Money Mavericks

Some call them 'grotesque', others 'absolutely crazy bodies', and still more refer to them as 'hellish': hedge fund managers are stealthy, wealthy and tend to avoid the spotlight. But is this fair? Read on to find out.

Money Mavericks: Confessions of a Hedge Fund Manager charts the founding, seemingly interminable rise and eventual closure of a fund which operated in London during the febrile years of 2002 to 2008. Shedding light on the incredible inside workings of hedge funds, it's a tale of a bubble industry in a bubble town during the bubble years. It tells the story of some very smart people who were trying to do something that was very incredible hard: beat the market. If they failed, the repercussions would be swift and severe. If they succeeded, the rewards would be massive.

• Part One: Getting ready for Holte Capital
  1. Becoming a hedge
  2. Taking the plunge
  3. Starting a hedge fund
  4. On the road
  5. Limping to launch
• Part Two: Becoming the real deal
  6. Mickey Mouse Fund
  7. Breaking through
  8. Scaling up and meeting the Godfather
  9. The real deal
  10. Being corporate
  11. Activist investor
  12. A day in the life
• Part Three: On the front line
  13. Getting fully examined
  14. Blood in the streets
  15. Edge
  16. Made it?
  17. Friends and competition
  18. Making your commissions count
  19. Are we worth it?
• Part Four: The fast road down
  20. Feeling grim
  21. A bad day
  22. A bad run
  23. Going home
  24. Rethinking Holte Capital
  25. Are hedge funds really safe places for your money?

A boring book, that only proves the egolomanic ways of many business school graduates that goes on to finance work. The most glaring thing in this book is that this so called hotshot manages to make the same mistakes many entrepreneurs does, and he still don't get it! To create a lasting company, you need more than a belief in your superiority! You really need a business plan, a business model and some (sometimes a lot of) experience. Any half-moron MBA-student (and a lot of non-MBAs as well) can create a company that survives 3-5 years. It is the period after the first 5-7 years that prove if you have lasting value, which this moronic idíot can't even contemplate, but instead blames circumstances, and too low risk in the fund…

Pretty meaningless, unless you WANT to believe in the poor schmuck.

Two hours of my life wasted, and for what? To prove what I already knew after having worked at an investment bank: the world is full of arrogant idiots, and (unfortunately) the morons that WANTS to believe in them!