by Katherine Burton
|
| List Price: | $27.95 |
| Amazon Price: | $18.45 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
| You Save: | $9.50 (34%) |
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $16.53 |
| Availablitiy: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
 |
|
Product Description
The legends who created the trillion-dollar hedge fund world are brilliant at picking investments, astute at spotting talent--and notorious for secrecy. Now these top managers talk frankly about the challenges they face and how they enter, exit, and size their trades. They also name up-and-coming managers who are shaping the future of hedge funds. Katherine Burton, an acclaimed Bloomberg News reporter, has persuaded these giants of their industry to share their thinking as never before. Investors and market watchers will be intrigued and informed by an unprecendented look inside these highly successful funds.
Customers who bought this item also bought
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 bberg 'news' is negative selling point, 2008-08-29
I stopped reading this after I saw the cover where the author advertises that she is from bloomberg 'news'... which in my personal experience is notoriously loose with facts.
In my view the author should de-emphasize her background at bberg 'news'.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Who the players are, 2008-08-27
This book listed a lot of the players and how they got started and what decisions made them money. A straightforward read.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
It wasn't what I expected., 2008-08-22
I'm as a Vine Voice reviewer who received an advanced copy of this book I feel obligated to review it. I was expecting it to be a book about investment advice. I only gave it a cursory reading because it wasn't what I was expecting and I found it hard to follow.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
The Quarry Escaped, 2008-07-19
I read this book carefully in its entirety, hoping for a contemporary analog to the classic Wizards trilogy so ably ushered into print by Jack Schwager (If you're interested in trading and haven't read these classics ~ even the weaker volume 3 ~ buy them now).
Perhaps having been influenced by the quality of Schwager's opus, I set the bar too high and became an easy mark for disappointment. I found myself grimacing again and again, and even saying to myself aloud, "Why didn't she ask the next, obvious question?"
Absent the probing questions that might have been asked of this glittering lineup of stellar performers, what we're left with is a series of personality profiles. The author's tepid prose skips like a stone across the placid surface of deep water. Untroubled by probing questions, the strategic and tactical aspects of hedge fund management remain undisturbed.
What we do read quite a bit of is descriptions of lobby and reception area decor found in the plush buildings where hedge fund operators spend much of their time. These breathless descriptions of decoration function as a trailing indicator showing that the author spent a lot of her time in waiting rooms rather than meeting with the subjects of her book.
It's valid to point out that the author isn't a markets practitioner but a markets journalist. Perhaps she felt that digging deeply would ruffle feathers of those she might wish to approach at another time as sources or for interviews? In any event, the resulting personality profiles wouldn't pass muster to appear in Bloomberg Magazine. The author is a Bloomberg reporter.
My wife purchased our copy of this book at one of the author's promotional appearances closely following publication. It was a professional forum, the room full of analysts and other practitioners. She commented that the author's replies to probing questions seeking elaboration were "uncertain, unsteady, and showed a lack of insight."
Go long Schwager's trilogy, between the covers of which you'll find a billion dollars worth of wisdom. Short this book by leaving it on the shelf.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Time to trim the hedge, 2008-06-26
Katherine Burton is a fine writer, who, for some reason not specified in this book, chose to apply her talents to a work that the back cover describes as a "page-turner...written in a wonderfully engaging style."
Translation: if you want to read upbeat profiles of men who all sound vaguely similar and if you don't care a whit about understanding how these high stakes games played in unregulated markets affect the global financial system, if you have never wondered why these men earned the big bucks or questioned whether they were worth those paychecks, then you will enjoy this book.
Under Burton's touch, these men are all rendered as kindly and wise souls, each with a pithy piece or two of advice to impart. They value the people who work for them, and they care about their clients. They are all brilliant and beneficent. In short, this is 200 pages of feel-good bedtime reading that will lull you into slumber with a smile on your face.
Hard-hitting investigative reporting this is not. Burton only lightly touches on the risks, and ignores the reckoning. Want to learn how Long-Term Capital Management, notorious hedge fund disaster of a decade ago, almost triggered financial armageddon? You're wasting your time, as Burton devotes only a few sentences, in passing, to LTCM. Nor does she explore the use of hedge funds as a tax shelter, or the fact that many hedge funds are incorporated outside the U.S., or that they engage in somewhat questionable investment strategies. And if she even mentions the fact that all her subjects are male, that you have to scour the book to find any women's names at all, I missed it.
This is a great book for developing a basic vocabulary of people and terms that you can drop when you're attending parties of other upwardly mobile fortune seekers. But if you want to find out what it's all about, there are many better sources.
Price is accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of this product.
|
Store Categories
|