Hedge Hunters: Hedge Fund Masters on the Rewards, the Risk, and the Reckoning Reviews

• Hedge needlessly killed: A Put Option

  
  By A2N786KHIFCKJ8 on 2007-10-22
  I'm not sure who Katherine's target audience is, but I know it's not me. If you like breathy prose ("..boyish good looks...") and inflight magazine profiles (23 career profiles in 200 pages), then you're going to have a rollicking good time. If you are looking for in depth discussions of various trading strategies by market luminaries then look elsewhere. What you get is a bunch of anecdotes relating, "How I became a hedge fund manager".
  
  This book falls between two markets not delivering to either. If you are new to trading you are going to need a reference to interpret the jargon. If you have some experience you're going to think that the author doesn't know what hedging is (the trades described are the traditional searches for value based on fundamentals).
  
  Hedging is an investment strategy that utilizes an understanding of risk and how it is priced into the current value of an instrument. A traditional fund manager is generally looking for value, that is, looks at the fundamentals of a business and tries to assess if the stock has been undervalued by the market, whereas a hedge fund manager is looking for value in pricing of a derivative instrument that factors in volatility, like a stock option contract, and takes positions on both long and short sides to make money. This is a rather abstract concept, so Katherine either doesn't understand this or couldn't be bothered to explain it to her readership.
  
  Katherine seems to be a frustrated novelist and just didn't ask enough of the right questions to make this book worth the cover price. I would have rated the book higher, but for the fact that the book makes promises on the cover that it doesn't deliver. In a bargain bucket near you shortly (excuse the pun). A book you'll put down and only pick up to swat flies.
  
  Better books on investment are Investments (6th Edition) and Options, Futures and Other Derivatives (6th Edition).
  
  

• Long Access; Short Methodology

  
  By A23SB6VGGB9E8U on 2007-10-27
  Although the author provides rare access to the thinking of 25 hedge fund great, she often misses the mark.
  
  Hedge Fund managers are notorious for high returns and low profiles. Katherine Burton, who covers the hedge fund industry for Bloomberg News, provides the reader with access to these legends, but often fails to plumb the depths of their thinking.
  
  The book is well-written. But I do not particularly care that the manager has boyish good-looks, is dressed in a suit or has holes in his blue jeans. From a book that carries this steep a price tag, I expect research methodologies, tips on mental preparation, trading tactics and logistics.
  
  If you want to read breezy profiles, this book will suffice. If, however, you want to get under the covers, I would opt for [ASIN:0471794473 Inside the House of Money: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Profiting in the Global Markets]] by Steven Drobny.
  
  

• This is a book about investment style, not specific trading techniques.

  
  By A1A5KUIIIHFF4U on 2007-10-25
  This is a book about investment style, not specific trading techniques.
  
  I enjoyed this book because it is more inspirational than educational, it is a good book for a beginner investor or trader, if you want a volume on trading techniques consider other works such as Way of the Turtle: The Secret Methods that Turned Ordinary People into Legendary Traders or even Jim Cramer's Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World.
  
  Burton is able to get the hedge fund managers to discuss some of their greatest losses and failures but also the lessons they learned, she makes a point to share these experiences so hopefully the reader can benefit and avoid the same mistakes.
  
  This book wasn't a hard or boring read for myself and my associates who just read a few random chapters, the author goes into enough detail about every managers background and beginnings to help the reader understand the perspective of their successful money management.
  
  Let's be clear, a hedge fund manager isn't going to provide their proprietary trading techniques to the general public or to the reader of this book.
  
  Instead, this book will provide details of trading styles and after reading numerous profiles you'll notice some of the recurring themes of successful fund managers, which are:
  
  1. Disciplined entry and exits
  2. Avoiding margin borrowing
  3. Seek talented staff and smarter mentors
  4. When in doubt, stay out
  5. Being early is a euphemism for being wrong
  
  The author spends at least 10 pages on each profile, collecting inspiring words and anecdotal explanations to successful trading.
  
  Most of us will never have enough money to meet the minimum investment requirements of these fund managers, but we can still benefit from their experiences.
  
  

• More like "generality gatherer".

  
  By A11ED8O95W2103 on 2007-12-22
  I ordered this book actually thinking that I might gain some insights into how hedge funds work and perhaps to learn something about investing that I didn't already know. Instead I ended up reading a book that seemed just like one of those "market wizards" books from back in the 1980's.
  
  A generic hedge fund manager's bio might go like this. "Joe Money" grew up in an affluent family where he got interested in investing. Then he went to an exclusive college and got a job in a Wall Street company. A few years later he got to manage a fund, and then a few years later he left that company and started his own fund. Now he sits in an office decorated with (insert decorations here) and gives this advice:
  
  Be prepared to make mistakes.
  
