Customer Reviews:
 Markets are not science May 24, 2008
Not a light read, but a captivating one - in part reads like a horror story where you're dragged into a sequence of events both exciting in their nature and progression, and epic in their ultimate failure. I'm not a finance type, but Roger Lowenstein did a great job of explaining how the hedge fund operated, and the types of trades it was involved in. It certainly throws a bucket of cold water on Econometrics, and demonstrates that beyond a certain point, economics is as much of an art, as it is a science.
good read May 14, 2008
This is a great book detailing the failed Long term capital management (LTCM). Do not need a lot of time to read, and serves a great cautionary story for investors. Good buy.
"It was the arrogance of people... who really believed that they were more intelligent than others." March 17, 2008
Even supposedly smart people can get utterly carried away. Perhaps they weren't as smart as they believed. In any case, we should always remember to take information and advice from "the experts" with a grain of salt.
Incidentally, Bear Stearns was the firm that cleared LTCM's trades. And now, like LTCM, Bear Stearns is pretty much no longer.
Entertaining read on complex subject March 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's a common story, a group of extremely talented and smart individuals done in by their own hubris, greed, and carelessness. What distinguishes this story from others is that we get a reasonably lucid description of the complex world or hedge funds and exotic investments. There is also good storytelling here of a largely unkown firm of a couple hundred people, that nearly took down several major banks with them.
Excellent and education read March 8, 2008
History repeats itself and one can be better armed for volatile times when they understand the catalysts that lead to LTCM's failure. Excessive leverage and simple stress testing is not enough anymore. As Buffet says, When the tide goes down, we see who was swimming without their bathing suits.
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