Customer Reviews

Julian Robertson: A Tiger in the Land of Bulls and Bears

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

Rather, it should be thrown aside with great force.

Pointless, mostly hagiographic recycling of the various articles on Julian Robertson.

Unlike, say Lowenstein on Buffett, or Manes & Andrews on Gates, you will not find a comprehensive, insightful biography, nor any thoughtful discussion of the processes of investing and building a money management business.

That book remains to be written, and deserves to be.

I know I am going to get flamed for this, or maybe this review will be yanked completely for offending the tender sensibilities of the author, but the truth be told--this is an awful book. That is the truth, and the truth hurts sometimes. So be it.

I have nothing against either the author or the subject of this book. In fact, don't take my word for it, just search through this book as I didn't do before buying it. Then compare it to other books about hedge funds, such as the really great biography of George Soros by Michael Kaufmann. This one is not in that league.

My problem with the book is a bit like the old joke--the food was terrible, and the portions were so small! This book is really skimpy when it comes to detail. You don't get a feel for what it was like to be Julian Robertson, head of this massive fund organization. My other problem is that what there is in the book just isn't very good. It doesn't read well, it is awkward and sloppy. But the thing that put me off the most about this book was its constant flattery of Robertson, which undermined the book's credibility. Also he relies far too much on quotations from magazines as he wraps up the end of the Robertson funds in 2000.

This book was a terrible waste of money. I came away feeling cheated. Really really bad.

Despite the negative reviews here on Amazon, for somebody who really wanna know the life and style of Julian Robertson, I have no choice but picked this only book (I still cant believe it) on Amazon about Wall Street's infamous Tiger.

After reading it, I am obliged to concur with many reviewers here that this book resembled much a copy and paste of info on limited sources primarily printed material on Business Week and Robertson's private letters to his investors. You would never learn how the Tiger had thrived in the land of bulls and bears as promised on the book cover. Dont know whether the author had tried too hard to keep himself as neutral as possible or to avoid lawsuits in the magnitude of multi-millions as in Robertson vs Business Week, little personal insight was available. What's worse, little had been told on big events, say, the yen/Russian bond trade in 1998, that might be considered a turning point to the destiny of the Tiger.

In short, unless you are so desperate to read something about Julian Robertson and that this book is your only choice as far as you know, please give it a pass.

This book is absolute garbage. I made the mistake of picking this book to read for a class on management. I couldn't find anything of value in it, so to get the info I needed I went to the library and looked at the stories that came out on Robertson. There it all was, laid out for me.

I actually got MORE from any one of the magazine pieces I read than I did from this book!

Also I discovered from reading the articles that Robertson was sunk by an overconcentration in several stocks, including U.S. Airways. That isn't even mentioned in this book, so obviously I wasn't going to get more on that subject. I wonder if the author did any research before writing this book. It reads as if it was produced by some p.r. guy.

Although the book bills itself as being about Robertson it is, to a greater extent, about the Tiger fund and the world of hedge funds in general. Usually this would make it a more useful read for aspiring managers but Strachman's tangential and repetitive manner of writing detracts from the overall benefit of the text by making it hard to follow and tedious to read. I needed at least 3 mojitos before I could tolerate it when reading the book in Mexico.

The numerous grammatical, typographical, numerical and reference errors further detract from the overall quality of the book and give it the appearance of the unfinished manuscript of a high school senior flunking English instead of a marketable work.

Although the book's jacket promises "candid interviews with Robertson" aside from a few scattered quotes by Julian and his Cubs most of Strachman's "inside information" is obtained from Robertson's Memos to Limited Partners and the fund's marketing pamphlet.

Moreover, the analysis of different money management strategies is far too basic to be of any real benefit to anyone serious about finance. This is especially strange since the author is himself a Managing Director of an asset management firm. It feels as though Strachman is trying to make the material more accessible to the armchair investor - but most people who pick up this book, and know of Robertson offhand, are likely not getting their stock tips from "Chuck" Schwab. On the other hand, Strachman is able to find an audience who will pay $400 for his newsletter, so perhaps there are enough dolts with money to fill his target audience.

Perhaps one of the worst biographies ever.

