More Money Than God
Encyclopedia
More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite (2010) is a financial book by Sebastian Mallaby
. It is a history of the hedge fund
industry in the United States looking at the people, institutions, investment tools and concepts of hedge funds. It claims to be the "first authoritative history of the hedge fund industry." It is written for a general audience and originally published by Penguin Press. It was nominated for the 2010 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award
and was one the Wall Street Journal's 10-Best Books of 2010. The Journal said it was "The fullest account we have so far of a too-little-understood business that changed the shape of finance and no doubt will continue to do so."
Sebastian Mallaby
Sebastian Mallaby is a British-born journalist and author; and director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies and Paul A. Volcker senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations . He has worked as a journalist for the Financial Times, and was a...
. It is a history of the hedge fund
Hedge fund
A hedge fund is a private pool of capital actively managed by an investment adviser. Hedge funds are only open for investment to a limited number of accredited or qualified investors who meet criteria set by regulators. These investors can be institutions, such as pension funds, university...
industry in the United States looking at the people, institutions, investment tools and concepts of hedge funds. It claims to be the "first authoritative history of the hedge fund industry." It is written for a general audience and originally published by Penguin Press. It was nominated for the 2010 Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award
Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award
Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award is an annual award given to the best business book of the year as determined by the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs. It aims to find the book that has ‘the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues.’ The...
and was one the Wall Street Journal's 10-Best Books of 2010. The Journal said it was "The fullest account we have so far of a too-little-understood business that changed the shape of finance and no doubt will continue to do so."
Summary
In each chapter, Mallaby takes a narrative focus on one individual or company that played an important role in the history of hedge funds. Mallaby then weaves in other people, ideas or companies related to the star of the chapter. The following are some of the major people, institutions and concepts on a per chapter basis. The first in each list is the central character of that chapter.- Ch 1 Big Daddy: A. W. Jones, Hedge fundHedge fundA hedge fund is a private pool of capital actively managed by an investment adviser. Hedge funds are only open for investment to a limited number of accredited or qualified investors who meet criteria set by regulators. These investors can be institutions, such as pension funds, university...
- Ch 2 The Block Trader: Michael SteinhardtMichael SteinhardtMichael H. Steinhardt is an American investor and philanthropist active in Jewish causes. He was one of the first prominent hedge fund managers, and is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He founded Steinhardt, Fine, Berkowitz & Co., a hedge fund, in 1967...
, Steinhardt, Fine, Berkowitz & Co., Block tradeBlock tradeA block trade is a permissible, noncompetitive, privately negotiated transaction either at or exceeding an exchange determined minimum threshold quantity of shares, which is executed apart and away from the open outcry or electronic markets...
, Monetary policyMonetary policyMonetary policy is the process by which the monetary authority of a country controls the supply of money, often targeting a rate of interest for the purpose of promoting economic growth and stability. The official goals usually include relatively stable prices and low unemployment... - Ch 3 Paul Samuelson's Secret: Commodities CorporationCommodities CorporationCommodities Corporation was a financial services company, based in Princeton, New Jersey that traded actively across various commodities. The firm was noted as one of the leading commodity and futures trading firms...
, Paul SamuelsonPaul SamuelsonPaul Anthony Samuelson was an American economist, and the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. The Swedish Royal Academies stated, when awarding the prize, that he "has done more than any other contemporary economist to raise the level of scientific analysis in...
, Bruce KovnerBruce KovnerBruce Stanley Kovner is an American businessman. He is the founder and Chairman of Caxton Associates, a hedge fund that trades a global macro strategy and is considered amongst the worlds top and largest 10 hedge funds with an estimated $14 billion under management...
(Caxton Corporation), Trend trading, Automated trading systemAutomated trading systemAn automated trading system is a computer trading program that automatically submits trades to an exchange.An example of an early ATS is Instinet. This allows traders to input trades invisibly to the market, with a crossing price determined by a VWAP measure... - Ch 4 The Alchemist: George SorosGeorge SorosGeorge Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, philosopher, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes...
, Quantum Fund, Reflexivity, Jim RogersJim RogersJames Beeland Rogers, Jr. is an American investor, author, and occasional financial commentator. He is currently based in Singapore. Rogers is the Chairman of Rogers Holdings and Beeland Interests, Inc... - Ch 5 Top Cat: Julian RobertsonJulian RobertsonJulian H. Robertson Jr., KNZM is an American former hedge fund manager. Now retired, Robertson invests directly in other hedge funds, most run by former employees of Robertson's defunct hedge fund company....
, Tiger ManagementTiger ManagementTiger Management Corp., also known as "The Tiger Fund," was a hedge fund founded by Julian Robertson. The fund began investing in 1980 and was closed in March 2000.-History:... - Ch 6 Rock-and-Roll Cowboy: Paul Tudor Jones II
- Ch 7 White Wednesday: Black WednesdayBlack WednesdayIn politics and economics, Black Wednesday refers to the events of 16 September 1992 when the British Conservative government was forced to withdraw the pound sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism after they were unable to keep it above its agreed lower limit...
