. https://t.co/doi843dcGN [source]

2

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine

Michael Lewis

4.4

Preview Summary

The real story of the crash began in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn't shine and the SEC doesn't dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower- and middle-class Americans who can't pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope an

Recommended by Sheryl Sandberg, Barry Ritholtz, David Heinemeier Hansson, and 5 others.

Barry Ritholtz

Michael Lewis, to me, is the preeminent narrator of the financial crisis. He is the guy who constructs the story better than anybody else. [source]

Sheryl Sandberg

COO/Facebook

Michael Lewis's ability to boil down the most complicated subjects is like a magic trick. You can't believe your own eyes. He takes on important issues - from the 2008 Wall Street crash in "The Big Short" to parenting in "Home Game" - and breaks them down to the deepest truths. His combination of an extraordinarily analytical mind and a deep understanding of human nature allows him to weave together data and events to offer a fresh and insightful narrative. Whatever the topic, the result is always compelling and even thrilling. I am in awe of him. [source]

David Heinemeier Hansson

A good one. [source]

3

The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It

Scott Patterson

4.1

“Beware of geeks bearing formulas.”
--Warren Buffett

In March of 2006, the world’s richest men sipped champagne in an opulent New York hotel. They were preparing to compete in a poker tournament with million-dollar stakes, but those numbers meant nothing to them. They were accustomed to risking billions.

At the card table that night was Peter Muller, an eccentric, whip-smart whiz kid who’d studied

Recommended by Barry Ritholtz and Ryan Graves.

Barry Ritholtz

The Quants explains how maths, combined with a lot of leverage and a bit of modelling error led to a lot of disasters. It’s about the mathematicians and, literally, rocket scientists who came up with a series of concepts as to how to use mathematics to try to game the market. The fun thing about mathematics is that you can identify these really small, really tiny edges that you wouldn’t find otherwise. But if you have a 0.015% edge, you can’t really make a lot of money unless you really ramp up the leverage, so most of these guys traded with a lot of leverage. But the laws of mathematics are all the same – no matter which firm you’re at – so you ended up with lots of people doing, if not identical trades, certainly very similar trades. Then you have a series of wobbles. [source]

4

Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World

Liaquat Ahamed

4.3

Winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize

"A magisterial work...You can't help thinking about the economic crisis we're living through now." --The New York Times Book Review

It is commonly believed that the Great Depression that began in 1929 resulted from a confluence of events beyond any one person's or government's control. In fact, as Liaquat Ahamed reveals, it was the decisions made by a small number

Recommended by Barry Ritholtz and David J Lynch.

Barry Ritholtz

It covers a 50-year period from before World War I and leading up to World War II. Even if you’re not interested in finance, it’s a great read. [source]

David J Lynch

Lords of Finance gives you that alternative history, particularly through the inter-war years from the end of World War I into the Great Depression. [source]

5

The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street

Justin Fox

4.1

“Do we really need yet another book about the financial crisis? Yes, we do—because this one is different….A must-read for anyone who wants to understand the mess we’re in.”
—Paul Krugman, New York Times Book Review

“Fox makes business history thrilling.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A lively history of ideas, The Myth of the Rational Market by former Time Magazine economics columnist Justin Fox, describes

Recommended by Barry Ritholtz.

Barry Ritholtz

Yes, so everything was working fine. The original concept – which started under Carter but was accelerated under Reagan – was that government has gotten too unwieldy. Regulation is too costly, too time-consuming and there’s too much red tape. There is a legitimate argument that bureaucracies tend to feed on themselves, and you have to constantly hack back at some of the vines and undergrowth. But somehow, “Let’s clear out some regulations and make it easier for business,” morphed over time to become, “The market knows better than anybody else, let’s get rid of any and all oversight, any and all regulation, any and all things that get in the way of the efficient market.” So what started out as, “Let’s clear out some of the excesses,” became, “Let’s get rid of all the rules.” [source]

6

Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History

Matt Taibbi

4.4

A brilliantly illuminating and darkly comic tale of the ongoing financial and political crisis in America

The financial crisis that exploded in 2008 isn’t past but prologue. The grifter class—made up of the largest players in the financial industry and the politicians who do their bidding—has been growing in power, and the crisis was only one terrifying manifestation of how they’ve hijacked America

Recommended by Barry Ritholtz.

Barry Ritholtz

Matt Taibbi is the poet laureate of vitriol. There is no one better to capture the gestalt of the country’s angst, fury, and anger, and how upset people are that, essentially, these banks blew themselves up, and then managed to twist Congress’s arm to give them billions of dollars, much of which, by the way, has not been repaid. Every time I see some idiot say all the TARP Troubled Asset Relief Program and bailouts have been repaid, it’s nonsense. Even if you count all the Citigroup stock, all the Bank of America stock and the GM stock – none of which you can really sell because you’ll crush the stock price – we’re not back to break-even. We still have massive liabilities thanks to the huge losses at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and the losses at AIG. [source]