All About Stock Market Strategies : The Easy Way To Get Started Review

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All About Stock Market Strategies : The Easy Way To Get Started ReviewThis dual authored 249-page book McGraw-Hill paperback covers different investment styles. It is divided into 10 chapters and includes a 15-page appendix of on-line investing resources, and 100 useful Websites, as well as a 9-page glossary. One unique feature is the inclusion of Psychological Quotient (PQ) Charts that can help readers ascertain their investment style and, thereby increase their odds on selecting the most appropriate investments.
The authors put forth the theory that if an investing strategy does not fit a person's personality that he/she will not stick with it for very long. Therefore, they provide a selection of currently used investing strategies together with the personality traits needed to execute the strategy successfully.
According to the authors, the investing process encompasses stock selection, timing of entry and exit points and portfolio management (asset allocation, number of holdings). However, they point out that the strategies for picking investment vehicles depends upon the investor's style of investing.
The authors point out that if an investor can use a systematic investing approach while maintaining discipline that he can more than double the annual return compared to random investing.
The authors created PQ charts. They rate each investment style on a scale of 1 to 10 for each of ten personality traits. These traits are: discipline; patience; risk tolerance; reward expectation; volatility tolerance; time horizon; time commitment; quantitative skill; charting skill; and investing confidence.
Nine specific investment styles are reviewed. The four major styles are growth (high risk/high reward); value (hunting for bargains); momentum (where the action is); and technical investing (using charts). There is one chapter on each style and together they cover 100 pages and are the heart of the book.
Each chapter follows the same format by providing the PQ chart personality rankings, anatomy of the types of stocks that fit that category, chart patterns of these stocks, how to screen for stocks, checklist of questions on evaluating stocks, exit and entry strategies, portfolio strategy, a case study, stock chart evaluation checklist, on-line resources, and helpful hints.
Five minor investing styles are portrayed in a separate chapter. They include: fundamental investing (balance sheet review), income investing (dividend payers), hybrid investing (combining styles), active trading (day traders, swing traders, position traders), and style surfing (style now in vogue).
Also provided are market capitalization strategies. Those covered include: large-, mid-, small-, and micro-cap strategies. A few advanced strategies are briefly discussed. They include short-selling, market-neutral investing, index trading, option hedging, and global investing.
Each style is explained and a PQ chart is included. A table showing the names of specific index funds and ETFs is also included for each investing style or market cap. This table provides readers with the specific funds to consider based upon their investment profile.
Overall, this book provides readers with a crisply written introduction to understanding the different investing styles, determining their style, help in locating funds that track these styles. This book contains sufficient resources to help investors strengthen their knowledge about investing and the markets. I highly recommend this book to new investors, as well as those who don't have a clue as to what they should be focusing on.All About Stock Market Strategies : The Easy Way To Get Started Overview

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The Goldwatcher: Demystifying Gold Investing Review

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The Goldwatcher: Demystifying Gold Investing ReviewHaving spent significant time in the past three years studying and thinking about gold as an investment, I can say unequivocally that the first 10 Chapters of this book are the best 'balanced and unbiased' summary that I have come across of the things I consider topically relevant. I consider it 'must reading' and recommend it to anyone interested in gold and the gold market.The Goldwatcher: Demystifying Gold Investing Overview

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Advising Ultra-Affluent Clients and Family Offices (Wiley Finance) Review

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Advising Ultra-Affluent Clients and Family Offices (Wiley Finance) ReviewIn light of the recent global turmoil this book seems especially relevant, albeit for a specialised audience. I mean, how many people will really find this germane? This is not a reflection on the authors, but on the subject. Still, the text is quite readable. It explains what wealthy clients often look for in financial hand holding. Typically they do not have much [any?] expertise in financial matters and will depend on you for advice and management of their funds.
Unsurprisingly, as far as investment management is concerned, the emphasis seems to be on active management, with its accompanying fees. These are often over 1%. There is little suggestion about the use of passive index funds, which have much lower expenses.
To be sure, the book does talk about cases where clients need advice about spending and about such subjects as real estate investments. So some active management fees levied by you are appropriate. But a good advisor should also suggest a core of index funds, that will lower the overall expenses of the client.Advising Ultra-Affluent Clients and Family Offices (Wiley Finance) Overview

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Economic Logic 3rd Edition Review

