Business/Finance

25 Best Books on Business Finance You Must Read

October 12, 2022

If you want to get your hands on some of the best books on business finance, this article is perfect for you.

It shows you as many as 25 of the best such business finance books and exactly why each is a must-read!

Table of Contents

Importance of Books on Business Finance for Making Money

Part of the process of staying healthy is to have annual checkups.

An annual checkup involves making an appointment with the doctor and undergoing a physical examination to see how you are doing.

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The physical exam involves the doctor listening to your lungs, probing around a little bit, asking how you’re feeling, and if there are any issues, and the doctor might chastise you a little bit for putting on extra weight.

Before even seeing the doctor, their assistant will on the way to the examination room have you step on the scale to get your weight, take your blood pressure, take your temperature and count your respirations per minute.

These standard indicators of a person’s initial health are known as TPR or temperature, pulse, and respiration.

Similarly, in the business world, businesses need to have “physical exams.”

A business TPR can be determined in four areas.

Those areas are liquidity, solvency, profitability, and operating efficiency.

To help understand these indicators it is a good idea to understand these factors and the best way to learn is through reading.

Therefore, let us take a look at 25 of the best books available on business finance.

25 Best Books on Business Finance

1. Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets

Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets is authored by John J. Murphy and is an analysis that dives into the technical aspects and costs for concepts of futures and stock markets.

The book is a comprehensive writing that expounds on the latest developments in computer technology, the various indicators, and the technical tools to help the interested individual look at a variety of aspects of the markets.

Some of the topics that are featured involve:

Stocks and stock rotation
Intermarket relationships
Candlestick charting
How to read charts to understand indicators
And the critical role that technical analysis plays when investing

This is an updated version of his original book and is recommended for individuals who are interested in analyzing and tracking the behavior of the market.

Click here to grab this book

2. Option Volatility and Pricing

Option Volatility and Pricing is written by Sheldon Natenberg.

This author is considered an authority and expert in the option volatility industry.

This edition is revised and updated and is a quality read as it relates to trading strategies and techniques.

In the book, a vast array of topics are addressed and are designed to be read and be useful for both new and experienced traders.

Some of the subject matter includes:

The foundations of option theory
Volatility and directional trading strategies
Dynamic hedging
Risk analysis
Position management
Stock index futures and options
And much more

Click here to grab this book

3. The Secrets of Economic Indicators

The book entitled The Secrets of Economic Indicators is written and designed to help the financier translate the copious amounts of economic data and that can translate into an opportunity for informed decision-making.

This book is in its third edition and has been updated to reflect the latest in the US and foreign economic indicators.

Some of those economic markers include:

Monitoring small business plans
Freight traffic shifts
Web searches
And the world of gambling

The book also presents a list of foreign indicators that will help the investor to anticipate swings in the Asian and European markets

The author, Bernie Baumohl, provides clarity on how the key indicators impact investments, economic indicators, and overall strategy.

This book may prove helpful in the areas of interest rates, bond and stock prices, currency values, etc.

Click here to grab this book

4. Mastering the Lightning Network

Mastering the Lightning Network is a book for today’s day and age as it explores the world of cryptocurrency.

In particular, this book by Andreas Antonopoulos Osuntokun focuses on the payment protocol that works on the upper layer of Bitcoin to provide almost instantaneous transactions between two entities.

The authors explain how this advancement will revolutionize the next level of scale through increased speed, associated privacy, and the reduction of fees.

This book will be particularly helpful for developers, investors, entrepreneurs, and system architects if their focus and goal are to have a better understanding of the lightning network.

Click here to grab this book

5. DeFi and the Future of Finance

Campbell R. Harvey, Ashwin Ramachandran, and Joey Santor have authored DeFi and the Future of Finance.

The poignant questions posed by the book include the questions of why the government bails out the very financial institutions that wreak havoc in the financial world, why does it take days to settle the stock transaction and why do businesses that operate on thin margins have to pay 3% every time a customer uses their credit card

This book is a study of decentralized finance and asks these questions and more

They suggest that the current financial outlook is fertile ground for disruption and the possibility of finance being reinvented.

Also See: Top Warren Buffett Book Recommendations & Top Books on Making Money.

6. Safe Haven

Safe Haven is written by Mark Spitznagel and explores safe havens as it relates to vehicles within an investor’s investment portfolio.

