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| Hedge Hunters: Hedge Fund Masters on the Rewards, the Risk, and the Reckoning | 
 enlarge | Author: Katherine Burton
Publisher: Bloomberg Press
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $16.63
You Save: $11.32 (41%)
New (29) Used (11) from $13.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  52 reviews
Sales Rank: 19253
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 206
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 5.9 x 1
ISBN: 1576602451
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.645
EAN: 9781576602454
ASIN: 1576602451
Publication Date: November 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New. Delivery is usually 5 - 8 working days from order, International is by Royal Mail Airmail
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Product Description
The legends who created the trillion-dollar hedge fund world are brilliant at picking investments, astute at spotting talent--and notorious for secrecy. Now these top managers talk frankly about the challenges they face and how they enter, exit, and size their trades. They also name up-and-coming managers who are shaping the future of hedge funds. Katherine Burton, an acclaimed Bloomberg News reporter, has persuaded these giants of their industry to share their thinking as never before. Investors and market watchers will be intrigued and informed by an unprecendented look inside these highly successful funds.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 47 more reviews...
 Hedge needlessly killed: A Put Option October 22, 2007
70 out of 95 found this review helpful
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 October 27, 2007
34 out of 41 found this review helpful
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. October 26, 2007
18 out of 22 found this review helpful
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". December 22, 2007
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
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 October 23, 2007
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
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.
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