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Economic Logic 3rd Edition ReviewReading Economic Logic gave me a profound new understanding of how economics applies in the real world, especially in business and personal finance.
My college economics courses, filled with perplexing theories like the paradox of thrift, GDP and Keynesian fiscal policy, were completely refuted in this excellent free-market textbook. Economic Logic focused on important, real issues like business profit-loss statements, entrepreneurship and the advantage of saving -- something my college professors never even touched.
Although I am not currently a student or professor, I thoroughly enjoyed learning economics "right." I have found it helpful in gaining more insight in running my business -- as well as the wisdom of fiscal conservatism in our government policies.
I highly recommend professors use this text in their economics classes. And students, if your professors don't use this text, get it for yourself so you can really understand the concepts and principles of sound economics.Economic Logic 3rd Edition Overview

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The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life Review

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The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life Review
I recently re-read Roger Lowenstein's biography, Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist (first published in 1995 and now re-issued with a new Afterword), and then read this more recent one by Alice Schroeder. Both are first-rate. Which to select if reading only one? That depends on how much you wish to know about Buffett's personal life, including his relations with various family members, and how curious you are about his personal hang-ups, peculiarities, eccentricities, fetishes, etc. If you can do without any of that, Roger Lowenstein's biography is the one to read. I also highly recommend the recently published Second Edition of The Essays of Warren Buffet: Lessons for Corporate America, with content selected, arranged, and introduced by Lawrence Cunningham.
The heft of Schroeder's biography may discourage some people from obtaining a copy. To them I presume to suggest that they not be deterred by that factor. Schroeder has a lively, often entertaining writing style that drives the narrative through just about every period and (yes) interlude of Warren Buffett's life and career thus far. There is much more information provided than most readers either need or desire. However, she had unprecedented access not only to Buffett but to just about everyone else with whom he is (or once was) associated as well as to previously inaccessible research resources. It is possible but highly unlikely that anyone else will write a more comprehensive biography than Schroeder has, at least for the next several years, if not decades. Also, her opinion of Buffett seems to me to be balanced and circumspect. No doubt he wishes that certain details about his life and career were not included. However, there has been no indication from him or those authorized to represent him that any of the material in this biography (however unflattering) is either inaccurate or unfair. Both halos and warts are included.
Others have shared their reasons for holding this book in high regard. Here are two of mine. First, although I had already read various Buffett's chairman's letters that first appeared in a series of Berkshire Hathaway's annual reports, I did not understand (nor could I have understood) the context for observations he shared, especially his comments about especially important 12-month periods throughout BRK's history. Schroeder provides the context or frame-of-reference I needed but previously lacked. For example, whereas in previous letters, Buffett merely offered brief updates on how each BRK company was doing, in 1978 he began to share his thoughts about major business topics such as performance measurement for management and why short-term earnings were a poor criterion for investment decisions. With the help of Carol Loomis, especially since 1977, his chairman's letters "had grown more personal and entertaining by the year; they amounted to crash courses in business, written in clear language that ranged from biblical quotations to references to Alice in Wonderland, and princesses kissing toads." As Schroeder explains, these gradual but significant changes of subject and tone reflect changes in Buffett's personal life as he became more reflective about business principles and more appreciative of personal relationships. His children were growing up and departing the "nest" in Omaha. His wife Susie decided to relocate to San Francisco. Meanwhile, his personal net worth continued to increase substantially. His national and then international recognition also increased. The "Oracle of Omaha" had finally become sufficiently confident of himself to reveal to others "a sense of him as a man."
I also appreciate how carefully Schroeder develops several separate but related themes that help her reader to manage the wealth of information she provides. The biography's title suggests one of these themes: the "snowball" effect that compounded interest can have. From childhood when he began to sell packs of gum (but not single sticks) and bottles of soda, and a money changer was his favorite toy, Buffett was fascinated by the way that numbers "exploded as they grew at a constant rate over time was how a small sum could be turned into a fortune. He could picture the numbers compounding as vividly as the way a snowball grew when he rolled it across the lawn. Warren began to think about it a different way. Compounding married the present to the future. If a dollar today was going to be worth ten some years from now, then in his mind the two were the same." Early in life, Buffett avoided making any purchases unless they were almost certain to generate compound interest. This theme is central to understanding Buffett's investment principles and to his own leadership of BRK. It also helps to explain why he could become physically ill when an investment cost others the funds they had entrusted to his care. Other themes include his determination to simplify his life to the extent he could (e.g. eating hamburgers and wearing threadbare sweaters, minimizing participation in family activities) so that he could concentrate almost entirely on business matters; his dependence on a series of women, beginning with his mother and two sisters (especially Doris) that continued with his first wife Susie (and their daughter "Susie Jr.") and then companion Astrid Menks whom he married in 2006; and his passion for helping others to understand the business principles to which he has been committed since childhood.
There is one other theme of special interest and importance to me: over the years, how Buffett has interacted with various associates, notably with Jerome Newman and Benjamin Graham, Sandy Gottesman, Charlie Munger, Bill Ruane, Katherine Graham, and Bill Gates. By all accounts, Buffett is a superb business associate once he agrees to become involved. He cares deeply about each relationship, does whatever may be necessary to protect and defend the best interests of his associates, and is extraordinarily generous with material rewards as well as recognition. Here is an especially revealing excerpt from Cunningham's Introduction to The Essays of Warren Buffett: "The CEOs at Berkshire's operating companies enjoy a unique position in corporate America. They are given a simple set of commands: to run the business as if (1) they are its sole owner, (2) it is the only asset they hold, and (3) they can never sell or merge it for one hundred years." These three "commands" are wholly consistent with what Lawrence explains earlier in the same Introduction: "The central theme uniting Buffett's lucid essays is that the principles of fundamental business analysis, first formulated by his teachers Ben Graham and David Dodd, should guide investment practice. Linked to that theme are management principles that define the proper role of corporate managers as the stewards of investment capital and the proper role of shareholders as the suppliers and owners of capital. Radiating from these main themes are practical and sensible lessons on the entire range of important business issues, from accounting to mergers to valuation." Those who shared Buffett's same core values of honesty and integrity, and who are also committed to the same basic principles, cherish their relationship with him.
To me, Alice Schroeder's rigorous and eloquent analysis of this theme of mutually productive and beneficial collaboration is her single greatest achievement among many in this definitive biography of one of the most important and yet least understood business leaders in recent years. Bravo!The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life Overview