  Know when to stick to your convictions and when to walk away (like Kenny Rogers in "The Gambler". Ya gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run.)
  
  The better you know the investment you're making, the greater your conviction will be.
  
  Don't stake more than a certain percentage of your portfolio on a single invesment. (Or, don't put all your eggs in one basket).
  
  Study the leadership of the company, not just the financials.
  
  Buy into industries that everyone else hates.
  
  Look for new products that everyone has to have. Buy stock in the company that makes them.
  
  Seek out companies whose shares are undervalued compared to earnings and other financial measures.
  
  And there's more. More generalities that I've read several times before and have appeared in investing books for decades. I was rather dissappointed.
  
  
  
  

• Figure It Out Yourself

  
  By A3A0JV7YFWN7E7 on 2007-10-23
  Hedge Hunters is the best book about the hedge fund industry to date...and likely a classic. Katherine Burton, who covers hedge funds every day on her beat at Bloomberg News, is by far the most plugged in and skilled writer working in financial journalism today. It is well known and makes sense that the best hedge fund managers are famous for not wanting to talk to any reporter, for any reason, ever. Period. The fact Ms. Burton got the cream of the current crop to sit down with her tells you they she has earned their respect. And, in writing this book, she has earned mine.
  
  Of course...I love data, charts, diagrams, profit and loss reports, exotic mathematics, and complexity. But there are hundreds, if not thousands, of books available to meet my needs in these ares. Hedge Hunters is different. It rightfully focuses on the human dimension of the hedge fund industry - the character attributes of those at the top of it and their thought processes. It provides a much needed break from the scores of entrancing, dizzying, but ultimately forgettable books about finance. It rightfully elevates people over formulas, ideas over equations, and wisdom over information.
  
  Ms. Burton is a very gifted writer. She is extremely talented at observation, description and story telling. She has a very wry wit, and is often hilarious. Hedge Hunters reminds me of Michael Lewis's "Liar's Poker"...absent the testosterone and ego saturated hijinks of his subjects.
  
  You'll have to do some work to extract all the valuable guidance Hedge Hunters can provide. But, to me, that's what reading...and life... is all about.
  
  
  
• BizFinGuy
  By A1VS5UZ9C6NW3J on 2007-10-23
  This is a wonderful look at the world of hedge funds and the players who built an industry. Ms. Burton has achieved unusual and deep access to many of the leading and formative figures of the past 20 years. It helps that she has a great understanding of the hedge world and that these luminaries trust her enough to be frank and informative -- in ways not usually associated with this asset class. Ms. Burton's easy writing style and disarming way with her subjects has resulted in a very readable and interesting book.
  
  
• "Hedge Hunters" : access to fund managers' investment styles, life stories, hedge fund business models.
  By A11CNDGVEUA54O on 2007-11-03
  Katherine Burton (Bloomberg News) has produced a classic, by interviewing hedge fund masters, that is informatory, entertaining and revelatory. Eighteen chapters cover as many hedge fund managers including stars like Julian Robertson, Jim Chanos. Marc Lasry of Avenue Capital merits a chapter, as does Craig Effron of Scoggin. There is a fantastic account of how Effron bought $150mm debt of the Republic of Congo from Brazil at $.05 on the dollar, spent $11mm in legal bills and collected $70mm from the reluctant Congolese.
  We learn that John Armitage does not like to short stocks and that Effron prefers buying puts on the S&P 500 index, since "fifteen stocks that you short, if you do, could all stay put on a day when the index drops 2%".
  
  You get a unique insight into how some fund managers alter the fee strucutre (1% and 20% or 1% and 15%) and the implications of the make-whole clause on staff retention, the ability to pay salaries, and to stay afloat.
  
  A fantastic introduction, based on views of Mark Yusko, rate attributes that it takes to be the best in the business: Independence, Guts, Humility and intellectual honesty, Connections, Ambitions, Smarts, Respect for Employees, Integrity. Interestingly there are red flags too: "The Red Ferrari Syndrome", "Calling In Rich", "Personal Tragedy".
  
  This is much more than a investment classic. It is a entertaining and readable account, (assuming very little knowledge of financial jargon besides what a reader of the Wall Street Journal or Bloomberg News would be familiar with,) providing unprecedented access to the business models that comprise successful funds with consistent returns over decades. Top managers' views of risk control, or "looking out for what is around the corner" in addition to intense study of "fundamentals for stock-picking" are presented. It is this awareness of risk and leverage that separate the funds that blow-up from the funds that consistently perform.
  
  The quality of research and the standard of writing is high.
  
  This book is to hedge fund managers and to this decade what Jack Schwager's "Market Wizards" was to option traders and the last decade.
  
  Highly enjoyable, and a pleasure to recommend.
  
