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Intel · Library

The Closelook Library

The works of financial literature worth knowing, condensed to what you can use: the core thesis in three minutes, one infographic, the formulas, the tools — and for each book an Applied Pack (Excel + Python) you can download with a free membership. Own words throughout; for the full argument we always link to the original.

Risk Architecture & Market Regimes

Fortune's Formula

William Poundstone · 2005

The story of the Kelly criterion — the formula that turns edge and odds into an exact position size. Bet more and you eventually go broke faster than you compound; bet less and you leave growth on the table.

↓ Kelly Applied Pack — free members

Technology Evolution & Disruption

Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital

Carlota Perez · 2002

Perez's claim: every technological revolution runs the same financial script — installation, frenzy, crash, then the golden age. The question that matters for capital is not whether the technology is real, but which phase you are standing in.

↓ Perez Applied Pack — free members

Information Theory & Network Economics

The Information

James Gleick · 2011

Gleick's history of information theory lands on one operational idea for investors: information is measured by surprise, not by volume — and almost everything a market feed delivers is volume.

↓ Gleick Applied Pack — free members

Systematic & Quantitative Valuation

The Intelligent Investor

Benjamin Graham · 1949

Graham's central claim in one line: returns are made at the moment of purchase, by paying less than a business is worth. The margin of safety is a number, not a mood — and it can be computed.

↓ Graham Applied Pack — free members

Systematic & Quantitative Valuation

The Little Book That Still Beats the Market

Joel Greenblatt · 2010

Greenblatt compresses value investing into two numbers: how cheap a business is (earnings yield) and how good it is (return on capital). Rank on both, buy the best combined ranks, repeat mechanically.

↓ Greenblatt Applied Pack — free members

Behavioral Finance & Microstructure

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman · 2011

Kahneman's map of the two systems that produce every trading decision: a fast one that answers instantly with a biased guess, and a slow one that could check the guess but usually doesn't. The edge is in forcing the check.

↓ Kahneman Applied Pack — free members

Risk Architecture & Market RegimesMETHOD

Trend Following (Time-Series Momentum)

Method dossier — documented in AQR and Man AHL research · 2012

The most openly documented hedge-fund method there is: go with the sign of the trailing trend, size by inverse volatility, rebalance monthly. A century of public evidence, and simple enough to run as software on your own data.

↓ Trend System Pack — free members

In production

The launch plan runs to 25 works across five clusters, then continues weekly. Next up, in no fixed order:

Systematic & Quantitative Valuation

  • Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond Bruce Greenwald
  • Expected Returns Antti Ilmanen
  • Quantitative Value Wesley Gray & Tobias Carlisle

Risk Architecture & Market Regimes

  • The Black Swan Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  • Antifragile Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  • Adaptive Markets Andrew Lo
  • Principles Ray Dalio

Technology Evolution & Disruption

  • The Innovator's Dilemma Clayton Christensen
  • Crossing the Chasm Geoffrey Moore
  • Modern Monopolies Alex Moazed & Nicholas Johnson
  • Zero to One Peter Thiel

Behavioral Finance & Microstructure

  • Misbehaving Richard Thaler
  • The Hour Between Dog and Wolf John Coates
  • Trading and Exchanges Larry Harris
  • The Alchemy of Finance George Soros

Information Theory & Network Economics

  • Information Rules Carl Shapiro & Hal Varian
  • Scale Geoffrey West
  • A Random Walk Down Wall Street Burton Malkiel
  • The Master Algorithm Pedro Domingos

Closelook publishes a market diary, not investment advice. Library reads are educational summaries in our own words — facts and formulas are free; the author's prose belongs to the author.