The Alchemy of Finance

One of the most powerful yet underrated books on finance and economics ever. The book has not received its due praise primarily because the writing tends to be a little muddled and distracting, and the main idea offered in the book is revolutionary and definitely runs contrary to the popular held beliefs of efficient market theory- and this is why the book is so valuable.I would recommend to anyone who wanted to peer inside the Palindromes mind to go and first read "Soros on Soros" which is a kind of brief overview of the ideas offered in this book but done in an interview style so the writing is much more cogent and readable. But, once you have finished that I would definitely recommend reading "Alchemy..." The ideas and information offered inside are powerful and game changing to those who can understand them- which certainly doesn't take a PHD, just an open mind and bit of thought.In fact, it was after reading this book that the young Stanley Drunkenmiller sought out George Soros and asked to work with him, and Paul Tudor Jones, made it a requirement to read and understand this book before joining his fund. If that is not enough of a referral then I don't know what is. Read this book, take notes, and internalize the lessons and ideas inside and you will much better off for it.

When I bought the Audible version of this book, I didn't notice that it's indicated as "Abridged". I had previously bought the paperback, and found it to be tough going. It's not the clearest prose, and is very dense and philosophical. So I bought the Audible version, thinking it might help to listen to it.I was very wrong. The editors completely skipped the New Introduction, which is a key part of the narrative. They also appear to have cut out the vast bulk of the book's text -- 370 pages got condensed into 2.5 hours of narration!I started listening to the Audible version, Chapter 1, holding the paperback in my hands and trying to match up the spoken and written versions. I couldn't find where the narrator was reading from! For my needs, the Audible Abridged version was a complete waste of time.I called Amazon / Audible to complain. The rep was very helpful, and refunded my purchase as I requested. He explained that most titles are in fact offered in Unabridged versions, and "The Alchemy of Finance" is an exception to this rule. Caveat emptor.

If you read his reflexivity of stock prices and currency chapters, you will get the core idea of the book. And I can tell you that it is brilliant. His focus is on the impact of stock price on its own valuation, as a commodity investor myself who doesn't really trade stocks, I can tell you that the emphasis of investor bias, EPS, PE ratios and stock price itself as key predictors of boom bust cycles, creates an empirical framework of thought that can help you determine when a trend reversal is happening due to negative feedback.It's an important framework in thinking about oil and gas prices too.

George Soros is a master at his craft. You get an in-depth look into how he’s taken big & calculated risks to accumulate the wealth he’s amassed. A must read for anyone who might start Forex trading or stock trading in general.

Good knowledge from book

classic work I liked the book highly recommed

A great book

May I say I have read but 40 pages and concur that this book definitely provides insight casually overlooked by those hotheaded enough to dismiss things as this or that. Perhaps Mr. Soros is stating at protracted length by the girth of the book but he stocks it with many examples which I find helpful (I read out of order so my 40 pgs are all over the book). Reflexivity seems to be some aftermath of relativity and/or a socialized version of Newton's 3rd law, where the reaction is not reciprocated 180 degrees or of equal momentum, but at a variant angle at a sensible force. I read along and in reading this I am complementing my Bergson "Matter and Memory" which lends great weight to the textual stretches Soros regales in. George Soros has quite credibly depicted the details of empirical business to a degree most ignore and operate off of with heuristic reaction. A man who spells out what everyone is just saying can profit from the faults of cadence and dis equanimity of many people's interpretation. This basically continues Marx's reductive division between singular and plural, as necessitated by communicable mediums, and results in asymmetry. Trends are social and crest and waver, but formed in certain mediums as are waves in an ocean and by shifts in the air current and to the land/gravity one can gauge to some modicum of satisfaction the tides to come. Nothing is 100 percent due or endogenously self-directing or regulating as we are members of a system and therefore produce tremors in our actions which disrupt or affect our observations (very Heisenberg indeed).