He poses the question are safe havens to be utilized only until turbulent financial times had passed or do safe havens represent something more? He

He also challenges the accepted thinking that quite possibly, higher returns can actually result from low-risk investments.

The author is one of the top proponents of safe haven investing and portfolio risk.

In this book, he answers these questions and more by floating the idea of getting a good return on investments that aren’t necessarily high-risk.

7. The Business Of Venture Capital

The Business Of Venture Capital is a comprehensive and in-depth look at the process of venture capital.

The author, Mahendra Ramsinghani, explores the many facets of this business of venture capital, the accumulation of venture funds, and structuring the investments with the intent of providing consistent returns. He also addresses exit strategies as it relates to venture capital processes

The author is well acquainted with investing in startups and has done so over the last 10 years.

The book is replete with a variety of different outlooks possible exploration of career paths for young professionals the sharing of actual case studies and the good, bad, and ugly of venture capital transactions.

8. The New Trading For A Living

The New Trading For A Living by Alexander Elder is the current update of a previously published book.

The focus of the book is to teach the modern-day investor that the approach to the markets should be with an attitude of being calm and disciplined.

Also, the book provides a marked emphasis on controlling risk, and being involved with self-management and provides clarity for both aspects of investment in the market.

The book also is a resource for trading as it includes various templates for stock picks, rating them, creating trade plans, and taking a self-assessment as to your readiness of trading.

9. Financial Management Theory and Practice

In this recent edition of Financial Management Theory and Practice Eugene F. Brigham is written with the purpose being to give the reader a foundational understanding of theoretical concepts that are key along with practical resources to make informed financial decisions.

The emphasis of the book is on corporate valuation as it pertains to financial decisions and not only has the big picture in mind but also the details.

The various topics covered in this book range from the very fundamentals of financial strategic thinking to recent events that link the important role of business finances and spill over into the business leader’s personal life.

10. The Way of the Wall Street Warrior

Dave Liu is an investment banker and financial professional that utilizes his 25 years of experience to author The Way of the Wall Street Warrior.

The tone of the book is humorous and provides meaningful advice for an individual considering the Wall Street professional career path ranging from landing an interview, promoting yourself, and getting remunerated.

Topics include:

Getting the job you wanted
The formula for success is the performing the least amount of work for the most pay
Understanding human nature to win in the treadmill race
Coming across as the smartest person in the room when you’re not
How to turn any weakness into an asset for career advancement

11. Financial Planning & Analysis and Performance Management

The topics that are expounded on in Financial Planning & Analysis and Performance Management Jack Alexander include:

Assess the performance of the FP & A function
Use cutting-edge thinking to plan and forecast
Provision of analytical tools and practical solutions
An in-depth look at value drivers to improve critical business
Build analytical capability
Evaluation of capital investments in the mulch was times

This book can be considered a significant resource for financial professionals and addresses budgeting and forecasting, financial communication, and benchmarking, and is replete with valuable graphs and other visual aids.

12. International Financial Management

International Financial Management by Jeff Madura international and global business leaders of today to assist with powerful information to financially be successful in today’s global business environment.

The book offers the reader a broad range of topics to help with the financial management of their company and presents this in the light of a strong corporate perspective.

Explanations are provided with clarity, applications in real-world scenarios, engaging examples, self-tests, and applications that are practical to help you maximize your understanding.

13. How to Read a Financial Report

John A Tracy and Tage C. Tracy have combined to write a practical book that is designed to help all those in the business world to understand what they are looking at when reviewing financial statements.

The book is entitled How to Read a Financial Report to help the reader, regardless of their financial statement experience, understand the organizational cash flow, profit performance, and financial condition.

The book is purposely designed to cut through all of the jargon and read the financial statements and what those statements are saying about the health of the company.

14. Entrepreneurial Finance

Entrepreneurial Finance by J. Chris Leach and Ronald W. Melicher is a resource for the individual anticipating the start of an entrepreneurial venture and helps that individual through the entire process.

The book goes into detail while explaining the various theories, financial tools available, and techniques needed to start the successful journey, build and grow.

The book offers proven financial practices so that the entrepreneur can secure financing and engage business cash flow models to position their company in its early stages

The book also includes real examples of ventures that were successful.

