FIASCO: Blood in the Water on Wall Street
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Review
"'Take it from us that F.I.A.S.C.O. is absolute dynamite... Partnoy doesn't take prisoners.' - Euroweek 'Guns, booze and bloodlust: the truth about high finance.' - Sunday Times 'F.I.A.S.C.O. is a ringside seat on the nastiest and most important game being played on Wall Street today. Think of derivatives trading as a blood sport, with the unsuspecting consumer as prey. Read this book, or else...' - Michael Lewis, author of Liar's Poker."
Book Description
Huge bestseller about the cut-throat trading world returns with gripping new material.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
I sat by the phone and willed it to ring. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
I sat by the phone and willed it to ring. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
In interesting book, covering very technical subject matter. Partnoy goes to some lengths to explain the instruments he was trading, but one gets the impression he is really trying to convey how complex they are more than impart understanding.
Much of the book is delivered in the style of a bemused rant by the author, clearly shocked and frustrated by the conduct he saw around him and by the ease with which he abandoned principles and joined in.
Partnoy has become a hate figure within his industry which [...] suggests his home-truths are not well received by some.
I can't help wondering if, at one point in the book, he is describing the planting of seeds which may have helped precipitate the collapse of the Argentinian banking system a few days ago ...
Read it and see what you think.
Much of the book is delivered in the style of a bemused rant by the author, clearly shocked and frustrated by the conduct he saw around him and by the ease with which he abandoned principles and joined in.
Partnoy has become a hate figure within his industry which [...] suggests his home-truths are not well received by some.
I can't help wondering if, at one point in the book, he is describing the planting of seeds which may have helped precipitate the collapse of the Argentinian banking system a few days ago ...
Read it and see what you think.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In this cynical book (`traders ripping their client's face off') Frank Partnoy exposes the sharp practices of the herd of Wall Street brokers.
With such outlandish names as PERLS (Principal Exchange Rate Linked Security), PLUS (Peso-Linked U.S. Dollar Secured Notes), BIDS (Brazilian Indexed Dollar Securities), `quantoed constant maturity swap yield curve flattening trade' or `leveraged-indexed-inverse-floating-dual currency structured notes', brokers disguised the underlying risks of `emerging market" currencies or of wild interest rate swings for their `dumb' clients who bought their `miraculous' high coupon products.
By paying rating agencies top dollar fees, they even got triple A ratings for their high risk derivative products.
Other policies were, `sell your mother for a basis point' or if the customers were in trouble (called `distressed buyers') `try to convince them to `double-down' on their losses', in order to generate new juicy fees for the company.
At some point, one trader had a risk of 2 million UD$ per basis point change in the interest rate.
What were the results of these `strategies': monumental commissions for the brokerage houses, tremendous bonuses for the traders and billions of billions of losses for the customers (e.g., when National Banks didn't or couldn't continue to `manage' their local currencies).
What was the reaction of the US government in the face of those blatant rip-offs: less (!), not more regulation of the derivative markets. The political campaign contributions did their work.
One saw the ultimate result of these totally free market policies and their SIVs (Structured Investment Vehicles) a few years after the publishing of this book, when all banks all over the place nearly collapsed and when the `capital markets' system had to be saved by the public's tax money.
This astonishing book is a must read for all `investors' and for all those who want to understand the financial world we live in.
N.B. The Orange County story is better explained in P. Jorion's `Big Bets gone bad' and the story of Nick Leeson in his book `Rogue Trader'.
With such outlandish names as PERLS (Principal Exchange Rate Linked Security), PLUS (Peso-Linked U.S. Dollar Secured Notes), BIDS (Brazilian Indexed Dollar Securities), `quantoed constant maturity swap yield curve flattening trade' or `leveraged-indexed-inverse-floating-dual currency structured notes', brokers disguised the underlying risks of `emerging market" currencies or of wild interest rate swings for their `dumb' clients who bought their `miraculous' high coupon products.
By paying rating agencies top dollar fees, they even got triple A ratings for their high risk derivative products.
Other policies were, `sell your mother for a basis point' or if the customers were in trouble (called `distressed buyers') `try to convince them to `double-down' on their losses', in order to generate new juicy fees for the company.
At some point, one trader had a risk of 2 million UD$ per basis point change in the interest rate.
What were the results of these `strategies': monumental commissions for the brokerage houses, tremendous bonuses for the traders and billions of billions of losses for the customers (e.g., when National Banks didn't or couldn't continue to `manage' their local currencies).
What was the reaction of the US government in the face of those blatant rip-offs: less (!), not more regulation of the derivative markets. The political campaign contributions did their work.
One saw the ultimate result of these totally free market policies and their SIVs (Structured Investment Vehicles) a few years after the publishing of this book, when all banks all over the place nearly collapsed and when the `capital markets' system had to be saved by the public's tax money.
This astonishing book is a must read for all `investors' and for all those who want to understand the financial world we live in.
N.B. The Orange County story is better explained in P. Jorion's `Big Bets gone bad' and the story of Nick Leeson in his book `Rogue Trader'.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
At first sight, this book looks like a 1990's redux of Liar's Poker and - compared to that - dwells a bit too hard just on the author's feelings and not enough on the many interesting figures of Morgan Stanley. A better job could have been done there. Where this book is unbeatable is in providing plenty of real-life examples of biased, arrogant and overconfident behaviors both inside and outside Morgan Stanley. If anybody still believed in market efficiency and investors' rationality, this book is for sure a great reality check. Also laudable is the Author's effort to explain very complex derivative products in reasonable English.
You will fully enjoy this reading especially if you have worked in a trading room before.
You will fully enjoy this reading especially if you have worked in a trading room before.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
on par with liars poker......
a brilliant account of frank's career in high finance. this, like liars poker, gives a great review of what it was like to work for one of the largest banks in the early to mid... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Gcrikey
How financial products work!
This book has given me the best explanation yet of how financial products work and how they can be destructive. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mike_Lisbon
Interesting anecdotes
Basically an extended magazine article. Lots on funny and entertaining stories but not as much serious analysis as I would have liked. Read more
Published 17 months ago by The Emperor
WITH EYES WIDE OPEN OR CLOSED?
Frank Partnoy, nowadays a much respected academic, Director of The University of San Diego's Center for Corporate & Securities Law, writes of his days working in the Derivatives... Read more
Published 21 months ago by DOPPLEGANGER
Essential reading. Highly recommended.
This book is about "derivatives", which are the financial products which recently brought the entire world economy to the brink of collapse. Read more
Published on 3 May 2010 by Philip Mayo
The chickens have now come home to roost
I worked in the City for nearly two years in the late 90s. It was a horrid experience. I found that area around Liverpool Street soulless, the firm I worked for was home to grossly... Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2008 by William Cohen
Partnoy writes like a dream.
This is the best book ever about lies, deceit and lust for money in the financial markets. Partnoy writes like a dream. I keep giving it to people to read. Read more
Published on 6 Nov 2006 by Julia Gardiner
Partnoy's complaint
This is an entertaining dirt disher, but has no other merit. If you think that life in a Wall Street firm is really like this - these days, at any rate - think again. Read more
Published on 21 Jan 2004 by O. Buxton
...the industry is different now.
Being in the industry myself (Equity Derivatives Sales/Structurer) I picked up this book with great enthusiasm. I was, however, a bit dissapointment. Read more
Published on 7 Jan 2004 by Adi Rajguru
Trying too hard to be like Liars' Poker
Put plainly, it is not as exciting or as well written as the brilliant Liars' Poker, nor as like-able. Read more
Published on 28 Dec 2001
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