Skip to content
FREE SHIPPING ON ALL DOMESTIC ORDERS $35+
FREE SHIPPING ON ALL US ORDERS $35+
A Demon of Our Own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils of Financial Innovation - Paperback | Diverse Reads

A Demon of Our Own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils of Financial Innovation

Availability:
in stock, ready to be shipped
Save 0% Save 0%
$19.00
$19.00 - $19.00
$19.00
$18.99
$18.99 - $18.99
$18.99
Inside markets, innovation, and risk

Why do markets keep crashing and why are financial crises greater than ever before? As the risk manager to some of the leading firms on Wall Street-from Morgan Stanley to Salomon and Citigroup-and a member of some of the world's largest hedge funds, from Moore Capital to Ziff Brothers and FrontPoint Partners, Rick Bookstaber has seen the ghost inside the machine and vividly shows us a world that is even riskier than we think. The very things done to make markets safer, have, in fact, created a world that is far more dangerous. From the 1987 crash to Citigroup closing the Salomon Arb unit, from staggering losses at UBS to the demise of Long-Term Capital Management, Bookstaber gives readers a front row seat to the management decisions made by some of the most powerful financial figures in the world that led to catastrophe, and describes the impact of his own activities on markets and market crashes. Much of the innovation of the last 30 years has wreaked havoc on the markets and cost trillions of dollars. A Demon of Our Own Design tells the story of man's attempt to manage market risk and what it has wrought. In the process of showing what we have done, Bookstaber shines a light on what the future holds for a world where capital and power have moved from Wall Street institutions to elite and highly leveraged hedge funds.

ISBN-13: 9780470393758

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Wiley

Publication Date: 11-24-2008

Pages: 304

Product Dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

Richard Bookstaber ran an equity hedge fund at FrontPoint Partners and was the director of risk management at Ziff Brothers Investments and at Moore Capital Management, one of the largest hedge funds in the world. He served as the managing director in charge of firm-wide risk management at Salomon Brothers and was a member of Salomon's powerful Risk Management Committee. Mr. Bookstaber also spent ten years at Morgan Stanley in quantitative research and as a proprietary trader, concluding his tenure there as Morgan Stanley's first market risk manager. He is the author of three books and scores of articles on finance topics ranging from options theory to risk management. Bookstaber received a PhD in economics from MIT. He now works at a hedge fund in Connecticut.

Read an Excerpt

Click to read or download

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xvii

About the Author xix

CHAPTER 1 ~ Introduction: The Paradox of Market Risk 1

CHAPTER 2 ~ The Demons of ’87 7

CHAPTER 3 ~ A New Sheriff in Town 33

CHAPTER 4 ~ How Salomon Rolled the Dice and Lost 51

CHAPTER 5 ~ They Bought Salomon, Then They Killed It 77

CHAPTER 6 ~ Long-Term Capital Management Rides the Leverage Cycle to Hell 97

CHAPTER 7 ~ Colossus 125

CHAPTER 8 ~ Complexity, Tight Coupling, and Normal Accidents 143

CHAPTER 9 ~ The Brave New World of Hedge Funds 165

CHAPTER 10 ~ Cockroaches and Hedge Funds 207

CHAPTER 11 ~ Hedge Fund Existential 243

Conclusion: Built to Crash? 255

Notes 261

Index 273