Again, this company has paid $25+ million to members:

15. Venture Deals

The authors, Brad Feld and Jason Mendelsoon, pull away the veil of venture capital deals by drawing on their 20 years of experience in hundreds of venture capital financing agreements.

Venture Deals those into the investment boardroom and details the various elements that go into the making of decisions.

The book is the various elements as it relates to venture capitalists’ determinations and utilizes terms that are related to economics and control

Also, the book informs the reader about possible strategies that can be implemented to get a fair deal when seeking funding.

The book focuses on the basics of the term sheet and provides an introduction to all that participate in this process and how the decisions are made.

16. Valuation

Valuation by Tim Koller, Marc Goedhart, and David Wessels has been a significant resource for businesses for almost 30 years.

This is the seventh edition and powerfully facilitates an understanding of valuation for professionals in the finance world to assist their companies to maximize the economic value for the shareholders.

This is accomplished by helping the financial managers to manage and create the various processes involved.

The chapters cover the basic principles of creating value.

Some of those topics include:

Comprehensive guidance on every aspect of corporate valuation
Explains the strategies and techniques of valuation
Addresses core and advanced valuation techniques
And more

Also See: Best Business Law Books to Read and Learn from.

17. Capital Wars

Michael J. Howell, the author of Capital Wars, discusses the topic of economic cycles that are driven by financial flows.

These financial flows are informed by savings and credits and not by high street inflation or interest rates.

The stunning realization that the financial markets and their seemingly increase in value has been generated from riskier financial assets and not from earnings.

The author asserts that the theory of investment, and today’s financial market, has never been more critical or paramount to understand and embrace.

Added to the mix, the global economy and the world itself become bigger and therefore even more unstable

The book also shares with the reader that there are three types of straw stocks that have had a broad impact on the financial markets.

Those three areas of shock include:

Labor costs
Oil and commodities
Global liquidity

The premise of this book is to reveal and explore the subject of liquidity by identifying, defining, and measuring its actions worldwide and showing it’s important for investors.

18. Fundamentals of Financial Management

Fundamentals of Financial Management by Eugene F. Brigham and Joel F. Houston is written with the purpose to provide the reader with a clearer understanding of the financial markets of today and financial management in the corporate world.

Added insights including the social responsibility of businesses to the communities, exploring the different corporate tax code changes, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and other hot topics are taken from today’s business page.

Explanations are offered by the authors as it relates to understanding the why and the what in areas of corporate budgeting, working capital decision-making, forecasting, valuation, financing, etc.

Also included are a variety of exercises designed to enhance the teachings passed well and learning modules to help put the various presented theories into practice.

19. Security Analysis Principles and Techniques

Security Analysis Principles and Techniques, written by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd is a reprint of the first edition published in 1934.

This book is considered by many, including Warren Buffett, to be an even more powerful publication than the original

The advice and insight offered by the authors are timeless and the message is that social trends should be ignored along with company prospects and varying leadership styles.

The book asserts that the focus and the primary attention of the business investor in a company should be on the balance sheet.

20. Efficiently Inefficient

Efficiently Inefficient by Lasse Heje Pedersen outlines the strategic strategies used in trading by hedge funds and brings clarity into the “secret world” of active investing.

The book is saturated with real-world examples to show how certain techniques and strategies make money and why sometimes they don’t.

The author, as an economist, explores various strategies which include:

Equity
Macro
Arbitrage

Also, he addresses the topics of portfolio choice, managing risk, equity valuation, and yield curve trading.

Also included in the book are several interviews with leading hedge fund managers.

21. Fundamentals of Corporate Finance

Fundamentals of Corporate Finance is authored by Richard Brealey, Stewart Myers, and Alan Marcus.

The format of this book is textbook style and the book intends to provide a framework of both dairy and application that can be put into practice following the study.

The book offers extensive research from a variety of well-recognized finance textbooks which enhances the material presented.

The purpose of the book, with the topic being corporate finance, is to empower the reader to:

Adapt to the precise action that they need new nine
When they need it
And how it is needed

22. Corporate Financial Distress, Restructuring and Bankruptcy

Corporate Financial Distress, Restructuring and Bankruptcy written by Edward I. Altman, Edith Hotchkiss, and Wei Wang is a stark and candid book on the significant evolution and growth of debt markets that are distressed, corporate bankruptcy and various credit risk models.