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The Invisible Hands: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Bubbles, Crashes, and Real Money Review

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The Invisible Hands: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Bubbles, Crashes, and Real Money ReviewI read both Michael Lewis' "The Big Short" and Steve Drobny's "The Invisible Hands" this week and found them both fascinating. As per usual, Lewis is a wonderful story teller which makes "The Big Short" a fun read, though the book sensationalizes a few guys who made great one-off trades. Drobny's book, on the other hand, focuses on traders who are not one-trick ponies, but the stalwarts of sound investment. These are the less known, but equally successful traders that are often guarded about their methods and secretive about their dealings. The candid insight in "The Invisible Hands" is both impressive and enlightening and full of good ideas for the most effective ways to manage money in the future. It is a must read for anyone who manages money professionally.The Invisible Hands: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Bubbles, Crashes, and Real Money Overview

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101 Trends Every Investor Should Know About The Global Economy Review

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101 Trends Every Investor Should Know About The Global Economy ReviewThis book will open your mind to various aspects of the global economy. Any serious investor would be doing him/herself a great favor by picking up this book...it is written in a very organized manner wherein coverage of each topic is short, concise, and each has it's own accompanying graphs/charts/statistics page. A perfect reference.101 Trends Every Investor Should Know About The Global Economy Overview

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When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management Review

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When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management ReviewA somewhat didactic narrative history of the hedge fund Long Term Capital Management. Nicholas Dunbar covers the same subject in his book "Inventing Money." Both books present a blizzard of details about who did what and when. Too much detail. The general reader would better served by a medium sized article. Nevertheless if you're a finance buff interested in the nitty-gritty then read both books. Dunbar has a physics background and his book is more technical, while Lowenstein comes from journalism and his narrative flows better.
LCTM began operating in 1994, set up by John Meriwether formally head of the bond-arbitrage group at Solomon Brothers. He put together a star-studded cast that included three (1997) Nobel prize winners in economics. Their basic strategy was something called convergence arbitrage. In essence this strategy says buy two bonds that you think will track one another. Go long on the cheap one and short on the other; you make money if the spread narrows. In theory you are protected from changing prices as long as the two vary in the same way. To make the big bucks LCTM was after they took a gigantic number of highly leveraged arbitrage positions all over the world. To get high leverage you borrow for the position, like buying a stock on margin. LCTM got really high leverage by avoiding something called the "haircut," which is an extra margin of collateral banks usually demand, but forgave LCTM. Why would banks they do such a thing? Because they were blinded by the glitter of the cast, and in some cases the banks themselves were investors in LCTM. By 1997 convergence arbitrage opportunities in bonds began to dry up, everyone was doing it. So LCTM applied their strategy to stocks. Find two stocks that will track on another and go long and short with borrowed money. This is not easy. Stocks are less amenable to mathematical analysis than bonds, and after all these were the bond guys from Solomon, they were out of their depth. You might ask how can you borrow most of your stock position when the Federal Reserve requires 50% margin (Regulation T). Answer: don't really buy the stocks, instead buy derivative contracts that simulate stocks, an end run around Regulation T. Even with all this leverage LCTM would claim that the fund was no more risky than the stock market, meaning a stock index. In 1998 the markets went against LCTM, with the "flight to quality" (US government bonds) as investors panicked. The fund suffered from what reliability engineers call "common mode error." Spreads got wider not narrower across the board, and LCTM's capital base began to shrink as their positions lost money. At a certain point they would have to start liquidating positions, and the market impact of such large scale selling would cascade across their portfolio. The fund would "blow up."
The above gives a flavor of the material Lowenstein provides, only in much greater detail. If that's what you want, buy the book. Is this a tale of human folly or just plain bad luck? Answering that question is not easy, one needs to grasp a large amount of technical finance theory, and understand what happened in the particular case of LCTM. This book will help.When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management Overview

