Book Review on Capital Ideas by Peter L. Bernstein

I just finished reading Peter L. Bernstein's Capital Ideas: The Improbable Origins of Modern Wall Street which I bought more than a year back.

Due to the lack of time, I was not able to complete this book earlier.

This book makes for a very heavy reading indeed and is definitely not your bedtime story book. Nevertheless, Professor Bernstein does a good job of tracing through the entire history of the various academics who have impacted the way we think about the world of finance, investing and Wall Street.

Anyone who reads this book will definitely come out wiser about what works and what does not work in the investment world. In it, you will get an almost university level education on Finance & Investing 101. It is not so much a heavy mathematical read but more of a historical narrative read that traces the evolution of investment ideas and theory; and more importantly the founders of these theories who were often housed away in universities and barely invested a couple of thousand of their own money.

Reading this book gives you a really quick overview on things like CAPM, efficient portfolios, options and other fancy theories about the investment world. If anything, some of these theories explained in the book might be beyond the grasp of newbies to the investment world.

After reading it, I have started to evaluate my own investment strategy and am seriously considering investing in index funds.

If you are not interested in finance or investments, stay away from this book as it has nothing that will interest you.

For those who are interested in managing their own investments, this book is a definite MUST READ.