Rating: 
Summary: This Book Rocks
Review: As a newcomer to the financial industry, I needed a lesson
on how stock markets and exchanges work so I could do my job.
This book is unlike any other I have seen on the subject of
the equities markets and describes how markets actually function
in fine detail. It contains a wealth of practical information
about how the markets work, why they are structured in the way
that they are and what role the regulations/rules play in it
all. If you are trying to understand how a trade happens from
the time it leaves your web browser down through the brokers
onto the exchange floors and then back again, this is the book
you are looking for. You will not be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book for...practioners
Review: I agree with all the previous "5 stars" comments. This is an extremely well-written storybook, with a lot of jargon. However, researchers and mathematically inclined readers will be somewhat disapointed by the poor quantitative materials provided by the book. Moreover, the book does not really deal with the extensive academic literature on market microstructure - contrary to a good book written in French (La Microstructure des Marchés d'Actions, Economica, 2003) by Albert Minguet who comments and summarizes papers. But the title is NOT misleading: this book is great "for practitioners" (as well as for final BSc students / 1st year Master students who want "to get a feel about how markets work in practice"). Maybe I should have given it "5 stars" after all...
Rating:
Summary: Great content, great writing!
Review: I have been trading for 8 years. 6 years prop trading, I now run a hedge fund. We make about 10,000 trades/day. I wish I had read this book years ago. I've had to pay Mr. Market a large sum to learn many of these lessons. Larry Harris has written what I consider to be the best book in the field of trading. He covers nearly all topics, from structural & regulatory issues, to descriptions of the players; costs to performance evaluation. Presentation is excellent - the numerous sidebars, tables & graphs serve to illustrate the text. My only complaint is that the book does not take the quantitative side far enough. I recommend a technical appendix plus specific references (perhaps annotating the excellent bibliography) for the mathematically inclined reader.If you are interested in trading, or curious about the markets, buy and read this book!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Survey of Trading Terminology and Theory
Review: I have so far read half of this 600+ page book. (perhaps I'll give an update on the second half later, but couldn't wait to give my opinion now.) Larry Harris gives painstakingly clear and precise definitions of the language of trading. They ring very true. The first 100 pages is almost all definitions. He continues with an explain-by-defining approach throughout the book. He also includes interesting examples. Next he classifies traders by type based on their motivations. While his classifications are helpful in many ways to understand trading, I believe that he put in a serious bias against the more open markets produced by decimalization. I am particularly concerned about his criticism of those front runners who, based only on their observation of trading patterns, trade ahead of value investors (using his terms); he says those front runners reduce the incentives to the value investors to correct prices. Later in the book much of Harris' discussion of dealers assumes that bid and ask prices show fairly precise fundamental values. Yet he ignores that there so few value investors that, as Harris points out, Fischer Black said market prices are informative when they are between 1/2 and 2 times the true value (not everyone agrees). Actually those front runners amplify the information, allowing the value investors to have a greater corrective impact on prices over a wider range of securities, given their limited capital. Overall Trading & Exchanges is a good and dense read, suited to an eager beginner or someone who wants a very clear review of the theory and practice of trading. I look forward to the rest of the book.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful contribution
Review: I love this book. We used it in a course I took on trading while I was studying for my MBA (in preview course-pack form) and it was one of those experiences that provide a new understanding of things and provide new modes of thinking and understanding. Those are the kinds of experiences are the reasons you go and pay all that money to earn those degrees. This is not a book about investing, securities, valuation, or the laws around trading. It is a book about traders, what they do, how they do it, where they trade, and even why they trade. It is the most lucid book I have read on that elusive topic of liquidity and its implications in trading and price discovery. It is wonderful in describing the different types of exchanges and how they function. I found the discussions on the different types of traders, their practices, and the strategies they use to be fascinating. There is a reason the book is subtitles "Market Microstructure for Practitioners" - the thinking of a trader is very different than the buy-and-hold investor. For a trader, long-term can be a few minutes and inventory has powerful implications as does whether the trading is done via and exchange floor or some automated trading system. Mr. Harris is to be congratulated and thanked for this terrific book.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful contribution
Review: I love this book. We used it in a course I took on trading while I was studying for my MBA (in preview course-pack form) and it was one of those experiences that provide a new understanding of things and provide new modes of thinking and understanding. Those are the kinds of experiences are the reasons you go and pay all that money to earn those degrees. This is not a book about investing, securities, valuation, or the laws around trading. It is a book about traders, what they do, how they do it, where they trade, and even why they trade. It is the most lucid book I have read on that elusive topic of liquidity and its implications in trading and price discovery. It is wonderful in describing the different types of exchanges and how they function. I found the discussions on the different types of traders, their practices, and the strategies they use to be fascinating. There is a reason the book is subtitles "Market Microstructure for Practitioners" - the thinking of a trader is very different than the buy-and-hold investor. For a trader, long-term can be a few minutes and inventory has powerful implications as does whether the trading is done via and exchange floor or some automated trading system. Mr. Harris is to be congratulated and thanked for this terrific book.
Rating:
Summary: A must for practitioners and theoreticians as well
Review: If you are a practitioner, the title says it all. Order this book immediately.
If you are taking a course on market microstructure theory, this book is the missing piece to fully understand theoretical work such as O'Hara's. I kind of have the impression that this is the one book that some professors were hiding from students, in order to make market microstructure look more difficult than it really is.
MBA students will just love this book.
A suggestion for the editors: Characters (fonts) in this edition are quite small and there are loads of blank spaces (unused space). Maybe placing the examples somewhere else might help.
Overall, this book is clear, fun, accurate and very interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Encyclopedic, Yet Readable and Accessible
Review: If you don't understand how the markets work, want to learn more, and are willing to invest an immodest amount of time and money, this is a book you must read. Larry Harris is a brilliant contributor to the understanding of markets, and is currently Chief Economist of the Securities and Exchange Commission. This book however, is written as a textbook for the introductory markets class he taught at USC for many years. Larry's book pulls back the curtains on the mystery and mumbo-jumbo of what happens when investors buy and sell securities. The book is lightly written, with many anecdotes and amusing sidebars, yet presents the latest and best knowledge on how (and why) markets work.
Rating:
Summary: A Book That is Unmatched By Any Other....
Review: Professor Larry Harris has compiled the most informative, enjoyable, and clear information that any book of this kind has. He is the best professor at the Marshall Business School. I took a class of his and learned and enjoyed the great study of market microstructures. I recommend this book to anybody with in interest in all the players involved in the game of trading.
Rating:
Summary: A Book That is Unmatched By Any Other....
Review: Professor Larry Harris has compiled the most informative, enjoyable, and clear information that any book of this kind has. He is the best professor at the Marshall Business School. I took a class of his and learned and enjoyed the great study of market microstructures. I recommend this book to anybody with in interest in all the players involved in the game of trading.
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