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Reading Economics and Strategy Literature for Global Macro Investing

Article Quant Q&A · Author: Stuart Allan
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Summary

The document responds to a request for advanced reading on global macro investing, where views on economic conditions are expressed across asset classes such as currencies, rates, commodities, real estate, and equities. It offers a varied list of macroeconomics texts and works representing different economic traditions, alongside a book focused on the long-term performance of investment strategies. The suggestions range from standard macro frameworks to critiques and alternative schools of thought.

A central recommendation is to study competing schools of economics and use each to interpret past and current indicators and form forecasts. The answer argues that building an independent macroeconomic perspective takes substantial work, and that familiarity with a single dominant framework or market commentary may be insufficient. The document provides no evaluation of the listed books, investment results, or systematic process for turning economic analysis into positions. Its recommendations are informal, and the reading list reflects the contributors’ perspectives rather than a consensus curriculum.

Key ideas

  • Global macro investing expresses economic views across asset classes, using instruments such as ownership, futures, and options.
  • The suggested reading spans mainstream macroeconomics, critiques, alternative schools, and strategy returns.
  • Studying competing economic traditions can expose different interpretations of the same indicators.
  • Developing an independent macro view requires sustained study rather than reliance on market commentary alone.
  • The recommendations are informal and do not establish a definitive curriculum or trading method.

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# What are the canonical global-macro investing books?


# What are the canonical global-macro investing books?












What is a good reading list for Global Macro investing? What does Bridgewater, Bervan Howard, Soros, AQR etc. use to teach their staff about macroeconomic investing?

Let us assume a top-class education at the undergraduate level in economics, maths, and economic history so as to avoid the common recommendations of not very useful introductory texts.

Note: Global Macro Investing involves expressing views on commodities, rates, FX, Real Estate, Equities and other asset classes using ownership, futures, or options to find relative value and generate alpha on a global basis.

For example: Short USDTRY on asset outflows from turkey due to geo-political risk and US tightening cycle compared to TRY printing/easing.

## Answer by sparkle (score 4)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/23023

A good starting point

Macroeconomics by Blanchard

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Macroeconomics-MyEconLab-Pearson-Access-Package/dp/0133103064/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

## Answer by horseless (score 2)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/24645

List of books:

Romer’s book on Advanced Macro, whatever John Taylor’s latest macro book is, Minsky’s Keynes book and his Stabilizing an Unstable Economy book, Cassidy’s How Markets Fail, Shillers’ Animal Spirits, Debunking Economics by Keen, Meltdown by Woods, General Theory by Keynes, and (probably) Post-Keynesian Economics by Lavoie. That is only a start.

The before mentioned Romer book (and/or Blanchard’s mentioned in another comment here) is not provided because it is correct, it is provided to show the framework of the wrong model. But you still need to understand the wrong way, to appreciate the correct ways.

You may be severely underestimating the work involved. This is not qualitatively or quantitatively like giving someone John Hull’s book and telling him or her to program a Black-Scholes equation. To develop a world view on economics is a rather large amount of effort. I choose my words carefully. I did not say to learn someone like Soro’s world view is a lot of effort. To develop your own world view is a lot of effort. The reality is that most people’s macro views are based upon reading Business Week and perhaps some JPM or other research papers, deciding they are a bit more optimistic or pessimistic than that, and presenting that as if it is a real researched view.

You should familiarize yourself with the different schools of thought. Take Keynesian economics. Within the sphere of economists claiming the Keynesian title, there are old style Keynesians, neo-Keynesians, new Keynesians, post-Keynesians and more. The classicals have similar breakdowns, while there are also Austrian and Marxist schools and so on. You should be able to look at the current and past economic indicators and generate a different conclusion of what is going on and forecast what will happen in the economy based upon the views of each of those different schools. The school of economics called New Keynesian has an extremely different view of economics than the post-Keynesian, and this later group correctly says New Keynesians do not follow what John Maynard Keynes believed in. The difference between the two is why the dominate school of economics in December of 2007 had no clue a recession was about to happen, while it was incredibly obvious to many post-Keynesians.

## Answer by dm63 (score 1)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/22555

Expected Returns by Antti ilmanen is a good one. It examines the long term profitability of various strategies.

## Answer by Hartvigsen (score 1)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/24663

Take a look at http://alephblog.com. There is a section with book reviews and a subcategory called "Macro Investing". I haven't read any of the books but the blog itself is recommendable. The reviews contain a full disclosure.

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This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.