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31 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
More like "generality gatherer"., December 21, 2007
This review is from: Hedge Hunters: Hedge Fund Masters on the Rewards, the Risk, and the Reckoning (Bloomberg) (Hardcover)
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I ordered this book actually thinking that I might gain some insights into how hedge funds work and perhaps to learn something about investing that I didn't already know. Instead I ended up reading a book that seemed just like one of those "market wizards" books from back in the 1980's.
A generic hedge fund manager's bio might go like this. "Joe Money" grew up in an affluent family where he got interested in investing. Then he went to an exclusive college and got a job in a Wall Street company. A few years later he got to manage a fund, and then a few years later he left that company and started his own fund. Now he sits in an office decorated with (insert decorations here) and gives this advice:
Be prepared to make mistakes.
Know when to stick to your convictions and when to walk away (like Kenny Rogers in "The Gambler". Ya gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run.)
The better you know the investment you're making, the greater your conviction will be.
Don't stake more than a certain percentage of your portfolio on a single invesment. (Or, don't put all your eggs in one basket).
Study the leadership of the company, not just the financials.
Buy into industries that everyone else hates.
Look for new products that everyone has to have. Buy stock in the company that makes them.
Seek out companies whose shares are undervalued compared to earnings and other financial measures.
And there's more. More generalities that I've read several times before and have appeared in investing books for decades. I was rather dissappointed.
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82 of 107 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Hedge needlessly killed: A Put Option, October 22, 2007
This review is from: Hedge Hunters: Hedge Fund Masters on the Rewards, the Risk, and the Reckoning (Bloomberg) (Hardcover)
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I'm not sure who Katherine's target audience is, but I know it's not me. If you like breathy prose ("..boyish good looks...") and inflight magazine profiles (23 career profiles in 200 pages), then you're going to have a rollicking good time. If you are looking for in depth discussions of various trading strategies by market luminaries then look elsewhere. What you get is a bunch of anecdotes relating, "How I became a hedge fund manager".
This book falls between two markets not delivering to either. If you are new to trading you are going to need a reference to interpret the jargon. If you have some experience you're going to think that the author doesn't know what hedging is (the trades described are the traditional searches for value based on fundamentals).
Hedging is an investment strategy that utilizes an understanding of risk and how it is priced into the current value of an instrument. A traditional fund manager is generally looking for value, that is, looks at the fundamentals of a business and tries to assess if the stock has been undervalued by the market, whereas a hedge fund manager is looking for value in pricing of a derivative instrument that factors in volatility, like a stock option contract, and takes positions on both long and short sides to make money. This is a rather abstract concept, so Katherine either doesn't understand this or couldn't be bothered to explain it to her readership.
Katherine seems to be a frustrated novelist and just didn't ask enough of the right questions to make this book worth the cover price. I would have rated the book higher, but for the fact that the book makes promises on the cover that it doesn't deliver. In a bargain bucket near you shortly (excuse the pun). A book you'll put down and only pick up to swat flies.
Better books on investment are Investments (6th Edition) and Options, Futures and Other Derivatives (6th Edition).
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26 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Long Access; Short Methodology, October 27, 2007
This review is from: Hedge Hunters: Hedge Fund Masters on the Rewards, the Risk, and the Reckoning (Bloomberg) (Hardcover)
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Although the author provides rare access to the thinking of 25 hedge fund great, she often misses the mark.
Hedge Fund managers are notorious for high returns and low profiles. Katherine Burton, who covers the hedge fund industry for Bloomberg News, provides the reader with access to these legends, but often fails to plumb the depths of their thinking.
The book is well-written. But I do not particularly care that the manager has boyish good-looks, is dressed in a suit or has holes in his blue jeans. From a book that carries this steep a price tag, I expect research methodologies, tips on mental preparation, trading tactics and logistics.
If you want to read breezy profiles, this book will suffice. If, however, you want to get under the covers, I would opt for [ASIN:0471794473 Inside the House of Money: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Profiting in the Global Markets]] by Steven Drobny.
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