Liars Poker
By Michael Lewis
Penguin USA, 1990 - 249 pages

This book, and Predators Ball, really started the boom in financial writing as it pertains to what it is like to actually work on Wall Street, the characters and behind the scene antics that go on. Having spent 3 years working for 2 different firms in research I can say that some very interesting people work on Wall Street. Some are very average people with phenomenal work ethic whereas some are quite comparable to people out of the Wild West.

Anyone who is considering going into the financial services industry in trading, sales or research should read this. I tell you to read it because it does describe how cut throat the business is and it does provide some entertaining insightful look at characters in the industry. Liar's Poker provides a good top down look at the characters and process of Wall Street. This book, in particular, focuses on the rise of Soloman Brothers and its trading.

Other books of interest would be John Train's Money Masters and New Money Masters (2 different books) that discusses the world's best portfolio managers and traders. Both are excellent reading.

Michael Lewis is the author of several best-selling books, including Liar's Poker (#1 New York Times national bestseller in both hardcover and paperback), based in part on his own experience working as an investment banker for Salomon Brothers.

Lewis is currently a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine, a columnist for Bloomberg, and a visiting fellow at the University of California at Berkeley. His freelance writing appears in places including The New Yorker, Slate and Foreign Affairs.

Michael Lewis has served as editor and columnist for the British Weekly The Spectator and as senior editor and campaign correspondent of The New Republic. He has filmed and narrated short pieces for ABC-TV's "Nightline" and has hosted a series on presidential politics for National Public Radio.

He holds a B.A. from Princeton and an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.

He lives in Paris, France, with his wife, Tabitha Soren (MTV fame), and their daughter.