  
• Great read. Fantastic access. A rare glimpse into this world
  By AU8VHWCX5O7MB on 2007-10-23
  What a great read! Hedge Hunters provides a rare glimpse into the world of some of the most influential investors of our time. I really like how the book alternates between the "Masters" (Boone Pickens, Michael Steinhardt, Lee Ainslie, etc.) and their "picks" -- the up and coming fund investors.
  
  These guys typically don't talk -- and when they do, they don't reveal much. This book, though, provides interesting insight into how they think, how they invest and they got where they are. This book could have been dry, but Burton brings the hedge fund managers to life. For instance, in her chapter on Craig Effron, Burton writes about how Effron's search for gains lead him to Chinese equities, Russian Vouchers and Zaire gov't debt. Then, she starts quoting him on how he's not afraid to go outside their area of expertise. "I want to go where the risk is, but I want to understand it. I'll watch a dog piss for a dime if it will go to 20 cents." Great stuff.
  
  And the book is chock full of telling anecdotes and great insight. Highly recommended!
  
  
• Interesting, accessible information...
  By AAJGD1K7CPJTD on 2007-12-03
  I thought Katherine Burton's book was pretty good - originally I was hesitant because the whole subject matter sounded so dry and highfalutin. However, I was pleasantly surprised that everything was educational, interesting and accessible.
  
  There are ten pages or so devoted to each chosen individual and so over these 18 chapters we get spend time with one or two companies & see how they operate. In other words, what is their background (of the founders), their philosophy and so-on. Some of these funds managed by individuals (and their teams) have investments in the billions of dollars.
  
  I was surprised to hear that not all of them hedged at all - some never even buy puts because they don't feel they need that kind of protection. Furthermore, many are into absolutely everything (stocks, commodities, debt instruments etc) although they do specialize in areas of expertise such as agriculture or energy. Some funds sell short, others won't touch that with a barge pole.
  
  And none of them seem to be shy either. They not only discuss their triumphs but also their abject failures. They're also all pretty consistent regarding their rewards - in return for (say) a 1.5% management fee, a reached target of 10% or so return on the Fund earns them a whopping 20% incentive fee! Zoiks.
  
  All-in-all, a very educational read. And because each chapter is so relatively short, it made for an easy read. It seems as though the author got to spend a lot of time with each subject and they were pretty candid with her. The only interview I didn't enjoy that much was Josh Friedman & Mitch Julis (ch 10) because it felt as though they were putting on a PR-exercise... but at no time did I get that from the other interviewees.
  
  I think it helps if you have few basic ideas of finance but it is certainly not necessary to enjoy this book. The author is very good at dumbing-down some of the more complex subjects so as to make sense to us individuals.
  
  
• Cloak and swagger
  By A3U41P0AV1WST4 on 2007-11-16
  These days, hedge fund management is increasingly more present in the public eye. Grand Central terminal in New York funnels hordes of reverse commuters from Manhattan to Greenwich, CT. The Economist magazine publishes special reports on the state of the industry. MBA students apply for hedge funds positions en masse. Increasing buzz about hedge fund managers, the magnitude of fortunes they made doing what millions of others do - investing in publicly traded securities - and the secrecy surrounding them must have created a surging wave of public interest.
  
  The book largely surfs the wave. It is a breezy account on 18 fund managers, some 10 pages devoted to each, briefly describing their investment styles. The author sets out to find what makes a good hedge fund manager. This quest does not bring notable results. The list of some common qualities among these managers (independent thinking, guts, determination to knowing more about the trade than anyone else, etc.) appears less than groundbreaking: one probably could have guessed them before reading the book. The jacket's promise to show "market giants reveal the secrets of their smartest investments" remains unfulfilled: they may be sharing the difficulty of going against the grain, or the belief in pushing investment research to great depths, but they are hardly revealing much of their thought process. The writing is even, though fairly bland. Despite the book's good intentions, it does not quite manage to leave a memorable impression.
  
  
• A Tour of Enduring Hedge Funds, Their Founders, and Their Strategies.
  By A3UPYGJKZ0XTU4 on 2007-12-10
  Bloomberg News reporter Katherine Burton picks up where Jack Schwager's "Market Wizard" series left off by introducing us to successful hedge fund managers in "Hedge Hunters". A mystique surrounds the hedge fund industry in the wake of their increasing number, 2400 in 2007, and press coverage, so this is a good time to peek behind the curtain. To be clear, Burton uses "hedge fund" to refer to any private investment fund where managers are paid on a performance basis, as has come to be the common use of the term, not only funds that literally hedge. "Hedge Hunters" looks at 11 well-established "Masters" and 11 lesser-known "Picks" whom the Masters admire and expect will succeed in the long term.
  
