Riches Among the Ruins: Adventures in the Dark Corners of the Global Economy


Robert P. Smith - 2009
    Smith is a legend in the world of finance. Part adventurer and part economic warrior, this Indiana Jones of the financial world was an advance man for the forces of globalization, having spent more than thirty years traveling through five continents, buying and selling high-risk securities in the world's most downtrodden economies. So tenuous was his operation and so covert the transactions, that an overnight fluctuation in a country's currency rate could mean the difference between a spectacular profit or a devastating loss. Today, the trade in emerging market debt is worth more than five billion dollars a day, but it was virtually nonexistent when Smith, a one-time collections lawyer, pioneered the business in the late 1970s. Riches Among the Ruins is the extraordinary story of Robert Smith's search to make money doing the riskiest kind of business. We are at his side as he travels through the treacherous and exhilarating world of the debt trader, dodging bullets and roadside bombs in post-Saddam Iraq, and risking his life on the chaotic streets of Nigeria. As he engages in a battle of wills with businessmen in Istanbul, and loses millions overnight in the ruins of the post-Soviet Russian economy, we experience all of the thrill and terror that accompanies making big money in emerging markets. At once adrenaline-fueled and utterly compelling, this is the gripping story of one man's quest for fortune where others fear to tread.

Diary of a Hedge Fund Manager: From the Top, to the Bottom, and Back Again


Keith McCullough - 2009
    One of the best young portfolio managers on Wall Street, and helping to run the hedge fund operation of one of the world's most prestigious firms, Keith McCullough finds himself a lone voice of reason as the economic crisis of 2008 looms large. Shown the door, his life takes a fascinating turn into the world of independent research and no-holds-barred criticism.Reveals the unvarnished truth of how Wall Street and hedge funds really operate Deftly details how to analyze the markets expertly and avoid group think using technical and fundamental measures Each topic is thoroughly discussed and followed up with lessons you can take away and put to use Written with the authority of someone who knows how Wall Street and hedge funds work, yet accessible to even a casual follower of finance, Diary of a Hedge Fund Manager mixes a constructive critique of the investment industry with fundamental lessons that any investor will find valuable.

DIY Financial Advisor: A Simple Solution to Build and Protect Your Wealth (Wiley Finance)


Wesley R. Gray - 2015
    By way of background, a family office is a company, or group of people, who manage the wealth a family has gained over generations. The term 'family office' has an element of cachet, and even mystique, because it is usually associated with the mega-wealthy. However, practically speaking, virtually any family that manages its investments—independent of the size of the investment pool—could be considered a family office. The difference is mainly semantic. DIY Financial Advisor outlines a step-by-step process through which investors can take control of their hard-earned wealth and manage their own family office. Our research indicates that what matters in investing are minimizing psychology traps and managing fees and taxes. These simple concepts apply to all families, not just the ultra-wealthy. But can—or should—we be managing our own wealth? Our natural inclination is to succumb to the challenge of portfolio management and let an 'expert' deal with the problem. For a variety of reasons we discuss in this book, we should resist the gut reaction to hire experts. We suggest that investors maintain direct control, or at least a thorough understanding, of how their hard-earned wealth is managed. Our book is meant to be an educational journey that slowly builds confidence in one's own ability to manage a portfolio. We end our book with a potential solution that could be applicable to a wide-variety of investors, from the ultra-high net worth to middle class individuals, all of whom are focused on similar goals of preserving and growing their capital over time. DIY Financial Advisor is a unique resource. This book is the only comprehensive guide to implementing simple quantitative models that can beat the experts. And it comes at the perfect time, as the investment industry is undergoing a significant shift due in part to the use of automated investment strategies that do not require a financial advisor's involvement. DIY Financial Advisor is an essential text that guides you in making your money work for you—not for someone else!

The Options Playbook: Featuring 40 strategies for bulls, bears, rookies, all-stars and everyone in between.


Brian Overby - 2009
    No confusing jargon. No unnecessary mumbo-jumbo. Just clear, easy-to-understand explanations of more than 40 of the most popular option strategies broken down into a play-by-play format including: Play Name: Long Call, Short Call Spread, Iron Condor, etc. The Setup: The goals and reasons to run each play Who Should Run It: Rookies, Veterans or All-Stars, based on degree of difficulty When To Run It: Describes each play as bullish, bearish or neutral The Strategy: A detailed overview of each strategy, their risks and the specific costs associated with multi-leg strategies. description For the first-time option trader The Options Playbook features a "Rookie's Corner," addressing the basic definitions and concepts you need to understand this market, tips to avoid common beginner's mistakes, and suggested strategies to "get your feet wet." For more experienced option traders, an expanded section on implied volatility explains how this handy variable can be used to find the potential range of the stock over the options life. A detailed section on pricing variables (Greeks) helps you understand how an option's price is affected by changes in market conditions. You will also learn how time decay and a change in implied volatility can affect your trade after it's in place and how to recover if things don't go according to plan. The Options Playbook features Options Guy Tips from TradeKing Senior Analyst Brian Overby. Like any good coach, Overby's handy insights help you put theory into successful real-world trading. This expanded 2nd edition includes 10 new plays and 56 new pages of handy content describing a brief history of options, five common mistakes options traders make and how to avoid them, an expanded glossary, how to manage option positions by rolling to a different month and strike, to explaining the difference between index and stock options, managing early exercise and assignment and how to calculate position delta and use it to manage overall position risk of a multi-leg option strategy. Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. It is possible to lose more money than invested. Before making any investment decisions, please read Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options that accompanies The Options Playbook and available at: tradeking.com/ODD. (c) 2015 TradeKing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Securities offered through TradeKing, LLC, member FINRA and SIPC.