This book is the fourth edition with updates on various topics.

Addressed in the writing is a quality analysis and study on international and US restructurings, prediction of future financial distress in managerial and financial markets, the cost of bankruptcy, restructuring outcomes, and many other topics.

23. Multinational Finance

Multinational Finance offers today a comprehensive look at global markets for the business leaders of tomorrow.

By drawing on actual case studies and real-world examples, the reader is exposed to the fun little concepts and resources required to be implemented to formulate a strategy that will be effective as it relates to managing the global financial reality.

The authors of Michael H. Moffett, Arthur I. Stonehill, David K. Eiteman

capture a reflection of today’s business world and endeavoring to find a compromise or balance with business startups in a multi-national economic world, adding in the mix of an emerging economy from China, and the separatist Britain movement to separate themselves from the government that wants to regulate business more and more (Brexit).

24. The Long Good Buy

Offering an inside look with powerful insights is the book entitled The Long Good Buy by Peter C. Oppenheimer.

The subject matter is the financial markets and provides an in-depth look at how the markets respond positively and negatively.

The book in addition to offering powerful advice also provides entertaining antidotes to engage the reader. On

25. Economics For Investment Decision-Makers

The authors of Economics For Investment Decision-Makers, Christopher D. Piros, Jerald E. Pinto, and Larry Harris, have written not only an academic but a practical guide that presents micro and macroeconomics to help investors and investment analysts in the area of economic investment.

This blending of the economic disciplines provides a comprehensive look at topics such as international trade, current rate exchange, and exchange markets and offers forecasts as it relates to educating investors.

The book comes from the perspective of no-assumptions and therefore defines and simply explains economic concepts.

Examples and illustrations are abundant.

Personal Story

When I worked for a non-profit it was classified as a church/social services organization.

My primary role was pastoring but also, I took my role seriously in providing oversight for the business of the church.

I admit it was not my strength.

Consequently, we relied heavily upon business leaders in the community to assist us through our Advisory Board.

A story that I heard was when one of my peers asked a member of the community to serve.

The business leader thought about it but decided to decline.

He arrived at the office to share his decision but when he asked for the pastor, he was told that he was out back in the parking lot.

The business leader looked around and didn’t see anybody until he saw someone underneath a truck owned by the church.

It was the pastor in overalls working on the truck.

The businessman later confessed that he had every intention of saying no but stated how could he say no when the pastor was trying to save money and doing his repair work.

My point is a business can be learned from great books and they have their place but sometimes the best business practices are done underneath a truck.

Best Business Finance Books FAQs

What is the Best Way to Select a Business Book?

The best way to select a business book is to determine what discipline or segment of the business world of the topic of business you wish to study.

For example, it could be in the area of

Working with boards
Understanding financials
Budgeting
Management of the employee team
Managing a not-for-profit
Etc.

Once you have identified the particular area of business that you wish to learn about, you can search for these topics within the business sector and read the various reviews that have been posted by individuals who have read the book.

If all of this resonates with you and is what you are looking for then it is a possibility that that particular book will match what you need.

What Are Some of the Most Read Topics as It Relates to Business?

Some of the more widely read topics as it relates to business include:

Entrepreneurship
Marketing
Finance
Advertising

You Can Do It

If you are a company leader your business plate is not only full but it is overflowing.

You may be the CEO, COO, CFO, or the head of a department.

You are most likely, as a leader, charged with the oversight of your department which includes the associated actions of that department, staff, etc.

Each leader has a separate role and job description to fulfill.

However, the one aspect of the business that spills into all departments is the importance of finances.

Right or wrong, your department is often evaluated in the light of the dollar sign.

Therefore, as a leader it is important to know about business finances and being in a leadership role, this is certainly something that you are capable of learning or building on the knowledge that you already have obtained.

Conclusion

When a company is profitable everyone, most likely, will be happy.

The CEO will be commended for her/his outstanding leadership, the overall company for its growth and service to its customers, the employees will be paid, the stakeholders as they get a return on their investment, and the customers as they benefit in receiving a quality product at a fair price.

However, there is much more to the finance of a company than just the bottom line.

Therefore, it is important to know about business finance, and to do so many books can impart some of that knowledge in all areas of the business’s financial activity.

Again, this company has paid $25+ million to members: