What I'm Reading Now

I have 27 non-fiction books stacked up on my 'to read' list. Plus, I have an unopened box of books from Amazon.com (AMZN), which I received a few weeks ago and forgot what I even ordered. I really enjoy reading about finance and investments, but lately, I've taken a break from financial non-fiction and delved into financial fiction. I'm reading a couple books right now (I generally read two or three books concurrently), which has helped to take my mind off my long positions in the stock market.

One of the books I am reading came out about ten years ago, The Set-Up by Paul Erdman, and even though it is dated (28 baud modems and Netscape browsers), it is also very timely with all the discussion about the Federal Reserve Board lowering interest rates. The book is about a retired chairman of the Fed who flies into Switzerland, and as he exits the plane, he is arrested for insider trading, supposedly making almost half a billion dollars. There is extensive discussion of global finance and how the changes in interest rates affect various markets. If you have limited economic understanding, you may have to stretch your brain a little to comprehend interest rate cause and effects, but if you are very familiar with worldwide money matters, you won't have any problem following the plot line. The book starts out as a mystery and morphs into a thriller. It provides the point-of-views of several different characters, so you know what is inside everyone's head. I recommend this as a great international finance page turner.

Another book I've been reading is The Day Trader by Stephen Frey, which is about a guy in his thirties who makes about $80,000 in his first stock trade while working at his dead end job, gets caught stock trading on the job by his boss, gets blackmailed by his boss, looses his job, gets word from his wife that she is divorcing him, and his wife is murdered the next day, all in the first couple chapters. An interesting mystery, with a lot of characters who may or may not be bad guys. The style is much different from Erdman's book (e.g. Frey writes in present tense instead of past tense), but just as captivating. Even though I'm only part way through the book, it looks like this will be a good one.