The End of Money: The story of bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and the blockchain revolution (New Scientist Instant Expert)


New Scientist - 2017
    On this journey you'll discover how this staggering new technology has the potential to enable an ultra-libertarian society beyond government control.Murder for hire. Drug trafficking. Embezzlement. Money laundering. These might sound like plot lines of a thriller, but they are true stories from the short history of cryptocurrencies - digital currencies conceived by computer hackers and cryptographers that represent a completely new sort of financial transaction that could soon become mainstream. The most famous - or infamous - cryptocurrency is bitcoin. But look beyond its tarnished reputation and something much shinier emerges. The technology that underlies bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies - the blockchain - is hailed as the greatest advancement since the invention of the internet. It is now moving away from being the backbone for a digital currency and making inroads into other core concepts of society: identity, ownership and even the rule of law. The End of Money is your essential introduction to this transformative new technology that has governments, entrepreneurs and forward-thinking people from all walks of life sitting up and taking notice. ABOUT THE SERIESNew Scientist Instant Expert books are definitive and accessible entry points to the most important subjects in science; subjects that challenge, attract debate, invite controversy and engage the most enquiring minds. Designed for curious readers who want to know how things work and why, the Instant Expert series explores the topics that really matter and their impact on individuals, society, and the planet, translating the scientific complexities around us into language that's open to everyone, and putting new ideas and discoveries into perspective and context.

ABSOLUTE POWER - Inside story of the National Stock Exchange’s amazing success, leading to hubris, regulatory capture and algo scam.


Sucheta Dalal - 2021
    

The Secret Club That Runs the World: Inside the Fraternity of Commodities Traders


Kate Kelly - 2014
    They’re highly-educated world travelers with a penchant for risk, and they’re here to bet big on the future of the raw materials that make our economies hum. They’re very wealthy, barely regulated, and can be a force for tremendous good—or ill. Now Kate Kelly, the bestselling author of Street Fighters, shines light not just on the commodities market, but also on some of its key figures. Her characters include Pierre Andurand, a hedge-fund manager who generated the winningest annual performance ever for an oil trader in 2008, and Ivan Glasenberg, whose secretive Swiss commodities giant, Glencore, has been thrown into the spotlight. Kelly paints a dramatic narrative of immense power in the hands of a few, and the so-far hapless efforts by the Obama Administration to rein in the cowboys.

Discussion Materials: Tales of a Rookie Wall Street Investment Banker


Bill Keenan - 2020
    His spacious office looked out onto New York Harbor. “Bust,” said the vice president, a younger, douchier version of Widow’s Peak. He slashed his red ballpoint pen across the sheet and flipped to the next page. “Walk me through the debt paydown and your interest rate assumptions,” continued the VP. “Pretty dovish view. Maybe the Fed knows what they’re doing after all,” said Widow’s Peak. He shot a glance at the VP. They shared a chuckle—at what, I couldn’t tell you. This question about interest rates I knew: Dovish, I thought. Doves fly south for the winter, so dovish is downwards…low interest rates— “We’re running short on time,” said Widow’s Peak. He flipped to the cover page of my presentation. “One final point—all pitch decks should have the same title.” “Since this presentation was geared towards an LBO analysis I was thinking—” “No thinking. All decks—same title—Discussion Materials.” Noted.Discussion Materials gives the reader an honest look at Wall Street from someone in the trenches. After graduating from Columbia Business School, Bill Keenan joined Deutsche Bank’s investment banking division as an associate where despotic superiors (and the blinking red light of his BlackBerry) instilled low-level terror on an hourly basis. You’ll join him in his cubicle on the 44th floor of 60 Wall Street as he scrambles to ensure floating bar charts are the correct shade of orange and all numbers are left-aligned, but whatever you do, don’t ask him what any of it means. Leaning heavily on his fellow junior bankers and the countless outsourcing resources the bank employs, he slowly develops proficiency at the job, eventually gaining traction and respect, one deal at a time, over a two-year span, ultimately cementing his legacy in the group by attaining the unattainable: placing a dinner order on Seamless one Sunday night at work from Hwa Yuan Szechuan amounting to $25.00 (tax and tip included), the bank’s maximum allowance for meals—the perfect order.

