Hedgehogging
1. Edition February 2008
320 Pages, Softcover
General Reading
Short Description
Barton Biggs is one of the most well-respected figures in the investment management community. He has prospered during both bull and bear markets, and has adapted to an investment landscape that has been transformed by technology and globalization. His legendary money management skills helped set the benchmark for investment management excellence. Now, for the first time, Biggs shares his experiences in the world of hedge funds and investments.
Through an interwoven series of entertaining and informative chapters, HedgeHogging reveals Biggs' experiences--with friends and acquaintances--over his investment years. Some material encompasses the highlights from his 30-year career at Morgan Stanley, while many other parts are more recent and relate to the creation and investment endeavors of Biggs' hedge fund. Filled with in-depth insights and valuable lessons, the stories and events described throughout the book offer a rare glimpse of the investment business and the people who are a part of it. These stories, based on Biggs' experiences (although some have been fictionalized to protect the innocent as well as the guilty), candidly reveal the intensity, stress, foibles, and insecurities of the men and women who manage other people's money. They also capture the ecstasy of getting investment performance right and the agony of being wrong. In the aftermath of the great bull market and the bursting of the bubble, many professional investors have been looked upon as overpaid individuals that promise much, but deliver little. HedgeHogging takes readers inside this world and shows them how the challenging battle for investment survival can be its own life-or-death struggle for individuals participating in this competitive field.
PRAISE FOR HEDGEHOGGING
"Barton Biggs writes about markets with grater style, clarity, and insight than any other observer of the Wall Street scene. his new book, Hedgehogging, entertains immensely even as it provides countless valuable lessons regarding hedge funds and the investment world they inhabit." - David F. Swensen, Chief Investment Officer, Yale University
"Since the glory days of the tech bubble, investing has become a perilous enterprise. Not the least for those running money in the proliferating hedge fund business. In hedgehogging, Biggs offers a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes at the personalities and egos making decisions about the enormous sums being dumped en masse into these funds. This book is great, It's full of personal anecdotes and critical insights from an insider's insider. You should not even consider giving money to anyone on Wall Street ever again until you've read this book." - Addison Wiggin, Agora Financial LLC, author of the New York Times bestseller The Demise of the Dollar, and coauthor of Empire of Debt
Rare is the Opportunity to chat with a legendary figure and hear the unvarnished truth about what really goes on behind the scenes. Hedgehogging represents just such an opportunity, allowing you to step inside the world of Wall Street with Barton Biggs as he discusses investing in general, hedge funds in particular, and how he has learned to find and profit from the best moneymaking opportunities in an eat-what-you-kill, cutthroat investment world.
Chapter One. The Triangle Investment Club Dinner: Hacking Through the Hedgehog Jungle.
Chapter Two. The New Hedgehogs May Have Been Golden Boys, but They Still Bleed Red.
Chapter Three. Short Selling Oil: The Crude Joke Was on Us.
Chapter Four. Short Selling is Not for Sissies.
Chapter Five. The Odyssey of Starting a Hedge Fund: A Desperate, Frantic Adventure.
Chapter Six. The Roadshow Grind: Blood, Swat, Toil, and Tears.
Chapter Seven. The Run-Up and Haunted by Remembrances and Doubt.
Chapter Eight.
Hedgehogs Come in All Sizes and Shapes.
Chapter Nine. The Violence of Secular Market Cycles.
Chapter Ten. The Battle for Investment Survival: Only Egotists or Fools Try to Pick Tops and Bottoms.
Chapter Eleven. From One Generation to Another: Bismarck and the Yale Endowment.
Chapter Twelve. Nature's Mysticism and Groupthink Stinks.
Chapter Thirteen. The Internet Bubble: I'd Still Rather Have Air-Conditioning.
Chapter Fourteen. Great Investment Managers Are Intense, Disciplined Maniacs.
Chapter Fifteen. You're Only as beloved as Your Most Recent Performance.
Chapter Sixteen. Once You Have a Fortune, How can You Hang on to It?
Chapter Seventeen. Three Investment Religions: Growth, Value, and Agnostic.
Chapter Eighteen. The Trouble with Being Big.
Chapter Nineteen. Bubbles and True Believer.
Chapter Twenty. Divine Intervention or Inside Information? A Tale That Will Make Your Blood Run Cold.
Chapter Twenty-One. John Maynard Keynes: Economist, Hedge-Fund manager, and Fascinating Character.
Conclusion.
Recommended Reading.