  Each article or chapter is based on an interview with the subject, but the profiles are not presented in interview format. Burton weaves the managers' personal and professional backgrounds into their trading philosophies, often in their own words. Because these people established their own funds, they are entrepreneurs as well as traders and investors, so the discussion often turns to the role that their staffs of traders and analysts play. Burton recounts their big wins, but no one seems afraid to talk about big losses, why they happened, and what they learned. There are no quants among these fund managers, which is probably a blessing, as these people don't mind telling us what they do.
  
  The 22 Hedge Hunters represent a wide swath of markets and trading styles. All manage funds that have thrived for at least 10 years, including all-stock funds, distressed debt funds, commodity funds, and multistrat funds. There are sector specialists and short sellers, long-short strategies, directional traders, and spread traders. I enjoy books of this kind, because they tell me about markets and financial instruments with which I have no experience. It's fascinating to learn what these funds specialize in and how they trade. "Hedge Hunters" is a tour of an industry transformed over the past decade by an explosion of new funds and by more conservative, institutional clients, seen through the eyes of some of its most noteworthy participants.
  
  
• Interesting People for Interesting Times
  By AWYTHUO7TVFBP on 2007-11-04
  I'm not an investment maven. Would that I had a few million in disposal income to hand over to one of these guys. I am, nonetheless, fascinated by risk-takers; their confidence and smarts--and the journeys that took them to Wall Street. It interests me that Lee Ainslie's years as a student at the traditional sounding Virginia Episcopal School where his father was headmaster likely contributed to making him the disciplined traditionalist he is today. And I couldn't help but smile when reading that Talmud scholar Jeffrey Schachter got the chutzpah to start his own firm from rapper LL Cool J. These are interesting people in an interesting business in interesting times. Meanwhile, the unique opportunity to get a peek at their investment strategies greatly added to my market knowledge. So maybe one day I'll have a portfolio big enough to go hedge hunting myself. Ms. Burton's clear and entertaining writing style sheds light on the new Masters of the Universe.
  
  
  
• Five for descriptions of the hedge fund personalities, three for content on the role of hedge funds in the American economy
  By A1S3C5OFU508P3 on 2007-11-23
  Hedge funds have made headlines in two ways over the past year with the second being a consequence of the first. Reported incomes and bonuses for hedge fund employees were substantial for the year 2006, which raised eyebrows and questions about the role of hedge funds in the American economy. The large numbers have served to interject hedge funds into the debate between the presidential candidates, which unfortunately tends to murk the issues regarding what hedge funds actually do.
  This book will not help in de-murking those issues, as it contains no analysis of the role that hedge funds play in the modern economy. Rather, it is a series of brief biographies of some of the major funds and their managers. If you are interested in learning about these people, then you will find it a fascinating book. However, if your goal is to learn anything beyond their exterior and superficial investing strategies, which you could find in a fund prospectus, then you will be disappointed.
  Interesting in the personal sense, yet dull and repetitive in the macroeconomic sense, this book is one where your response will depend almost totally on your interests. There is nothing about whether hedge funds serve a positive role in the modern economy or are just another tool for the wealthy to gain more wealth. If your interest is in the background and personalities of the major players in the hedge fund game, then I strongly recommend it.
  
  
  
• Profiles of 18+ hedge fund managers and how they became successful at practicing investment portfolio management.
  By A3KHFHJBCCECQH on 2007-11-23
  
  I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It provides a wonderful narrative about how to become and be a successful player in the Hudge Fund Industry. It includes descriptions of the attributes that can make a successful hedge fund manager. And it also includes the strategies various top portfolio managers have used to produce high rates of return. Since this is what the book set out to do, it is hard to knock it. The book is comprised of 18 chapters as follows:
  
  1. What it takes to be best
  2. A passion for performance
  3. Reasoned and unrattled
  4. An intolerance for losing
  5. A grip on risk
  6. A stock picker, pure and hardly simple
  7. The big time in small caps
  8. Energy stock hedge funds - the mentor
  9. Energy stock hedge funds - the mentored
  10. Debt hedge funds
  11. Leaving little to chance
  12. The phoenix phenomenon
  13. Fruits of first-hand knowledge
  14. Mastering a changing market
  15. Shutting down and starting up again
  16. Out on the short selling limb
  17. A manager's manager
  18. Newfound restraint
  
  Each of the above listed chapters are written as profiles of various successful hedge fund managers. Each manager had his own style at being successful. And this is why 18 different profiles could be used to create an outline structure for this book. Early on we are told that there is no single recipe for hedge fund managers to use to make money. And what works for one manager might not work for someone else who practices the business with a different set of skills.
  
