Ugly Americans: The True Story of the Ivy League Cowboys Who Raided the Asian Markets for Millions [Hardcover]

Ben Mezrich (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 4, 2004

Ben Mezrich, author of the NEW YORK TIMES bestseller BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE, returns with an astonishing story of Ivy League hedge-fund cowboys, high stakes, and the Asian underworld.

UGLY AMERICANS is the true story of John Malcolm, a hungry young Princeton grad who traveled halfway around the world in search of the American dream and ultimately pulled off a trade that could, quite simply, be described as the biggest deal in the history of the financial markets.

After receiving a mysterious phone call promising him a shot at great fortune in an exotic land, Malcolm packed up his few belongings and took the chance of a lifetime. Without speaking a word of Japanese, with barely a penny in his pocket, Malcolm was thrown into the bizarre, adrenaline-fueled life of an expat trader. Surrounded by characters ripped right out of a Hollywood thriller, he quickly learned how to survive in a cutthroat world -- at the feet of the biggest players the markets have ever known.

Malcolm was first an assistant trading huge positions for Nick Leeson, the twenty-six-year-old rogue trader who lost nearly two billion dollars and brought down Barings Bank -- the oldest in England. Then he was the right-hand man to an enigmatic and brilliant hedge-fund cowboy named Dean Carney, and grew into one of the biggest derivatives traders in all of Asia. Along the way, Malcolm fell in love with the daughter of a Yakuza gangster, built a vast fortune out of thin air, and came head-to-head with the violent Japanese mobsters who helped turn the Asian markets into the turbulent casino it is today.

Malcolm and his twentysomething, Ivy League-schooled colleagues, with their warped sense of morality and proportion, created their own economic theory: Arbitrage with a Battle Axe. They rode the crashing waves of the Asian markets during the mid- to late 1990s, culminating in a single deal the likes of which had never been seen before -- or since.

A real-life mixture of LIAR'S POKER and WALL STREET, brimming with intense action, romance, underground sex, vivid locales, and exotic characters, UGLY AMERICANS is the untold, true story that will rock the financial community and redefine an era.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ugly Americans documents the "Wild East" of the mid-1990s, where young, brilliant, and hypercompetitive traders became "hedge fund cowboys," manipulating loopholes in an outdated and inefficient Asian financial system to rake in millions. Using a concept called arbitrage, they made their fortunes mainly on minute shifts in stocks being sold on the Nikkei, the Japanese stock market, collapsing banks and nearly bankrupting the Japanese economy in the process. Other schemes were also concocted, most of which were technically legal, though certainly unethical. This true story revolves around "John Malcolm," who, in exchange for anonymity, agreed to give Ben Mezrich all the access and information he needed to write this book. As a recent Princeton graduate in the mid-1990s, Malcolm accepted an undefined job offer from an American expatriate in Japan to work in the investments field. Though he had no prior experience, he facilitated 25 million dollars worth of trades on his first day on the job, and it just got more exciting from there. He soon joined a small group of expatriates, all in their twenties and mostly Ivy League graduates, who lived like rock stars, thriving on the stress and excitement of their jobs to create their own steroid versions of the American Dream half a world away. Mezrich tells this riveting story well, incorporating elements of the culture into his narrative, including the infamous and pervasive Japanese "Water Trade," or sex business, romantic intrigue, and even run-ins with the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia. Though there is little real analysis of their financial dealings and how they ultimately changed the rules of finance in Asia, this entertaining page turner does offer a glimpse into a world little explored in print until now. --Shawn Carkonen

