After the Trade Is Made: Processing Securities Transactions Book

Not my usual read, for sure, but I found myself working in equities, and my boss recommended I read it (hence the paying nearly $40 for a Kindle edition). It's basically a reference book for how equities, futures contracts, and other financial instruments are handled after a trade. As such, you can typically refer just to the sections relevant to you and your job. Technology is moving fast, and we're probably due for a fourth edition soon (there are some details even I noticed were out of date, for instance, settlement today is typically a day shorter [T+2 instead of T+3] than it was even in 2006, when this edition was released). But the foundations are largely the same, stock certificates are typically held at a deposit house, electronic trading uses most of the same protocols, a lot of the regulatory concerns are the same (though there are a lot of new ones post-2008). It is, as other reviewers have mentioned, a very dry, technical book. If you're involved in equities or securities professionally, you probably ought to have it on your shelf. If you're a small time trader or just looking to maximize your 401k, it's probably not all that useful.