Trading and Exchanges: Market Microstructure for Practitioners
Author: Larry Harris
List Price: $95.00
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0195144708
Publisher: Oxford Press (October, 2002)
Sales Rank: 7,810
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 4 out of 5
Excellent Survey of Trading Terminology and Theory
I have so far read half of this 600+ page book. (perhaps I'll give an update on the second half later, but couldn't wait to give my opinion now.) Larry Harris gives painstakingly clear and precise definitions of the language of trading. They ring very true. The first 100 pages is almost all definitions. He continues with an explain-by-defining approach throughout the book. He also includes interesting examples. Next he classifies traders by type based on their motivations. While his classifications are helpful in many ways to understand trading, I believe that he put in a serious bias against the more open markets produced by decimalization. I am particularly concerned about his criticism of those front runners who, based only on their observation of trading patterns, trade ahead of value investors (using his terms); he says those front runners reduce the incentives to the value investors to correct prices.
Later in the book much of Harris' discussion of dealers assumes that bid and ask prices show fairly precise fundamental values. Yet he ignores that there so few value investors that, as Harris points out, Fischer Black said market prices are informative when they are between 1/2 and 2 times the true value (not everyone agrees). Actually those front runners amplify the information, allowing the value investors to have a greater corrective impact on prices over a wider range of securities, given their limited capital.
Overall Trading & Exchanges is a good and dense read, suited to an eager beginner or someone who wants a very clear review of the theory and practice of trading. I look forward to the rest of the book.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Great content, great writing!
I have been trading for 8 years. 6 years prop trading, I now run a hedge fund. We make about 10,000 trades/day. I wish I had read this book years ago. I've had to pay Mr. Market a large sum to learn many of these lessons. Larry Harris has written what I consider to be the best book in the field of trading. He covers nearly all topics, from structural & regulatory issues, to descriptions of the players; costs to performance evaluation. Presentation is excellent - the numerous sidebars, tables & graphs serve to illustrate the text. My only complaint is that the book does not take the quantitative side far enough. I recommend a technical appendix plus specific references (perhaps annotating the excellent bibliography) for the mathematically inclined reader.If you are interested in trading, or curious about the markets, buy and read this book!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Encyclopedic, Yet Readable and Accessible
If you don't understand how the markets work, want to learn more, and are willing to invest an immodest amount of time and money, this is a book you must read.Larry Harris is a brilliant contributor to the understanding of markets, and is currently Chief Economist of the Securities and Exchange Commission. This book however, is written as a textbook for the introductory markets class he taught at USC for many years.
Larry's book pulls back the curtains on the mystery and mumbo-jumbo of what happens when investors buy and sell securities. The book is lightly written, with many anecdotes and amusing sidebars, yet presents the latest and best knowledge on how (and why) markets work.
Similar Products
Optimal Trading Strategies: Quantitative Approaches for Managing Market Impact and Trading Risk
Leo Melamed : Escape to the Futures
Securities Operations: A Guide to Trade and Position Management
Market Microstructure Theory
Professional Electronic Trading
Book Index