  There are key attributes that most of the profiled individuals shared:
  
  >> Guts (risk taker)
  >> Independence (independent thinker)
  >> Humility and intellectual honesty
  >> Connections
  >> Ambition and smarts
  >> Respect for employees
  >> Integrity
  
  We're told that most hedge fund managers start out as some sort of apprentice. They pay their dues doing financial analysis work and picking stocks or other investment vehicles. After a while they figure they know how to do the "staff work" at an investment firm and want to make the real money by managing portfolios. They move out of the staff role and start managing and leading. Either they get promoted to partner where they work, or they quit their employment and go off to start their own firm. If the staffers who start their own gigs have the seven or nine attributes listed above, then they will probably be successful. And in a potentially lucrative business, success can mean highly successful.
  
  Although I enjoyed the book very much, and I thought it was very well written, I would have liked it better if there had been some coverage of how the "quirky, little known corner of the financial services industry" ("FSI") actually fits into the FSI. We are told that hedge funds are "private partnerships in which the manager bets on falling as well as rising prices of stocks, bonds, and other financial instruments and then takes a piece of the profits." But what do hedge funds actually do? What makes them quirky? 4 stars!
  
  
• A must read for any Investor - It is a book on investment disciplines and experiences
  By A2V0I904FH7ABY on 2007-12-04
  I have read a couple of investment books in the past, each of them are good in their own way. Benjamin Franklin, Peter Lynch ... each of them are gurus in specific style and strategy of investment.
  
  Where this book differs is that it is about interviews with Hedge fund managers who share their high level strategy, techniques and disciplines which made them who they are.
  
  Hedge fund managers come in all types
  - value investors oppurtunistic bears ...
  - different type of investment instruments - stocks, commodities, debt instruments, oil & gas futures ...
  - There are conservative fund managers who manage pension funds and there are aggresive managers who manage money for wealthy families
  
  The book exhaustively covers interviews with all types of hedge fund managers and gets to bottom of their heart to share their experiences. The author has done a tremendous job of talking to these guys and getting the information and putting it all in the right way.
  
  Rather than being critical of the author's style of writing, here is what I would take away from the book
  * There is a diverse range of investment strategies and style - make notes on each of these styles, study them and adapt them in day to day investing.
  * Almost all the hedge fund managers resonate one thought very clearly - if your trade is working against you - keep a stop loss and cover it up. Well, except for one hedge manager who had a different point of view - keeping a stop loss will make you lose potential long term candidates
  * A bit Contrary to the above statement - the hedge fund managers also suggest that if you are feeling confident about a position, stick with it. It would prove very costly sometimes (there is a discussion on shorting AOL) and could prove very lucrative sometimes (there is a discussion on shorting Surebeam technologies). And in the case of surebeam technologies, the particular hedge fund manager actually visited the factory facilities and shopfloors and shorted more of it. Well, good research paid in the end, rather than just saying that I will stick to my guns because I am right and the market is wrong - which can be a disaster unless proven with good groundwork.
  * Investment disciplines - There is one hedge fund manger who kept notes on each stock he bought. Before he started building a position, he would write notes on why he is buying this stock, what is the worst case that could go wrong and how could that be mitigated. Continually monitor the stock price and compare with the notes to keep correcting himself not to repate any mistakes
  * Team building - Almost all of them emphasize that a good mentor is required for any budding investor
  
  I would strong reccomend this book for anyone who is into any kind of investments/trading.
  
  
• Best Trading Book of 2007 - The "New" Market Wizards
  By AQ5VTL82VW14L on 2007-12-06
  The reward for the best trading book of 2007 goes to Hedge Hunters: Hedge Fund Masters on the Rewards, the Risk, and the Reckoning by Katherine Burton, a journalist with Bloomberg. Burton's book is an excellent resource, discussing the various strategies of almost a dozen players in the Markets. The book compares favorably to the classic Market Wizards, which it in some ways exceeds in terms of the quality of information written and depth of interviews.
  
  
  
• Mildly interesting, not as powerful as advertised.
  By ADY0QI5IENSLY on 2007-12-18
  From reading the back cover of this book, you get the idea that what you hold in your hands may be a powerful source revealing the secrets of hedge fund investing. Well, your hope couldn't be further from the truth. What is the 'secret' of hedge funds? What do these mysterious people know that we don't know? How do they really decide on what to invest in? and How do I get a piece of the pie? You won't find out by reading this book. I was disappointed in the lack of revelations found within. But maybe my expectations were too high. Should I really expect these people to reveal whatever 'secrets' are making them rich? All in all, practically nothing is revealed in this book that isn't common knowledge already, or blatantly obvious to anyone even remotely connected to the investing world.
  
  The book does, however, present very interesting and entertaining profiles of many top hedge fund managers. Each chapter reads something like an interview. Some managers reveal more about their personal strategies, some reveal less. Each, however, is described in detail as far as appearance and personalities. In this way, some of the mystique and secretiveness of the hedge fund business is overcome. By discovering that the people discussed in this book vary greatly in everything from beliefs to personal history, you at least gain the understanding that there isn't a certain type of person or membership in some mysterious organization required for getting into the field.
  