, Stanley DruckenmillerStanley DruckenmillerStanley Freeman Druckenmiller is an American hedge fund manager, he is the former Chairman and President of Duquesne Capital, which he founded in 1981. He closed the fund in August 2010 because he felt unable to deliver high returns to his clients...
& George Sorros - Ch 8 Hurricane Greenspan: Shadow banking systemShadow banking systemThe shadow banking system is the infrastructure and practices which support financial transactions that occur beyond the reach of existing state sanctioned monitoring and regulation. It includes entities such as hedge funds, money market funds and Structured investment vehicles...
, Bond market crisis of 1994, Stanley DruckenmillerStanley DruckenmillerStanley Freeman Druckenmiller is an American hedge fund manager, he is the former Chairman and President of Duquesne Capital, which he founded in 1981. He closed the fund in August 2010 because he felt unable to deliver high returns to his clients...
& George Sorros - Ch 9 Soros vs Soros: 1997 Asian financial crisis, 1998 Russian financial crisis, Stanley DruckenmillerStanley DruckenmillerStanley Freeman Druckenmiller is an American hedge fund manager, he is the former Chairman and President of Duquesne Capital, which he founded in 1981. He closed the fund in August 2010 because he felt unable to deliver high returns to his clients...
& George Sorros - Ch 10 The Enemy Is Us: Long-Term Capital ManagementLong-Term Capital ManagementLong-Term Capital Management L.P. was a speculative hedge fund based in Greenwich, Connecticut that utilized absolute-return trading strategies combined with high leverage...
, John MeriwetherJohn MeriwetherJohn William Meriwether is an American hedge fund executive, seen as a pioneer of fixed income arbitrage.-Education:... - Ch 11 The Dot-Com Double: Dot-com bubbleDot-com bubbleThe dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...
, Tiger ManagementTiger ManagementTiger Management Corp., also known as "The Tiger Fund," was a hedge fund founded by Julian Robertson. The fund began investing in 1980 and was closed in March 2000.-History:...
& Quantum Fund - Ch 12 The Yale Men: David SwensenDavid SwensenDavid F. Swensen has been the Chief Investment Officer at Yale University since 1985. He is responsible for managing and investing the University's endowment assets and investment funds, which total $19.4 billion...
, Tom SteyerTom SteyerThomas "Tom" Fahr Steyer is an American asset manager, philanthropist and environmentalist.He is the founder and Co-Senior Managing Partner of Farallon Capital Management, LLC and the co-founder of the OneCalifornia Bank, an Oakland-based community development bank...
, Event-driven investing - Ch 13 The Code Breakers: Renaissance TechnologiesRenaissance TechnologiesRenaissance Technologies is a hedge fund management company of about 275 employees and more than $ billion in assets under management in three funds...
, James Simons, David ShawDavid ShawDavid or Davie Shaw is the name of:* David E. Shaw , American entrepreneur; is the founder of D. E. Shaw & Co.* David Evans Shaw, American entrepreneur; managing partner of Black Point Group; spouse of actress Glenn Close... - Ch 14 Premonitions of a Crisis: Amaranth AdvisorsAmaranth AdvisorsAmaranth Advisors LLC was an American investment adviser managing multi-strategy hedge fund founded by Nicholas Maounis and headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut. The firm had up to $9 billion in assets under management and collapsed in September 2006 after losing in excess of $5 billion on...
, Brian HunterBrian Hunter (trader)Brian Hunter is a Canadian natural gas trader for the now closed Amaranth Advisors hedge fund. Amaranth, which had over $9 billion in assets, collapsed in 2006 after Hunter's gamble on natural gas futures market went bad.-Early life:... - Ch 15 Riding the Storm: John PaulsonJohn PaulsonJohn Alfred Paulson is an American hedge fund manager, he is the founder and President of Paulson & Co., a New York-based hedge fund....
, Subprime mortgage crisisSubprime mortgage crisisThe U.S. subprime mortgage crisis was one of the first indicators of the late-2000s financial crisis, characterized by a rise in subprime mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures, and the resulting decline of securities backed by said mortgages.... - Ch 16 "How Could They Do This": Financial crisis (2007–present)
Editions
- More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite. Penguin Press, 2010. Hardcover USA. ISBN 978-1594202551
- More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite. Penguin Paperbacks, 2011. Paperback USA. ISBN 978-0143119418
- More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011. Paperback UK. ISBN 978-1408809754
- KindleAmazon KindleThe Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader developed by Amazon.com subsidiary Lab126 which uses wireless connectivity to enable users to shop for, download, browse, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other digital media...
other electronic book editions. - Audio bookAudio bookAn audiobook or audio book is a recording of a text being read. It is not necessarily an exact audio version of a book or magazine.Spoken audio has been available in schools and public libraries and to a lesser extent in music shops since the 1930s. Many spoken word albums were made prior to the...
edition by Audible AudioAudible.comAudible.com is an Internet provider of spoken audio entertainment, information, and educational programming.Audible sells digital audiobooks, radio and TV programs, and audio versions of magazines and newspapers....
, narrated by Alan Nebelthau.