Trading With the Enemy: Seduction and Betrayal on Jim Cramer's Wall Street [Hardcover]

Nicholas W. Maier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 5, 2002

An intense no-holds-barred account of five years inside the hell that is a high-powered hedge fund. Josh Fund entered the financial world on Wall Street as a college graduate, landing a job as an entry-level assistant to a high-profile hedge fund manager. But he was in for an education Wall Street style...

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nicholas W. Maier began working for Jim Cramer of Cramer & Company in 1994. He spent the next five years with the hedge fund, during which time he started writing. He lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Collins (March 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060086513
• ISBN-13: 978-0060086510
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #356,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "What profit a man...."?, July 12, 2002

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Trading With the Enemy: Seduction and Betrayal on Jim Cramer's Wall Street (Hardcover)

Each year, thousands of eager and ambitious young women and men arrive on Wall Street. What we have here is Maier's account of what happened to him after he relocated from Cambridge (MA) in 1994 and went to work for Cramer & Company, a hedge fund. He made a total commitment to advancing his career and eventually was entrusted with managing an investment fund of approximately $50-million. His is an insider's unique and compelling interpretation and evaluation, not only of his own experiences but also of Jim Cramer and the firm he founded and headed. As I began to read this book, I realized that its title lends itself to all manner of interpretation. For example, who is the "enemy"? Those with whom one competes for career advancement, obviously, but also those psychological forces which require trade-offs when ethics are in conflict with expediency. (Pogo once suggested that "we have met the enemy and he is us.") Maier and Cramer worked closely together and then, for various reasons which Maier explain in this book, he left the firm after five years. By then he and Cramer had become enemies and are now involved in litigation.

It is important to keep in mind that personal accounts such this are necessarily selective and subjective. (The same is true of Cramer's Confessions of a Street Addict.) There are specific reasons why this book's subtitle is "Seduction and Betrayal on Jim Cramer's Wall Street." Maier acknowledges that he was seduced by the opportunities he pursued while employed by Cramer & Company. Eventually, he felt betrayed by Cramer and explains why. That relationship reminds of the character Bud Fox played by Charlie Sheen in the film Wall Street. He is dazzled by the business success and lifestyle of Gordon Gecko, the character played by Michael Douglas. Much of what motivated Fox also motivated Meier. Moreover,when the film concludes as Fox and Gecko are headed for federal prison, Fox's opinion of Gecko is strikingly similar to Meier's opinion of Cramer when their five-year association ends in 1995.

It remains for each reader to decide to what extent Meier is responsible for what happened to him, and, to what extent Cramer should be blamed. My own opinion is that neither emerges as an especially sympathetic character by book's end. Both seem to be inevitable products of a materialistic society in which, if "greed is good," wealth and power are even better. But the question remains, "what profit a man...."?

70 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So he's an ego maniac trader. Big deal. There's many., April 28, 2002

By 

R. Spell "raspell" (Memphis, TN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Trading With the Enemy: Seduction and Betrayal on Jim Cramer's Wall Street (Hardcover)

I'm a mortgage trader in a regional investment banking firm so I looked forward to this book about the business even though it deals with the stock side. But many things bother me about the book. The story is of an intelligent guy clearly not qualified for a Wall Street job who gets a job at Cramer's hedge fund referred through one of the large investors. Ok, that could happen. The book does a good job of relating the mundane tasks that beginning traders perform and in that respect, I think the book would be very good for beginning I-bankers. The tasks can be very mundane but no matter how smart you are, the only way you learn is through repetition of doing the tasks daily. The author seems to have a knack for the business and eventually develops to recommending his own stocks.

But the author just can't put up with the belligerent, tyranical Jim Cramer who runs the firm. Well, welcome to investment banking where egos are dominant. Yes, Cramer is the worst variety. And there are stories of illegal or at least unethical trading. But the author just doesn't appear to have the stomach for the business and can't sleep at night and can't put up with the abuse from Cramer so he eventually quits a job that started at less than $25,000 even though it quickly grew to a six figure income.

I don't follow Cramer on CNBC but clearly this book is written to play on his fame. Yes, it is a hatchet job and maybe deserved. But it is very thinly written and focuses on some very petty examples. But did I enjoy it? Yes. I happen to like books about investment banking and this book had those. But I would caution that if you are looking for earth shattering information about a stock icon, it's really not here.

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Congratulations, March 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Trading With the Enemy: Seduction and Betrayal on Jim Cramer's Wall Street (Hardcover)

Congratulations to Nicholas Maier for casting as accurate a portrait as possible of everything that was wrong with the high-end of the financial world in the 90's and for having the courage to risk a stadium filled with newfound enemies. If you want a review of the actual content of the book, skip the next paragraph.

That many participants were willing to tolerate ridiculous antics and downright degradation for the sake of pure greed shows how little anyone learned in the 80's. The only difference this time around was the 90's players took note of the Achilles heel of their 80's corporate raider counterparts and didn't flaunt it. Most hedge fund managers are nothing like Jim Cramer as described by Maier, and in fact many are nice, honest, hard-working intelligent people; they don't put on hundreds of trades per day or ceaselessly berate their underlings and have chosen to pursue a career where risk-taking and actual skill can translate into deservedly stratospheric rewards. I know as I used to work for one that operated humanely. The fact remains that Cramers do exist and are not a complete aberration. Trading With The Enemy should be required reading for all undergraduate business majors and MBA's so they can have a taste of the Faustian bargain presented to them in modern day terms that they can relate to.

As a general read, the technical concepts in Trading might be a bit beyond the scope of the average reader. Although Maier goes to great lengths to explain tricks of the trade in layman's terms, I think a lot of the details will be lost on most, save those who have a sophisticated knowledge of the financial markets. Still, the average reader can read in easily understandable detail about the various "standard practices" of the hedge fund world. Beyond that, the colorful portrayal of the trading environment and employees of his firm may be enough to keep people chuckling and entertained through this fast read. At the same time, many non-Wall Streeters may be appalled by the utter depravity of the world described in this book.