  I'd only recommend this book to anyone interested in character profiles for the fund managers discussed within. You're not going to learn a lot about hedge fund investing, much less learn any secrets of the business.
  
  
• A Peek Behind the Curtain of Oz!!!
  By A1AFKAV50TOB43 on 2007-12-21
  Hedge funds are so clouded in mystery and shrouded in secrecy that for most of us Joe Q Investors, reading Katherine Burton's excellent book Hedge Hunters will be not unlike lifting the curtain to see who is really the genius who pulls the strings that powers the great and all-powerful Wizard of Oz. In eighteen separate chapters, which basically amount to eighteen separate interviews of sucessful hedge fund managers, Burton thoroughly demystifies their world. She searches in vain for a recipe for running a successful hedge fund and instead finds eighteen separate individual success stories. She has made all of these men (I guess it's no big secret that the world of hedge funds, like Wall Street in general, is still testosterone-driven) seem very interesting and likeable. What I especially appreciate is that many of them took "the road less traveled" to reach their pinnacle: One studied the Talmud in Israel, another had practiced law. More than a few were liberal arts graduates originally. Most interesting to me personally was the story of Jim Chanos: a short seller so gifted, he can often predict the direction of a particular group of companies or stocks a year in advance. (His advice for 2008: Stay away from cable and satellite companies!!!) In sum, the book was a very quick, very engaging read; I personally wished she would have added some perspective, for example why would anyone invest in a hedge fund anyway, when there are so many more prudent investment vehicles that seem to work just as well? Other than that, anyone who enjoys reading about investing in general, or if you are a "young Turk" looking to get into the exotic, Oz-like world of hedge funds in particular, then you will not only enjoy but greatly benefit from the advice in this book.
  
  
• Word portraits of some of the players in the hedge fund markets and what they go after
  By AUHG8KSHI529U on 2008-01-17
  The whole hedge fund market has a mystique about it that draws in everyone. From the regular reader of the business section of a newspaper to people playing in these markets, everyone wants to know who these big time financial players are. While the days of the huge hedge funds of Tiger and Soros are likely gone forever, there are more hedge funds than ever. This most interesting book by Katherine Burton introduces us to more than eighteen of them (some chapters are on a few people).
  
  She has chosen the players based on reputation and performance, to be sure. However, she has also tried to provide a broad range of investment strategies and personal styles. While all hedge funds are highly leveraged, that is pretty much the definition of what they are, there are folks who create certain kinds of portfolios of portfolios, some pick individual stocks, some are in specific kinds of markets, some focus on geographic investments, one is a short player (betting that markets will decline by selling stocks you don't have hoping to replace them with cheaper stocks in the future), and you know Boone Pickens and his investments in energy.
  
  These are really portraits of these fund managers rather than biographies, are all interesting, and since Burton has covered this beat for a long time, very insightful.
  
  If you are interested in the hedge fund markets and the players involved in it, I don't see how you can avoid reading this book.
  
  Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
  
  
  
• The Quarry Escaped
  By AL5JD8GFQIC0R on 2008-07-19
  I read this book carefully in its entirety, hoping for a contemporary analog to the classic Wizards trilogy so ably ushered into print by Jack Schwager (If you're interested in trading and haven't read these classics ~ even the weaker volume 3 ~ buy them now).
  
  Perhaps having been influenced by the quality of Schwager's opus, I set the bar too high and became an easy mark for disappointment. I found myself grimacing again and again, and even saying to myself aloud, "Why didn't she ask the next, obvious question?"
  
  Absent the probing questions that might have been asked of this glittering lineup of stellar performers, what we're left with is a series of personality profiles. The author's tepid prose skips like a stone across the placid surface of deep water. Untroubled by probing questions, the strategic and tactical aspects of hedge fund management remain undisturbed.
  
  What we do read quite a bit of is descriptions of lobby and reception area decor found in the plush buildings where hedge fund operators spend much of their time. These breathless descriptions of decoration function as a trailing indicator showing that the author spent a lot of her time in waiting rooms rather than meeting with the subjects of her book.
  
  It's valid to point out that the author isn't a markets practitioner but a markets journalist. Perhaps she felt that digging deeply would ruffle feathers of those she might wish to approach at another time as sources or for interviews? In any event, the resulting personality profiles wouldn't pass muster to appear in Bloomberg Magazine. The author is a Bloomberg reporter.
  
  My wife purchased our copy of this book at one of the author's promotional appearances closely following publication. It was a professional forum, the room full of analysts and other practitioners. She commented that the author's replies to probing questions seeking elaboration were "uncertain, unsteady, and showed a lack of insight."
  