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Crash Proof 2.0: How to Profit From the Economic Collapse Review

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Crash Proof 2.0: How to Profit From the Economic Collapse ReviewFirst a little disclaimer; as a college instructor and writer, I read a lot of business books. Frankly, I wasn't much a Peter Schiff fan and it would be fair to say he still tends to annoy me especially when he gets "hyper" like on an interview I just heard this morn via Financial Sense Newshour. Having said that, over the years I've done a major turn-around on my opinion about Schiff. Like many others, I initially would run across an interview here or there which seemed like he was excessively negative yet despite a bit of timing difference, the guy always made a lot of sense even while the likes of some so called financial guru's found on major media outlets were spouting stuff anyone with half a brain could see was downright detrimental to the average small time investor.
The likes of Schiff, Ron Paul, Nouriel Roubini, the Agora Group and others not only continue to make a great deal of sense but time is showing a growing crisis. This book has been updated to reflect many of the changes which have taken place since the writing of the first book plus added fairly substantial amounts of new research/content of interest.
The content is reader friendly, easy to understand and conversational in style. A brief history and overview is provided for those new to the discussion while those with more familiarity will still appreciate the updated statistics etc... Data is provided to support assertions including a few charts etc but are helpful not complex. Schiff provides a very solid explanation on where he stands with inflation and why including his definition of inflation. For those more versed in the ongoing debate - inflation vs deflation remains a sticking point among many investors. For the average American this is not a minor consideration when it comes to deciding what to do with your investment dollar, debt or money in general. Schiff tackles what he considered the "bogus deflation threat" head-on...an essential consdieration for every investor. Whether you agree or disagree - it is certainly worthy to review the rationale with a "what if" attitude before making a final decision as to your financial future.
Peter Schiff goes on to discuss various investments and risk(s) as well as provide an update of where we are in the predicted cycle. Closely coupled with this is a frank and fairly harsh overview of the current economic policy being put into place by D.C. combined with the status of consumer debt, corporate status etc...it does not paint a pretty picture or leaves much room for optimism but goes on to tackle specific investments including....
- TIPS (the problems)
- Currency Exchange
- Mutual Funds
-ADR's
- Cash Accounts
-Precious Metals
-Much more
Bottom Line - a worthy read for new investors, good updates for those that have read the first version. Whether you agree or not, Schiff presents important considerations every investor will want to keep in mind and does so in an easy to read method.Crash Proof 2.0: How to Profit From the Economic Collapse Overview

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Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism Review

