Diary of a Very Bad Year: Confessions of an Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager [Paperback]

Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager (Author), n+1 (Author), Keith Gessen (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 22, 2010

“Diary of a Very Bad Year is a rarity: a book on modern finance that’s both extraordinarily thoughtful and enormously entertaining.”

— James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds

 

“A great read. . . . HFM offers a brilliant financial professional’s view of the economic situation in real time, from September 2007, when problems in financial markets began to surface, until late summer 2009.”

— Booklist

 

“n+1 is the rightful heir to Partisan Review and the New York Review of Books. It is rigorous, curious and provocative.”

— Malcolm Gladwell

 

A profoundly candid and captivating account of the economic crisis and subprime mortgage collapse, from an anonymous hedge fund manager, as told to the editors of New York literary magazine n+1.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Expanding on a 2007 interview in the literary magazine n+1, editor and interviewer Gessen draws together two years' worth of interviews with a despairing anonymous hedge fund manager. HFM, as Gessen calls him, didn't go to business school or major in economics, but has been working successfully in hedge funds for over a decade. With some context provided by Gessen, HFM schools readers in the stories behind the death of Bear Stearns, the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the plunging dollar, the bailouts, the Madoff scandal, and, finally, the upswing. Though it's interesting to have a personal take on the tumultuous past two years—and HFM ends the interviews when the stress finally drives him to take a semisabbatical—the decision to tell this story in an interview format is tricky and ultimately unsuccessful; the choppy transcription format distances readers from the ideas at hand, and the points lose their punch. Fans of the original article will find this expansion compelling, but other readers curious about the factors behind the crash will do better elsewhere. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

This book is a series of interviews with an anonymous hedge-fund manager (HFM) by the co-editor of a literary magazine (who admits to being ill-informed on finance); he sets out to understand what is happening on Wall Street. The HFM offers a brilliant financial professional's view of the economic situation in real time, from September 2007, when problems in financial markets began to surface, until late summer 2009, when the financial meltdown generally subsided and the financial community went back, in HFM's view, to business as usual. With definitions of financial terms and products, and explanations of domestic and global issues as they occur, HFM draws from his decade of nonstop work as a hedge-fund manager to educate the interviewer and us as the financial crisis unfolds. This is a great read. The interviews are edited in a readily understandable manner and will provide a thoughtful perspective for a wide range of library patrons who want to learn about the recent financial debacle. --Mary Whaley

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1 edition (June 22, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061965308
• ISBN-13: 978-0061965302
• Product Dimensions: 0.6 x 5.4 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #694,276 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

n+1 is a Brooklyn-based magazine of literature, culture, and politics published three times yearly. It was founded in 2004 by Keith Gessen (All the Sad Literary Young Men), Mark Greif, Chad Harbach (The Art of Fielding), Benjamin Kunkel (Indecision), and Marco Roth and immediately attracted attention in New York and beyond. A. O. Scott described it in the New York Times Magazine as part of "a generational struggle against laziness and cynicism"; German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote, "they intend nothing less than to reimagine and reestablish the world."

Since its founding, n+1 has published Elif Batuman's remarkable first essays (later collected in The Possessed), Mark Greif's classic essays "Against Exercise," "On Radiohead," and "Afternoon of the Sex Children," excerpts from Helen DeWitt's latest novels (most recently Lightning Rods), and other memorable pieces. Each issue is about the length of a novel (200 pages), and features criticism, memoirs, fiction, reviews, and political essays. We also publish small books (most notably What Was the Hipster?) and at Amazon have made Kindle editions of all our publications and Kindle Singles of individual pieces available.

Our fall issue, "Conversion Experience," features a report from the Gathering of the Juggalos, an essay by Mark Greif on Stanley Cavell as a philosopher and teacher, an excerpt from Helen DeWitt's new novel, a history of the music website Pitchfork, and an essay on the politics and angst of gay marriage. We encourage you to take a look at let us know what you think. You can read more about us, browse web-only content, and find contact information at www.nplusonemag.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very possibly an investing classic, to be read 100 years from now July 25, 2010

By Neurasthenic VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

This book far surpasses the expectations set by its simple premise -- a series of interviews of an unnamed hedge fund manager who specialized in trading emerging market debt through the financial crisis of 2008. No secrets are revealed about the inner workings of the global financial system, and the factual content of the book can be found elsewhere. This book is great not because it explains a credit crunch, or how to trade bonds or manage portfolio risk (it doesn't even attempt to do these latter things), but because it provides an intelligent, funny, highly opinionated synthesis of far-reaching finance, economics, and even philosophy. Many readers will disagree with points made by the anonymous hedge fund manager who holds court in these pages, but I think any reader would benefit from the internal dialog with him we have while reading.