  Go long Schwager's trilogy, between the covers of which you'll find a billion dollars worth of wisdom. Short this book by leaving it on the shelf.
  
  
• Hedges on what its audience is
  By A3NM1MT3Q2FHXV on 2007-11-07
  This book contains 10-15 page profiles on 18 investment managers, or groups of same, written by a Bloomberg reporter. The back cover promises, "Market giants reveal the secrets of their smartest investments..." As it turns out, the secrets are generally hard work and intuition. (This is an oversimplification, but not so much of one as I would have hoped for.) This is somewhat interesting, but hardly surprising.
  
  I got this book free from Amazon Vine. I am somewhat interested in finance, even though I don't generally read the business news. I chose this book because I thought I might learn more about how high finance works. For the most part, I didn't. This book is more about personalities than about how hedge funds actually work. To be fair, the book's title didn't promise what I was hoping for (though the book's secondary title is too focused on alliteration, and is really meaningless). Even though most of the information was new to me, it didn't hold my interest. After the first third of the book, I found myself considering finishing it to be a chore that I really should do because I need to do the Amazon Vine review, not because I was so interested.
  
  I think the people who will get the most from this are those who read the business pages every day and are already familiar with the people profiled (the only one I was already familiar with was Boone Pickens). I feel it's not interesting enough to hold the attention of the layperson, which is too bad, as it's obviously written at least somewhat with them in mind. The author doesn't even assume that the reader knows what a price/earnings ratio is; if you don't, I really don't think you should be reading this book. I think the author would have been better off aiming this book at regular business news readers, and giving more specific insider-type information. But she tries to get the mass market as well, and for me, it just doesn't work. Three stars, for doing what the title says it does.
  
  
  
• Interesting profiles, not really a "how to" book
  By A1VTPX3NI4TANU on 2007-12-06
  Each of the "Hedge Hunters" profiled in this book have different styles of investing, different niche areas, and different goals. What Burton has done in this book is reassure the financial student that no matter their background, if they work at it, seek new skills, and find a good mentor, they too can have successful, billion dollar hedge funds.
  
  I recommend this book to anyone looking to invest in the hedge fund world, anyone desiring a career in this niche, or anyone who manages money for others. There are a lot of good insights, both humble and proud, into what it means to invest other people's money. There is good discussion of pros and cons in the hedge fund world, and what needs to be done when you make that bad decision that costs a lot of money. It was interesting for me to read, as I work for a small fund manager, to see what the big boys do, and how they made it from million dollar companies to billion dollar companies. Hedge Hunters is an excellent resource and addition to the small library of fund management books.
  
  Full Review at otter [dot] covblogs [dot] com
  
  
• Shallow Knowledge of Topic
  By AP7HO44BSHPXK on 2007-12-07
  Having read Jack Schwager's excellent Market Wizards and New Market Wizards years ago, my expectation was a contemporary work on the same level. This work is totally shallow and reflects the author's lack of in depth knowledge of the world of hedge fund management and strategies. Except for the reach to Boone Pickens' BP Capital, it seems that the author's universe of contacts didn't extend much beyond the convenient range of NYC. She also appears to think that commodity trading is something new to the hedge fund world and Pickens' is some kind of pioneer in that area. Huh! Has she read Schwager's classics? And what about some trading examples and insight as to what and how these managers actually produce Alpha. Someone else commented that if you're in to in flight magazine type interviews which focus on human interest issues like what someone wears or what they like to do eat or drink or do in their spare time, this is your enlightenment. However if you're into serious trading and making money, there's nothing to be gained from this read.
  
  
• Maybe a Little Too Upbeat
  By A8IC4AYQRG3SV on 2008-01-17
  Hedge Funds are iconic of this age. People with wealth hire the best and brightest in the hope of getting more wealth. The world of hedge fund trading is mostly highly leveraged. What one team wins, the other loses, at least up to a point.
  
  This book seems a little too narrowly focused on the process of making money. This is interesting. People need to have a certain set of characteristics. They have to understand some aspect of the markets better than most people. They have to be able to place their bets. They have to manage money. It's never obvious when something will begin to affect how the market moves. When do you adopt a strategy, and how much risk do you employ to get to a giant payoff.
  
  The problem that gets ignored is how well this really works for the rest of us. I remember when hedge funds were very short GM. The general view was that the company was going away, on a trip to oblivion. Nothing the people betting against GM did seemed to offer much to fix the problems. Viewing life in these terms is limiting.
  
  In the good old days, fund managers bought stocks and had an interest in positive outcomes. These days, big money is made backing negative outcomes. If the mortgage thing is a mess, just ride it down. Wealth is created, but what else happens?
  
  So, this is an interesting journey. You come away with a lot of respect for hedge fund managers. But it's an uneasy journey. What is the complexity of advanced trading really doing to us? These guys are smart, but shouldn't they be finding solutions to Global Warming, the energy crisis? Do these finance guys really guide society in any positive direction, or do they compound wealth for the wealthy?
  