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Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism ReviewThe book consists of roughly two parts. The first is the philosophical foundation of the "theory of reflexivity", with application to financial markets and historical process in general, resulting in the "Open Society" concept. The second is the assessment of the present moment of history and the author's vision of the future of the global financial and political architecture.
The "reflexivity theory", already developed by George Soros in his earlier books (e.g. "The Alchemy of Finance") can be summed up in his own words: "We are part of the world we seek to understand, and our imperfect understanding plays an important role in shaping the events in which we participate." This entails recognition of the fundamental limitations of the social science and our own understanding of society. "It (reflexivity) creates a cleavage between the natural and social sciences and it undermines the postulate on which economic theory has been based: rational behavior in general and rational expectations in particular."
This is a powerful statement indeed. It immediately follows that the future of humankind is not only unknown, or too difficult to predict, but unknowable, because self-awareness and attempts at prediction influence events and change the course of history.This line of reasoning has more immediate application in the financial markets. The widely accepted "efficient market theory" postulates that market participants absorb all available information in an objective and efficient manner, and new information is random and unpredictable relative to previous expectations. If any statistically significant pattern appears in the market data, it should be exploited by many players and will soon disappear. This seems to be similar to the conclusions of the "reflexivity theory". At the first glance the "reflexivity" process can improve market "efficiency" in line with the arguments of the "market fundamentalists" arguments that market processes automatically self-correct any mispricing. Yet this is not what typically happens according to Soros (and his experience and investment track record suggests that his arguments should be taken very seriously). Instead of self-correcting towards the equilibrium, which characterizes many physical phenomena (such as, for example, most types of wave motion), markets form self-reinforcing tendency which moves further away from the equilibrium. This tendency, eventually turning out wrong ("fertile fallacy", and "radical fallibility" in Soros's terms) is supported by several positive-feedback mechanisms.
G. Soros believes that development of the "reflexivity" and "fallibility" concepts should have as profound effect on the thinking of society and historical process, as the Enlightenment and ideas born with French and American revolutions. "It is high time to subject reason, as construed by Enlightenment, to the same kind of critical examination that the Enlightenment inflicted on the dominant external authorities, both divine and temporal. We have now lived in the age of reason for the past two hundred years - long enough to discover that reason has its limitations. We are ready to enter the age Fallibility. The results may be equally exhilarating and, having learned from past experience, we may be able to avoid some of the excesses characteristic of the dawning of a new age."
The remainder of the book deals mainly with the application of these ideas to the current moment in history and the author's vision for the global financial and political structure. This is not an easy task, and the author soon begins to fail his own recipe and the paradigm underlying this vision. To his credit, he never fails to recognize his own fallibility. He speaks at length, and very frankly, about his own investment mistakes and failed predictions. This provides a refreshing contrast with many others who prefer to ignore their failures, or, when they are too evident, spend many pages trying to justify or attribute them to some extraneous factors.
He begins to miss his beat when speaking about the global financial and political architecture. After presenting sharp, well-argued criticism of the present state of the world, his recipes for improvement look disappointingly weak. Essentially it's all about "kinder, gentler" IMF, WB, NATO and other such institutions. His definition of the "Open Society"(that is, the one based on ideas similar to "reflexivity" and "fallibility") eventually looks like nothing more than touched-up version of any liberal democracy today. It is contrasted with "closed societies", based on authoritarian or nationalistic ideas. Well, throughout the human history the strongest military and economic powers always viewed themselves if not perfect, as the only models truly capable of improvement and progress. Every colonial conquest, no matter how destructive and brutal, was based on the ideological support of "bringing civilization to the barbarians" in one or another form. The "Open Society Alliance" proposed by Soros, doesn't look too different from yet another reincarnation of such ideological foundation.
In the model of financial bubbles, which the author described as an application of the "reflexivity theory", the unsustainable booms happen not because skeptical views during the bubble build-up are suppressed by some official censorship, but because even in the presence of critical dissent, the prevailing erroneous consensus become self-reinforcing and self-perpetuating. Similarly, the is no reason to believe that, just because of the democratic mechanisms and press freedom, the supposed "Open Society Alliance" will be free from the standard "arrogance of power". Such arrogance and delusion, which often leads to very costly political mistakes, wars or major crises, can happen not just because any other views are suppressed by censorship as in many authoritarian societies. Rather, because of artificial self-perpetuating consensus generated by and propagated through the media and political elite, while maintaining illusion of a genuine vigorous debate by endlessly pouring attention to peripheral issues.
The "fallibility" concept truly deserves serious intellectual attention. Too bad that most likely the "center" of the global system - the richest and most powerful nations - will invariable find it harder to apply these criteria to themselves, as opposed to the rest of the world.Open Society: Reforming Global Capitalism Overview

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When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change Review