From Publishers Weekly

Though the names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent, this is a true story, containing all the ingredients of a great narrative—a main character the reader can relate to, an appealing love interest, money, danger, the need for acceptance, suspense and even the realization (in some form) of the American dream. Mezrich (Bringing Down the House) presents wanna-be financial star "John Malcolm," who accepts a nebulous job offer in Japan in the mid-1990s and leaves his middle-class New Jersey postcollege aimless existence for an adventure he might have dreamed of had he any idea of what the big boys' world of finance was really like. After hitting the ground at top speed from day one, John and his cohorts—all male, mostly Ivy League graduates—learn their way around the lucrative, fast-paced and legal-but-barely-palatable world of cowboy-style Asian market finance. In the process, they make millions (sometimes per trade) and pride themselves on knowing when to get in and how to spot their exit point. Their bottom line is all that matters; everything else—from emotion to opinion—is secondary. In a truly engaging look at how an innocent who thinks he knows the world does actually end up understanding a small but significant piece of it, Mezrich manages to incorporate solid journalism into a narrative that just plain works.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; First Edition edition (May 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006057500X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060575007
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (110 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #513,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm the author of nine books, at the moment, including Bringing Down The House, The True Story of Six MIT kids Who Took Vegas- which sort of made me a vegas expert. I live in Boston with my fiance and pug, Bugsy.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

(What's this?)

#56 in Kindle eBooks > Business & Investing

#79 in Books > Business & Investing

#56 in Kindle eBooks > Business & Investing

#79 in Books > Business & Investing

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not great July 6, 2004

By mynameisalreadyinuse

Format:Hardcover

I have mixed feelings about this book but the overwhelming one is disappointment. Underneath, there is a tremendous story that begs, and needs, to be told, but unfortunately Mr Mezrich, for whatever reason, does not tell it. Im a pop-history junkie and I work in the financial industry so I was doubly excited about this book. I was expecting a detailed, inside account of a little known slice of recent financial history, something akin to Liar's Poker. But what this book provides is far short of that expectation. For one, the names of all the main players and pertinent details of their lives, except for the big dogs who could not be disguised like Joe Jett or Nick Leeson, are altered so you never really grow an attachment or a bond to any of the characters. "John Malcolm", the main character, is a made up name. My first thought was that these guys were in to something so juicy that in order to protect their lives their true identities couldnt be revealed. Mezrich even says this. So Im waiting all book to find out what it was. At the end of it, I was still waiting. Sure the book gives you a peep into the wild, rock-star lives of these "hedge fund cowboys", but thats all you get, a peep. As far as I can tell, the main characters ran a hedge fund in Japan that may or may not have been funded by the Yakuza (the Japanese mob) and because the main guy who ran the fund was so feared in Japan and southeast Asia, they were able to acquire favors and inside info which allowed them to make a killing. But you never find out why a skinny pasty white ivy-league American guy is so feared in Japan. So the book in essence is a work of fiction based on factual data and thus in no way at all has any historical worth.... It's like a movie thats "based" on actual events - its flashy and entertaining, but it has to be in order to sell. The true events are similar and there is some overlap, but thats it. So where as in Liar's Poker, you learn about the actual guys on Wall Street in their actual firms doing the deeds that altered history, in Ugly Americans, you get small pieces that pique your attention and get you hungry but never really satisfy your appetite.

Plus its such a fast and easy read, that I finished it in 2 days.

Shawn Carkonen's review for Amazon says it best "Though there is little real analysis of their financial dealings and how they ultimately changed the rules of finance in Asia, this entertaining page turner does offer a glimpse into a world little explored in print until now." I was expecting the analysis of their dealings and its effect on the Asian financial markets, as well as the lifestyle portion. It was entertaining, and it is something that has never been in print before, but there is a lot that still could be put to print. Read more ›

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun book, some information August 5, 2005

By Brian Harnett

Format:Hardcover

I work in FX trading and I loved this book, unlike the previous reviewer. I also though Mezrich did a good job at giving a cursory explaination of the hedge fund industry and trading. Is it perfect? No, but hey, there are many books written on the industry, this is a story about a person within the industry. Also, they don't give Athletic scholarships to people at Ivies, but they do give academic scholarships to grossly underqualified individuals. It happens, maybe not that often, but it does. Also, Michael Lerch (Malcom) lives in Hawaii. So Bermuda obviously being a cover for the real location...

