2012 Wall Street Reading List

A practical guide to starting a small, self-funded business, built on a survey of about 1,500 people who earned at least $50,000 a year from ventures launched with little money. It covers finding an offer people will pay for, pricing, launching and growing without outside capital, and is useful to anyone weighing a side business or a solo exit from a salaried job.

Profiles of eight CEOs, among them Henry Singleton, Tom Murphy, John Malone, Katharine Graham and Warren Buffett, whose shareholder returns far outstripped the market because they treated capital allocation as their main job. Investor William Thorndike shows how buybacks, disciplined acquisitions, decentralization and indifference to Wall Street's opinion compounded value over decades.

A New York Times reporter explains the cue, routine and reward loop behind habits, then applies it to people, companies and social movements. The business chapters, on Paul O'Neill's safety drive at Alcoa, Starbucks training and Target's data mining, show how habits shape corporate performance and consumer behavior.

Taleb's sequel to The Black Swan argues that the opposite of fragile is not robust but antifragile: systems that get stronger from volatility, stress and error. For investors it is a book about convex payoffs, the barbell portfolio, hidden leverage and why forecasting matters less than how you are exposed to what you cannot forecast.