First, I must say the author's writing skills are incredibly weak. I'd describe it as a cross between the Andrew-Dice-Clay-School-of-One-Liners and the Hiliary-Clinton-School-of-Creative-Writing. He often makes bold short statements (which eventually the reader discovers are nothing more than platitudes) followed up by little color, wit, or illustration of his fact findings.

Secondly, it is very clear that the author's research was superficial, which invites broad generalizations while brushing aside many potentially interesting areas of Robertson's life. The author claims that Robertson is a "complex man", but then fails to even introduce his personality traits, insightful conflicts within, or friends/family who may understand differing facets of the man.

In describing the man's life, the author's poor writing skills and lack of research combine. In perhaps as little as a few paragraph, the author sweeps past Robertson's sabbatical to New Zealand in 1979-80 as a back-to-the-basic-spend-time-with-the-family escape. Apparently, a reflection point in his life, the author carelessly mentions that Robertson couldn't stay away from the market during this time off. So, what happened? Facts missing here were, for example, that Robertson built a beautiful private golf course called Kauri Cliffs 2 hours north of Auckland and hand-picked the architects, employees, geography, etc. It took him years to complete and challenged him in real estate development, foreign politics, and business development issues.

Finally, the author is a self-described asset management advisor. But, he clearly lacks the understanding of how hedge funds leverage or take offseting positions. In order to stay long-and-short, there are complex delta-gamma strategies, ongoing adjustments, and advanced mathematical models. Synthetic positions and derivatives play a much more integrated part of a hedge fund's daily analysis and eventual success that just what you see on TV. Also, many times Tiger is taking multi-layered volatility, vega, positions concurrently in markets, which are non-directional. Moreover, DCF or market-multiple corporate valuation skills are significantly different than the assessments of supply/demand of commodity trading.

In summary, all I can ask is "where's the beef?" I hope someone better and more experienced will write another biography of this subject matter. Robertson is clearly a worthy read and interesting topic. Its just that this author failed in each and every regard to help us understand Robertson.

A superficial, mind-numbingly stupid love song to the controversial fund manager who up-ended in early 2000. Every mistake justified or ignored, every act of hubris minimized. Absolute garbage that must surely go down in history as one of the worst business books of recent years.

An utter disappointment. Glib, pretentious, sycophantic and atrociously written. It is hard to believe Mr Strachman makes a living as a writer and commentator on financial markets.

I have to share two gems from the book:

On the subject of the philanthropy of Wall Street traders generally, Strachman says: " These masters of the universe have gone from being the biggest and brightest trader, broker, or investment banker to the most important givers to places like Carnegie Hall,Lincoln Centre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and of course the hospitals and universities. Giving to charities in New York City, and probably all of the world's major financial centres and cities has become a way of keeping score and of telling the world just how well someone is doing."

How disgraceful! If that's true it is a sanctimonious display of the worst order and something any reasonable person should be ashamed to admit.

And how about this:

Strachman reports on Bob Burch's observation that "Julian is using the same energy now that he had in the 1980s and 1990s and focusing it on building great golf courses, and really creating a tourist industry for New Zealand."

Creating a tourist industry for New Zealand??!! Off the back of a golf course and a lodge?? I bet those New Zealanders are ever so grateful that Sherrif Robertson can ride into town and put New Zealand on the tourist map. God knows what was there before Julian got there, eh?

The whole book smacked of small-town American observations. Grow up Wiley, grow up Strachman and grow up America!

A reviewer inquires as to why there are so many negative reviews. The reason is that this is not a very good book. I found it fluffy and written in a stilted and amateurish fashion. It did not tell me anything about Julian Robertson that I did not already know.

This is a stilted and unsophisticated examination of the well-known money manager. Since this book has not been reviewed anywhere, I purchased it based on the glowing comments from Mr. Gaine and others that were found on the book jacket and are replicated on this web page. Unfortunately this praise is undeserved and I came away from the book deeply disappointed. I do not believe those people read the same book that I did.

The book relies excessively upon material published elsewhere and in the public domain, and at crucial junctures defers to lengthy excerpts, repeated with permission, from previous articles published about Julian Robertson. The book does not contain very much context and is somewhat passive in its approach. The author heaps praise on Robertson constantly, which I found troubling as a borderline diabetic because my sugar intake is rationed.

While I am sure Robertson and the hedge fund industry will enjoy this book, because of its lack of critical analysis it is unsatisfying for an informed reader. I await a better quality book on this subject.