Overall, great book, fun read, but not overly technical.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars good fiction June 1, 2004

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Its billed as a non-fiction book of finance in the "wild east" but its really a nice work of fiction that's really about the personal story of an American living in Japan and his life in bars and strip clubs. If you know anything about trading or hedge funds, there isn't enought to satisfy you, but its a nice backdrop to the one-dimentinal character's story. Definately a quick fast fun read...sure to be a movie. But don't read it as a work of non-fiction finance or insights into investing. I reccomend it just as a fun fast summer book.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Just Ugly February 27, 2005

By Connecticut Cowboy

Format:Hardcover

I was excited to read this book: 1) the same author as the compelling Bringing Down the House, and 2) a plot about hedge funds -- a topic of personal and professional interest to me. The excitement dwindled fast.

Ben Mezrich is a very average writer. He tries too hard at times to describe a different world, only to lose all crediblity in the eyes of those actually familiar with that world. He doesn't trust the imagination (or intelligence) of his reader, whom he constantly talks down -- perhaps a Harvard-learned trait.

Mezrich needs to get over his lovefest for Ivy league schools and their students. People who attend the Ivies are smart, but so too are the students of another 50 or so US institutions. It gets sickening after a while to read his constant, self-congratulatory fawning over the Ivies. (For the record, I have met far fewer people in the hedge fund world from the Ivies than I have from schools like UVA, Michigan, and Chicago.)

The plot of Ugly Americans seems very forced. If someone had told me this story over dinner, I certainly wouldn't have felt compelled to turn it into a book or a movie. The details don't hold together at all, and even if they did, they wouldn't be fascinating either to those versed or unversed with hedge fund strategies.

Overall, this book didn't disappoint me strictly because of Mezrich's superficial understanding or explanation of hedge fund strategies. It disappointed me because it is poorly written and weakly characterized. It disappointed me because it wasted my scarcest resource, free time. It disappointed me because I really did enjoy BDTH, but now my view of that compelling read is tarnished too.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding and fun book to read July 1, 2004

By SHAOLIN_TIGER

Format:Hardcover

Not sure how much of the book is fiction and how much real, but it does make a fun and exciting reading. I counldnt put it down and was behind on rest of my assignments becuase I had to finish this book. Reads like a very exciting and fun fiction . If you like life in investment banking and finance and are not too stuck on every technical detail then you will be entertained by this story.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good fiction but lousy finance October 17, 2005

By Atherton Reader

Format:Hardcover

Good fiction and enjoyed it like a John Grisham book minus the heart pounding experience. Its not often that you find a fiction that covers finance, as a subject material, by an author, who is familiar with the jargon and environment. Like Scott Turow writing about fiction in legal settings, it covers the hedge fund world in Japan with some degree of familiarity.

However, similar to many other reviewers' comments, I was disappointed with several incorrect and weak areas in the book. Based loosely on stories of Michael Lerch in Japan, there are several superficial observations about Japan and financial markets. Gas Panic in Roppongi has been there since the beginning of time and is merely a tourist trap for traveling writers. Same is true about Soapland, but a lot more expensive. At the time of the book, index arb trading was pretty much wiped out by electronic interfaces in Asia (Hong Kong was the last to convert to fully automated electronic trading in '00).

For successful traders in Japan, there are many more settings in Japan than the author knows. In the countryside like Nikko (north), Shimoda (south), or Yuzawa (west), several well known foreign and domestic players have some of the finest retreats. That doesn't even begin to cover the colorful areas around Nara or Hiroshima. But of course, these retreats and eventful corners of Japan neither have the sizzling geisha stories nor the drama of yakuza gangsters around every street corner. And, it would take the author a little more research than just a few bars and train rides in Tokyo.

In short, entertaining fiction to read, but C+ on the finance topic and research.