  
• Excellent insight into some shy individuals
  By A34AJ534T1IMOG on 2008-02-25
  I read a lot of these type of books and would say this is the best one ever written on hedge funds. It is the sort of book you finish and then read again straight away - it is that good.
  I would not have thought it possible to get this sort of access. Consequently it's hard to understand the many critical reviews. The reviewers don't seem to understand that this group of people are the most secretive in the world. They simply don't queue up to be interviewed - in fact the oppposite. Katherine Burton has done a superb job getting them to agree to be interviewed let alone open up. There are also some very good market tips for the private investor.
  I think the real quality of this book is indicated by the number of reviews it has got and the negative people reviewing it clearly have some professional agenda.
  It is a book of rare quality which can only be criticised for having no photographs - but I suppose that would have been a step too far for these reclusive people.
  Anyone remotely interested in hedge funds will devour this book. I certainly did and I spread reading it over two months (instead of my usual two days) to take it all in properly.
  
  
  
• The Men Behind the Market
  By A9TX7L1HNM37V on 2008-03-23
  When I picked up Hedge Hunters by Katherine Burton, I had no idea what a hedge fund was. Now that I'm finished with it, I'm still not sure what they are all about. But that's okay, because the book's goal isn't to explain hedge funds. Its purpose is to give the reader a glimpse at the diverse personalities and backgrounds of the most influential and successful of these maverick investors.
  
  Burton does so expertly, sharing biographies and investment strategies of both long-term masters of the field and the up-and-coming talent that threaten to take over the field in the years to come.
  
  The business strategies and attitudes of these hedge barons are as diverse and eclectic as the market itself, as are their motivations and origins, and each bio offers an interesting perspective that will keep you reading until the very end.
  
  So you may not understand hedge funds any more than you did before you read Hedge Hunters, but you will definitely have a better understanding of the traders who have mastered them.
  
  
• A Book that Never Quite Captured My Total Interest
  By A969VLBBX8LQ7 on 2007-11-28
  There are sections of Katherine Burton's book, HEDGE HUNTERS, that were interesting because of how she analyzed the person behind the description "Hedge Fund Master."
  
  I especially liked, how she interviewed some to find out what made the person "tick," and what were the important qualities in life that they found important. Other sections, however, were more like a shortened WALL STREET JOURNAL piece that had to be cut by 200 words to make-it-fit in the column space, where it was obvious the person being written about was giving her the same information that they had given others on countless other interviews, e.g. Boone Pickens. This inconsistency of approach, to me, hurt the final product.
  
  I will say this, after reading HEDGE HUNTERS, I do have a somewhat better understanding behind the qualities that makes for a manager of hedge funds. They tend to be brilliant, decisive, and follow their convictions, often times through hell and high water, mixed-in with stubbornness or a quickness to cut their losses, depending on which way the tea leaves floated that day.
  
  I've rated HEDGE HUNTERS a neutral 3-star rating because whether you get more enjoyment out of the "A" section of the WALL STREET JOURNAL or the "W" section, you will find something here to please you. Just skip the sections of the book that don't interest you, and you'll come-out better for reading judiciously.
  
  
• Hagiography with little substance
  By A36JO8IHKYBMMJ on 2007-12-15
  This is the sort of book that manages to conclude an entire examination of T. Boone Pickens without noting that he bankrolled the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Fair enough if we were compensated with some in-depth analysis of the subjects' successes and failures instead of soft-light Barbara Walters-esque "gee, what makes you tick?" essays. The reader will search in vain for any such illumination.
  
  It should be noted that much of our best journalism over the past six years has come from the business page--to the shame of political reporters. So the expectation that we might get some critical insight into the practices of hedge fund managers is not a vain one. Compare the recent article in the New Yorker on Harry Kat and hedge funds that questions the cozy two and twenty arrangements of the princelings. (It is available online, just search for it--Amazon seems to frown on links). Very disappointing.
  
  
• Superficial
  By A18AK2LLQU80SA on 2007-12-20
  I have to join my fellow reviewers in being less than impressed by this book. As a reader of Conde Nast's flashy Portfolio I recived a montly supply of better coverage of this area in a style comparable to the one presented here.
  
  
• Enjoyable read that can be done at many sittings
  By AUQ12UXW846Q0 on 2008-01-02
  It's well written and enjoyable for finance workers and non-specialists alike. The author does a good job giving the reader some insight into the lives and minds of some leading investors. It's not a comprehensive overview of investing genius throughout time, but a few very nice vignettes with some interesting people.
  
  The chapters are separate and distinct so you can pack it in your bag and read it on the train over days to fill in your time.
  
  

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