I had been in derivatives for over 25 years. Many traders hadn't been born when I stumbled accidentally into the arcane world of derivatives trading. The Indonesians were at the fag end of that career. How did I get there? I had followed the money. I had ridden the tide and currents of financial markets. I had not known very much then. Even now I only knew the many unknowns. How did I get here? It was a very long story. Send Traders, Guns and Money is that storyŚ..
Warren Buffet once labelled derivatives financial weapons of mass destruction. Unlike the military kind, financial WMD are not hard to find. Many great companies use them. These businesses use derivatives to make money or protect them from risk. Its a simple case of greed or fear. Or is it?
In derivatives, whoever you are, there are things that you dont know that you dont know. These are the real risks of derivatives. Theyre generally left to the client to discover. So, if youre entering the dazzling world of derivatives, ask yourself this: What do I know? What do I need to know? What dont I know? What am I doing?
You can find the answers in Traders, Guns & Money, a sensational and controversial first-person account of the business of derivatives trading and the financial products industry in the spirit of Liars Poker. It is a true insiders view of the business of trading and marketing derivatives for a living. It details the nature of the business, the players, how money is made and lost, and the deceptions that underlie the entire process.
Funny and poignant, and written in a wry and wickedly comic style, the book provides the ordinary reader with an insight into the seeming madness that underlies financial markets and the out-of-control process that is trading in complex financial products that few understand.
Traders, Guns & Money throws light on the culture, games, and pure deceptions played out every day in trading rooms around the world, and played out with other peoples money. It describes the processes by which a small group of gifted, if avaricious, individuals parlay their knowledge of the arcane world of financial products into wealth, leaving shareholders, clients, regulators, and the tax paying ordinary public to bear most of the risk.
This is the story of how one set of clients discovered the perils of unknowns in a derivatives deal. This tale will leave you amazed, and this book will make it all clear.In the sometimes dazzling world of derivatives, Traders Guns & Money shows you how we got here and tells it how it is. Go on, follow the money.
An accessible companion and a wise counsel, Traders, Guns & Money weaves together three core themes:
Known unkowns: if youre entering the dazzling world of derivatives, ask yourself this: What do I know? What do I need to know? What dont I know? What am I doing? This book will make it all clear.
Follow the money: an insiders, expert witness account of the rise and rules of the world of derivatives. This book will show you how we got here and tell it how it is
Send traders guns & money: the story of how one set of clients discovered the perils of unknowns in a derivatives deal . This tale will leave you amazed, but wiser.
"Ever since Warren Buffett memorably described derivatives as "financial weapons of mass destruction" there has been a thriller waiting to be written about them. Derivatives have frightened otherwise right-thinking people for some time. In part this reflects a natural tendency to fear what we do not understand." Financial Times
As gripping as a mystery novel but as informative as a text book. The author keeps you turning the page with stories from the sell side and the buy side of derivatives.
A must read for any finance student!
"Traders, guns, and money"
Written By: J. Hastings
Reads like a 007 license to steal novel. I thought I knew something about how money moves around.
"Rumsfeldian "Unknown Unknowns" and Steven Mallory's "drooling beast""
Written By: J. Thomas
Das starts off with a seemingly improbable story of an Indonesian Noodle maker trying to extricate itself out of currency swaps gone awry. He ends with an hilarious Gridiron style roast of the Rogue Trader. But between these irreverential pages one may find renewed respect for financial risk management with a view towards the "Unknown Unknowns" of Rumsfeldian fame. While rich in anecdotes, Das shows little curiosity as to why the Rogue Trader phenomenon has grown exponentially in recent decades (both in occurrences as well as scale). And it parallels the growth in the size/scale of the Government. These "Unknown Unknowns" are really Steven Mallory's "drooling beast" in the Fountainhead.
Separately, Das cites the following factoid about Kiyoshi Ito:
"Ito was an eccentric Japanese mathematician who later did not remember deriving the eponymous technique at all."
Ito died Nov 10th, 2008 at the age of 93. Mathematicians are indeed long-lived; but their theoretical offerings are immortal.
"What audience is this book for?"
Written By: Sneezer Tulane
I can save you a lot of time by summarizing the book. Derivatives are crazy complex. The customers don't understand them. The sellers are con men.
Now imagine your long-winded, boring uncle. He's telling that same story over and over again. And, to render it duller, he gives no real details of the parties and the transaction. He assumes you understand derivatives but you don't so you're clueless about what's going on. Except that it's the same long story, over and over.
This is your basic "bad boy" book -- I, the author, was a bad boy, I fleeced the suckers. But I'm not to give the reader a framework for understanding what was going on.
"credit default swap"
Written By: J. Klem
You'll know what a credit swap is by the time you've finished the book. Be prepared to google some terms at the beginning if you're not a trader. You'll be able to hold forth like a fed chairman or a treasury secretary by the end.