The end of the book, after the crisis is over, is not as compelling as the first part of the text. However, even the first 100 pages more than justifies the cost of the book and the time spent reading it.

30 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for a quick read July 3, 2010

By Melissa Tang

Format:Paperback

I don't follow the news very much, just episodes of Daily Show that let me know the general state of the world. So I knew next to nothing about the causes and implications of the financial meltdown or the rationale of the bailout. I picked this book up because I liked the interview format and thought I could learn a little. It turned out to be an amazing read: it was fairly easy to understand, both the interviewer and interviewee were likable, and it gave me a lot of insight into the financial world. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand more about what happened with the economy, but find other, denser books too daunting.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book. Easy Read. July 6, 2010

By titan_UAV

Format:Paperback

This was a great book. Very informative from the perspective of a seemingly objective financial expert. It's a long interview conducted over a few years, so it makes it very easy to read. With the amount of info conveyed, as a non-finance guy, I did not find it to be overwhelmingly academic at all, even though I learned a tremendous amount of new information.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Bad Year Good Book August 29, 2010

By C. Wagner

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

If I would have known that this was a book of edited transcripts of interviews I probably wouldn't have bought it; but I didn't and I did and I'm glad I did. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I have read a lot about the financial crisis but this book is a unique look at that crisis from the heart and mind of an insider who lived through it. Anonymous is not cigar chomping Neanderthal, Wall Street aristocrat or a nerdy math wizard. He is sort of a really smart everyman; a guy you'd like to have a beer with. So buy this book get in the hammock with a beer and enjoy your weekend.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A good quick read on the financial meltdown, but not a trading diary July 31, 2011

By Straddle1985

Format:Paperback

At first I thought this book would be a trading diary covering trades a hedge funds manager made in the severe bear market of 2008, but this book doesn't contain any information on trades. It's just a very long interview with a hedge funds manager (HFM) being questioned by the author of this book. The book certainly ain't bad, it was a good quick read and very informing on the downfall of the banks and the troubles back then.

The main benefit of this book is that everything is explained pretty clearly. If you're willing to do an effort to understand what caused the downfall of the banks 3 years ago then this book is one of the best reads. The HFM covers everything chronologically and how he experienced it (first Bear Stears, then Lehman Brothers, then AIG, ..). Most books on this subject fail at explaining the main causes of financial crisis.

All in all, recommended as a quick read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't Read Just One! August 15, 2010

By Lao T. Sue

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a good book when combined with others. It can give the reader a good, intuitive introduction to how trading and markets work. If you read this book and no others, you'll know a little and have been entertained. If you go on from this book, you'll find it can serve as a good base for further learning. As someone with experience in the securities business, I enjoyed HFM's clarity of exposition, but didn't find him the brilliant chap the interviewer seems to believe he is. He's a smart guy, no doubt, and he thinks a lot about what he does, but let's not blow this out of perspective, folks. His thoughts on Lehman Bros, Bear,AIG and Madoff are particularly interesting. Not a classic, but a good exposition.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't get better December 2, 2012

By ndu867

Format:Kindle Edition

I read a lot of finance (and non-finance) books and it doesn't get better than this. I don't work in finance-I'm an accountant-but I'd probably be considered a finance-type because I read the Wall Street Journal pretty much daily, manage my own stock portfolio, and read Forbes/Fortune.

The interviewee's insights seem simple, and maybe the ideas are, but the thinking is extremely impressive. He compares computerized trading models to ecosystems with no biodiversity, and the disclosure by banks of losses on mortgages that have gone bad to firing submarine depth charges (you fire the charges, but you don't know what's dead for awhile because it takes time for the bodies to surface). Those two analogies right there show how well-rounded he is, and his ability to analogize situations, which really reflects and is reflected in the rest of his intellect. His thinking is extremely clear, as well.

Another example is when he talks about a time he was at a business dinner with a bunch of other asset managers, and people talked about how they all thought a certain currency was going to do great that year. After the dinner he went back to his office and sold off his positions because he figured out that if everyone was talking about how great that currency would be doing then everyone already owned it-so who was left to buy more and drive the price up? The currency crashed that year, but because he sold his positions, the fund wasn't hurt by it.

Think about that last one-there were plenty of people in that room who heard what he did, and these are all top guys at their funds, but you think they all reversed their positions? Even in a room of really smart guys, the interviewee is probably still considered smart.