More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of the New Elite: Amazon.co.uk: Sebastian Mallaby: Books

Review

More Money than God shines a fascinating light on what is still the most obscure route to becoming a billionaire... --Roger Lowenstein, author of The End of Wall Street

Sebastian Mallaby takes us into the secretive world of hedge funds and the result is a wonderful story and an education in finance. --Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post American World

...crackling good read. --Dr. Alan S. Blinder, Professor of Economics, Princeton University, and Former Vice Chairman, Federal Reserve

A fascinating history. Mallaby combines vivid description of key personalities and episodes with thoughtful discussion ...
--John Y. Campbell, Chairman of the Department of Economics, Harvard University, and Partner, Arrowstreet Capital

Journalist Mallaby (The World's Banker) gives unusually lucid explanations of hedge funds and their balancing of long and short positions with complex derivatives, but what really entrances him is their freedom from regulation, high leverage, and outsized performance incentives. In his telling, they empower a heroic breed of fund managers whose inspired stock picking, currency trading, and futures contracting outsmart the efficient market. In engrossing accounts of epic trades like George Soros's 1993 shorting of the pound sterling and John Paulson's shorting of subprime mortgages, the author celebrates hedge titans' charisma, contrarianism, and market insights. Mallaby contends that hedge funds benefit the economy by correcting market anomalies; because they put managers' money on the line and are small enough to fail, they are more prudent and less disruptive than heavily regulated banks. Mallaby's enthusiasm for an old-school capitalism of unfettered risk taking isn't always persuasive, but he does offer a penetrating look into a shadowy corner of high finance. (June)
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--Publishers Weekly

`An enormously satisfying book: a gripping chronicle of the cutting edge of the financial markets and a fascinating perspective on what was going on in these shadowy institutions as the crash hit' --Observer

`A splendid account of the ups and downs of an industry in which few of the twenty-something hedge-fund wannabes know their history. They, and meddling politicians, should read this book before they are condemned to repeat it' --Financial Times

`A superbly researched history of hedge-fund heroes stretching back to the 1950s, it is a fascinating tale of the contrarian and cerebral misfits who created successful, flexible businesses in an otherwise conventional financial world'
--Economist --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'The best account ever published of the economics, politics and adrenalin of these amazing firms. It shows why hedge funds dominate the world of finance and why the politicians who rail against them end up making them more powerful' Anatole Kaletsky 'A warts-and-all history of hedge funds...a splendid account of the ups and downs of an industry in which few of the twenty-something hedge-fund wannabes know their history. They, and meddling politicians, should read this book before they are condemned to repeat it' Financial Times 'An enormously satisfying book: a gripping chronicle of the cutting edge of the financial markets and a fascinating perspective on what was going on in these shadowy institutions as the crash hit' Observer 'A superbly researched history of hedge-fund heroes stretching back to the 1950s, it is a fascinating tale of the contrarian and cerebral misfits who created successful, flexible businesses in an otherwise conventional financial world' Economist

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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful

Great Book.... 16 Oct 2010

By DF

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. First and foremost its well written, with flowing prose and its told almost as a story rather than an academic text. So its a book you don't want to put down rather than a book you have to push yourself to pick up!

This book gives a great insight into what Hedge Funds really do and what the risks and rewards are. For this I would really recommend it. There are only two minor things I would be critical of. First, its entirely focused on the US. I know that international Hedge Funds are a recent development - but in the last 10 years, there have been some very large Hedge Funds outside the US. These are not mentioned. Secondly, the author may be suffering a little from Stockholm syndrome. I think he may have drank a little of the Hedge Fund kool-aid and this book isn't as balanced as it could be.

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

A gripping hedge fund history lesson 30 Aug 2010

By Rolf Dobelli TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

As hedge funds increase in size, variety and number, they also exercise growing power over central banks and national governments, as well as companies and industries. Unfettered by a fixed investment philosophy, hedge fund managers bank on the flexibility to buy assets and sell them short as dynamic markets dictate. Some hedge funds have succeeded spectacularly and some have failed, such as those holding too many mortgage securities when the U.S. housing industry collapsed in 2007. But over its history, the hedge fund industry's performance has been remarkably good. Here, business journalist Sebastian Mallaby forcefully argues that hedge funds contribute to economic stability by chasing the true value of mispriced assets. His richly detailed book centers on the successes and occasional missteps of famous hedge fund managers, including such luminaries as Stanley Druckenmiller, Paul Tudor Jones II, Michael Steinhardt, Julian Robertson and George Soros. getAbstract recommends this book as a vivid introduction to hedge funds for those who are unfamiliar with them, and as a valuable, often entertaining, reference for financial professionals. And if you want to know even more, read the illuminating footnotes.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

Very interesting 31 Aug 2010

By Hakon

Very interesting historical account of the biggest star hedgefund managers since the 1960s to now, well researched and with many personal anecdotes and inside testimonies, and good high-level explanations of different funds' trading strategies returns in the past 40 years. I would recommend this to anyone seeking a better-than-usual introduction to hedge funds and how the industry got from inception to today.