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When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change ReviewI bought this book because it won the Financial Times Book of the Year Award (not a top ten winner or something, #1 mind you). Historically, a reliable guide (e.g., the masterpiece China Shakes the World, and theoretically dubious but highly provocative Friedman's World is Flat). It has dawned on me belatedly that advance praisers probably don't read their books. All these absolutely glowing endorsements by serious people...for a book that *clearly* isn't top notch.
T. Bojko's review may seem harsh, but it's spot-on. I can live with the ponderous writing style. I initially thought the big words concealed some new or profound thinking...but not at all.
The problems are: 1. there's almost nothing new or inspired about the "markets of tomorrow," and 2. there is nary a sliver of new, actionable advice about investing. The whole thing is a compendium of the superficial. Seeking to cut a swath a mile wide, it is everywhere one inch deep.
In regard to the first, the following are superficially summarized: global trade/capital flows (rightly footnoted to Martin Wolf, but Wolf's own columns are better on this); a cocktail of snippets on behavioral finance - called a "cocktail" - just read Shiller straightaway; some stuff on global trade and commodities, see latest Economist; a paraphrase of Taleb's colorful insights (just read Taleb directly); a woefully weak primer-not-really on securitization; a brief primer on asset classes that repeats everything I've got in a dozen other finance books; and too much material on IMF (e.g., not a single mention of Basel). I agree the topics per se are important, but most of them here are superficially derivative of other, better works.
Here are the four insights from Chapter 2: we are coming from a period of aberrations, many puzzles; too many dismissed them as noise; the inability to distinguish signal from noise is a bad thing; the adjustment caught people off guard. I'm not kidding. The blinding insight is: take care to distinguish signal from noise! Noise bad, signal good....
Strangest of all, in my opinion, is that the author appears to have nothing to add to the field of risk management, which stuns me given his unique vantage point. Risk management is reduced to a few catchphrases: tail risk, moral hazard, principal-agent. Say it ain't so...
Finally, T. Bojko is right about the mundane asset allocation plan: "the author just lays out a pretty mundane asset allocation plan (which is available for free on any number of websites) and then fills a couple dozen pages with worthless blather. Seriously, that's it." That's exactly right.
The book boils down to: big "structural" change is coming, try to sort signal from noise, here's pointers to a bunch of good reading material, I worked at the IMF, start with this generic plan.
I saved you a few bucks. More to the point, I wasted my time reading this book so you don't have to. Since that time is lost to me forever, the least you can do is vote my review "helpful."When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change Overview

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An Introduction to Global Financial Markets Review

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An Introduction to Global Financial Markets ReviewThis book gives a good summary of several important concepts related to the financial markets. It is a truly introductory level book but it is highly recommended if you are looking for a complete overview to fill up the gaps in your basic knowledge. Highly readable, even for people without a formal background in economoy but with a basic practical knowledge of the financial markets.
One negative point concerns paragraphs where the history of certain concepts is described or where practical examples are given, applying to different countries in the world : these are often too elaborated without any clear added value.
This book is also recommended by 'The Economist' magazine.
An Introduction to Global Financial Markets Overview

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Inside the House of Money, Revised and Updated: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Profiting in the Global Markets Review

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Inside the House of Money, Revised and Updated: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Profiting in the Global Markets ReviewSteven Drobny delivers a treasure trove of useful information in a very readable and user-friendly format. The book focuses on Global Macro hedge funds, providing a history starting with GM pioneer John Maynard Keynes to the mega funds run by Soros and Robertson, to the 21st century evolution of the leaner funds and their tactics. After describing the function and history of Global Macro, Mr. Drobny takes us deep into the minds of the operators themselves with over a dozen fascinating interviews.
For those who are new to the subject, Global Macro is basically a fund whose approach allows them to act nimbly in any global market using any class of asset including stocks, bonds, currency, and commodities. These funds employ a wide variety of hedging and arbitrage strategies using complex combinations of assets, and constantly seek out anomalies in any market that can offer superior returns.
I particularly liked the interview with Jim Leitner who has a very personal and unorthodox style that is hard not to marvel at. Jim offers this definition of GM, "The willingness to opportunistically look at every idea that comes along, from micro situations to country-specific situations, across every asset category and every country in the world. Its the combination of a broad top-down country analysis with a bottom-up micro analysis of companies. In many cases, after we make our country decisions, we then drill down and analyze the companies in the sectors that should do well in light of our macro view....Macro themes expressed in a micro style. Global Macro only means that you start at the top and work your way down." Jim also says that if there was only one thing he could ever read before choosing investments, it would be "The Economist".
If you are curious about hedge funds you will find this glimpse into the rarefied world of Global Macro a real eye opener. If you are an investor or investment professional, the book is loaded with gems of trading strategy. There are many great charts throughout the book, but it is not bogged down with heavy math. The format is similar to the Market Wizard books and there is something for everyone here. The main difference between this new edition and the 2006 is the addition of 2 new appendixes by Dr. Lee R Thomas III: "The Crash of '08"; and "Who Controls Liquidity?". Enjoy.Inside the House of Money, Revised and Updated: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Profiting in the Global Markets Overview

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