The physics of Wall Street
by James Owen Weatherall · first published 2013
46% recommend54% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Readable history of how physics-derived math and models entered finance, from early quants to modern trading; suits readers curious about quantitative finance who want an overview rather than heavy formulas.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2018–2026Advances in Financial Machine Learning
Marcos Lopez de Prado
Recommended by 7 · mentioned by 117 recommend · 11 mention7 recommend · 117 recommend
2012–2026The Quants
Scott Patterson
Recommended by 9 · mentioned by 129 recommend · 12 mention9 recommend · 129 recommend
2007–2022Story
Robert McKee
Recommended by 11 · mentioned by 1611 recommend · 16 mention11 recommend · 1611 recommend
2012–2024Dark Pools
Scott Patterson
Recommended by 27 · mentioned by 4827 recommend · 48 mention27 recommend · 4827 recommend
2009–2026Options, futures, & other derivatives
John C. Hull
Recommended by 25 · mentioned by 3525 recommend · 35 mention25 recommend · 3525 recommend
2007–2026Against the gods
Peter L. Bernstein
Recommended by 28 · mentioned by 3628 recommend · 36 mention28 recommend · 3628 recommend
2007–2026The Intelligent Investor
Benjamin Graham
Recommended by 152 · mentioned by 244152 recommend · 244 mention152 recommend · 244152 recommend
2010–2026Thinking in systems
Donella H. Meadows, Diana Wright
Recommended by 124 · mentioned by 163124 recommend · 163 mention124 recommend · 163124 recommend
FYI The Physics of Wall Street gives a lot of reference to what type of trading James does, and chronicles a lot of James's history! The book also goes into a lot of the history of these types of traders! It is an insanely interesting…
on “A Billionaire Mathematician’s Life of Ferocious Curiosity” ↗Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Peter L. Bernstein https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/128429.Against_the_Gods The Physics of Wall Street: A Brief History of Predicting the Unpredictable by James Owen Weatherall https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13356644-the-physics-of-... Faster Than Thought: A Symposium on Digital Computing Machines (1953)…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite non-fiction books of all time?” ↗It's good this is getting more attention, however there were many good books before this one. "Quants" and "Dark Pools" were my favorites and a good place to start. The Physics of Wall Street: A Brief History of Predicting the Unpredictable Automate This The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It Dark Pools: High-Speed Traders, A.I. Bandits,…
on “U.S. stock markets are rigged, says author Michael Lewis” ↗I thoroughly enjoyed /The Physics of Wall Street/, but I found that it was heavier on the "physics" than on the "Wall Street". It depends on what you're looking for. If you want accessible, non-mathematical descriptions of the analytical tools that…
on “A Billionaire Mathematician’s Life of Ferocious Curiosity” ↗…interested in talking to Thorp until he proposed the idea face to face. Ed Thorp is still alive and has written some interesting biographies. Check out A Man for All Markets if you are interested. The Physics of Wall Street is also a good overview of quantitative financial analysis.
on “Claude Shannon, the Las Vegas Shark (2017)” ↗…Lots, and P&L podcasts by Bloomberg (P&L is more short-term, while MiB and Odd Lots are more generally applicable). Both of those books might be floating around the internet. I also really enjoyed "The Physics of Wall Street" (James Weatherfall). It's a look into how financial mathematics got started and how it has grown and been increasingly applied in modern finance. If you're interested in options and other derivatives…
on “SIPC Says It Has Serious Concerns About Robinhood's New Product” ↗…many PhDs in Physics and Math. (This book writes about it in fair detail. [2]) [1] How we can predict the next financial crisis: http://www.ted.com/talks/didier_sornette_how_we_can_predict_... [2] The Physics of Wall Street: http://www.amazon.com/The-Physics-Wall-Street-Unpredictable/...
on “The Best Investment Advice You'll Never Get (2008)” ↗The Physics of Wall Street covers the history of math from Bernoulli through Mandelbrot and how we arrived at modern algorithmic trading. http://www.amazon.com/The-Physics-Wall-Street-Unpredictable/... It doesn't cover the actual…
on “Bernoulli: Exposition of a New Theory on the Measurement of Risk (1738) [pdf]” ↗…with Anger", Thubten Chodron Reading For Pleasure: "Naked Statistics", Charles Wheelan "Algorithms to Live By", Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths "Dark Pools" "The Quants", Scott Patterson "The Physics Of Wall Street", James Owen Weatherall Plus some Chinese books, I wont bore with the details, unless anyone wants to know. Fun Fact, while I was in China for 8 weeks in late 2017 I bought 60 Chinese books and stuffed…
on “Ask HN: What books do you keep on your desk?” ↗…in: https://teddit.net/r/wallstreetbets/comments/kcs4xy/what_qua... If you want an autobiography, Emanuel Derman's My Life as a Quant is well-regarded. I have never read it myself but Amazon has often recommended me The Physics of Wall Street.
on “Probability and Markets by Jane Street [pdf]” ↗I first read about the Cauchy distribution in a book titled The Physics of Wall Street by James Owen Weatherall. Before then, I was mostly familiar with the normal distribution. The normal distribution shows variance as contained around mean, median, and mode. The Cauchy distribution can…
on “Thinking Fast and Slopes” ↗> The Physics of Wall Street covers the history of math from Bernoulli through Mandelbrot and how we arrived at modern algorithmic trading. The way you put it makes it sound like algorithmic trading is the pinnacle achievement of…
on “Bernoulli: Exposition of a New Theory on the Measurement of Risk (1738) [pdf]” ↗The physics of Wall Street
on “Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?” ↗