The Sale of a Lifetime: How the Great Bubble Burst of 2017 Can Make You Rich


Harry S. Dent Jr. - 2016
    They all have hierarchies. They all have seasons. And they all bubble up and end in a terrible burst. As Harry writes in his newest, most through-proving and insightful book The Sale of a Lifetime, we’ve been in the economic winter season since 2008 and “it’s during this season that we clear the decks with a devastating crash and debilitating deflation. The economy and markets shed the excesses created during the preceding economic fall bubble boom season and prepare the soil for new blossoming in innovation and a spring boom.” After the blustering bull market of 2009-2015, we are now preparing for a shakeout more painful than anything we’ve seen before. The purpose of this book, therefore, is “to protect you from the carnage ahead and allow you to both survive and prosper instead.” Harry shows you what makes the years after a massive bubble reset so valuable to investors and businesses ready to make the most of the opportunities that fall from the sky. Harry recognizes that we are about to go through a very difficult few years, but he also knows there are INCREDIBLE opportunities that could help build you a personal fortune that will last the rest of your life!

The Zeroes: My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane


Randall Lane - 2010
    Randall Lane never set out to become a Wall Street power broker. But during the decade he calls the Zeroes, he started a small magazine company that put him near the white-hot center of the biggest boom in history. Almost by accident, a man who drove a beat-up Subaru and lived in a rented walk-up became the go-to guy for big shots with nine-figure incomes. Lane's saga began with a simple idea: a glossy magazine exclusively for and about traders, which would treat them like rock stars and entice them to splurge on luxury goods. Trader Monthly was an instant hit around the world. Wall Streeters loved the spotlight, and advertisers like Gulfstream, Maybach, and Bulgari loved the marketing opportunity. To accelerate the buzz, Lane's staff threw parties featuring celebrities, premium steaks, cigars, and top-shelf vodka. Nothing was too expensive or too outrageous. Private jets in Napa Valley. Casino nights in London. And $1,000-a- seat boxing matches in New York, where traders from Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns pounded each other in front of tuxedoed throngs. Before long, Wall Street's rich and powerful trusted Lane as a fellow insider- the guy who could turn an anonymous trader into a cover model and media darling. And the rest of the world sought him out as a way to tap into Wall Street's riches. As he emptied his bank account to help keep his little company afloat, he became a nexus for the absurd. Traders who turned 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina into multimillion-dollar windfalls. John McCain closing out the craps tables during an all-night gambling binge. Pop artist Peter Max hustling hundreds of thousands of dollars by selling traders paint-by-numbers portraits. Al Gore, John Travolta, Moby. Corrupt Caribbean rulers, the mobsters from Goodfellas, the pope. And a retired baseball star turned market guru named Lenny Dykstra, whose rise and fall was a great metaphor for the decade. All played roles in Lane's increasingly surreal world. When the crash of 2008 hit, Lane's company and life savings were destroyed along with the high-flying traders and dealmakers his magazines exalted. But Lane walked away with something more lasting: an incredible true story, told by a skilled writer and reporter who sat squarely in the middle of one of the critical periods in modern financial and cultural history. People will turn to The Zeroes for many years to come, to find out what the era was really like.

All the Devils are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis


Bethany McLean - 2010
    Should the blame fall on Wall Street, Main Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue? On greedy traders, misguided regulators, sleazy subprime companies, cowardly legislators, or clueless home buyers?According to Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera, two of America's most acclaimed business journalists, the real answer is all of the above-and more. Many devils helped bring hell to the economy. And the full story, in all of its complexity and detail, is like the legend of the blind men and the elephant. Almost everyone has missed the big picture. Almost no one has put all the pieces together.All the Devils Are Here goes back several decades to weave the hidden history of the financial crisis in a way no previous book has done. It explores the motivations of everyone from famous CEOs, cabinet secretaries, and politicians to anonymous lenders, borrowers, analysts, and Wall Street traders. It delves into the powerful American mythology of homeownership. And it proves that the crisis ultimately wasn't about finance at all; it was about human nature.Among the devils you'll meet in vivid detail:• Angelo Mozilo, the CEO of Countrywide, who dreamed of spreading homeownership to the masses, only to succumb to the peer pressure-and the outsized profits-of the sleaziest subprime lending.• Roland Arnall, a respected philanthropist and diplomat, who made his fortune building Ameriquest, a subprime lending empire that relied on blatantly deceptive lending practices.• Hank Greenberg, who built AIG into a Rube Goldberg contraption with an undeserved triple-A rating, and who ran it so tightly that he was the only one who knew where all the bodies were buried.• Stan O'Neal of Merrill Lynch, aloof and suspicious, who suffered from "Goldman envy" and drove a proud old firm into the ground by promoting cronies and pushing out his smartest lieutenants.• Lloyd Blankfein, who helped turn Goldman Sachs from a culture that famously put clients first to one that made clients secondary to its own bottom line.• Franklin Raines of Fannie Mae, who (like his predecessors) bullied regulators into submission and let his firm drift away from its original, noble mission.• Brian Clarkson of Moody's, who aggressively pushed to increase his rating agency's market share and stock price, at the cost of its integrity.• Alan Greenspan, the legendary maestro of the Federal Reserve, who ignored the evidence of a growing housing bubble and turned a blind eye to the lending practices that ultimately brought down Wall Street-and inflicted enormous pain on the country.Just as McLean's The Smartest Guys in the Room was hailed as the best Enron book on a crowded shelf, so will All the Devils Are Here be remembered for finally making sense of the meltdown and its consequences.

Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption


Ben Mezrich - 2019
    While nursing their wounds in Ibiza, they accidentally run into an eccentric character who tells them about a brand-new idea: cryptocurrency. Immersing themselves in what is then an obscure and sometimes sinister world, they begin to realize “crypto” is, in their own words, "either the next big thing or total bulls--t." There’s nothing left to do but make a bet.From the Silk Road to the halls of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bitcoin Billionaires will take us on a wild and surprising ride while illuminating a tantalizing economic future. On November 26, 2017, the Winklevoss brothers became the first bitcoin billionaires. Here’s the story of how they got there—as only Ben Mezrich could tell it.

Flirting with Stocks: Stock Market Investing for Beginners


Anil Lamba - 2018
    Acclaimed financial expert Dr Anil Lamba begins with the basics of how the investment cycle works, and builds up to the nitty-gritties of bulls and bears, mutual funds, kerb trading, badla finance and share-price fixing. Included also are case studies on asset bubbles and insider trading that are lessons for potential investors on how to make money while minimising risks. Written in Dr Lamba’s characteristic lucid style, this book makes stock market investing a non-intimidating, fun activity.

Stock Investing For Beginners: How To Buy Your First Stock And Grow Your Money


John Roberts - 2017
     What was his secret, everyone wondered? And the answer turned out to be pretty basic. Because, besides being industrious and frugal, which you may have guessed, he had invested in the stock market throughout the years. This is actually not as surprising as it may sound. According to a recent World Wealth Report, the wealthy invest the largest part of their money into stocks and businesses. Our wise janitor had simply done what the wealthy do. So he got a similar result. That is, he grew his money into considerable wealth. And you can do this too. Now, we aren't saying you will make $8 million. After all, this is a beginners book and the janitor had an extraordinary result. But stock market investing is one of the best tools you can use to build a more secure financial future for you and your family. So are you someone who wants to make money in the stock market? And does that story make you feel excited? Have you tried to understand the stock market, only to be discouraged by how complicated it all seems? And aren't you just a little bit encouraged that an ordinary person, like our janitor from Vermont, could invest in stocks and succeed? If you answered yes to any of those questions, then this book just might be the solution you've been looking for. Because it will show you just what you need to know, and no more, to start investing in the stock market. And it will describe all of this for you in simple terms you already understand. Not complicated theory. Not a mind-numbing blitz of technical buzzwords. Just what you need to know and no more. And the few specific steps you can take to get started. Here's what you will learn: -The 5 big reasons to invest in stocks -Simple explanations of the basics of stock market investing -Great sources of recommendations to help you pick winners (no complicated research required) -The one thing you must do to get started (but you only have to do it once) -How to buy and sell stocks -3 key strategies to protect your stock investments from big losses -And many more invaluable tips on building your stock portfolio  So that by the end of this book, you will be able to buy your first stock. You will know the simple steps to grow your money in the stock market. And start on the your path to a more secure financial future.

Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis — and Themselves


Andrew Ross Sorkin - 2009
    From inside the corner office at Lehman Brothers to secret meetings in South Korea, and the corridors of Washington, Too Big to Fail is the definitive story of the most powerful men and women in finance and politics grappling with success and failure, ego and greed, and, ultimately, the fate of the world’s economy. “We’ve got to get some foam down on the runway!” a sleepless Timothy Geithner, the then-president of the Federal Reserve of New York, would tell Henry M. Paulson, the Treasury secretary, about the catastrophic crash the world’s financial system would experience. Through unprecedented access to the players involved, Too Big to Fail re-creates all the drama and turmoil, revealing neverdisclosed details and elucidating how decisions made on Wall Street over the past decade sowed the seeds of the debacle. This true story is not just a look at banks that were “too big to fail,” it is a real-life thriller with a cast of bold-faced names who themselves thought they were too big to fail.