Traders, Guns & Money: Knowns and Unknowns in the Dazzling World of Derivatives

'‘…a distinctly timely book ... Traders, Guns & Money tries to reach out to the mathematically challenged to explain how the world of derivatives “really” works.’

Gillian Tett, Financial Times

 

‘...a scalpel of a book that pulls back the skin on the derivatives and risk management industry to expose the blood, guts and circulatory system underneath…’

Nina Mehta, Financial Engineering News

 

 ‘... a beginner\'s guide to the often unsavoury and murky world of trading ... a surprisingly gripping account ...’

Money Week   

 

‘ ... more rivetting than The Da Vinci Code...in the mould of Liar\'s Poker...an insider\'s account of how derivatives markets work...’

Goola Warden, The Edge, Singapore

 

‘The sexier side of finance ... at last ... a convincing picture of what life is like in today\'s modern financial industry.’

Corporate Financier

 

‘…a page-turning quality more reminiscent of a John Grisham novel.’

JASSA, Finsia

 

 

Traders Guns & Money is a wickedly comic exposé of the culture, games and pure deceptions played out every day in trading rooms around the world. And played out with other people’s money.

 

A sensational insider’s view of the business of trading and marketing derivatives, this revised edition explains the frighteningly central role that derivatives and financial products played in the global financial crisis.

 

 

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Through an anecdotal narrative based on his 25 years experience in the world of derivatives trading, the author provides an expose of the "rational madness" of financial derivatives markets. His work simultaneously aims to provide a "wry and entertaining" for people already in banking and finance and to serve as an accessible introduction to financial derivatives. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Warren Buffet once memorably described derivatives as “financial weapons of mass destruction”. Read this sensational and controversial account of the often dazzling business of derivatives trading, and see if you agree.

 

No money is ever really made in financial markets. Markets merely transfer wealth. As to how to make money? Well, it is basically theft, misrepresentation, lies, cheating, deception or force. It is impossible to make the staggering amounts made in derivatives in good years honestly.

Traders, Guns & Money is a wry and wickedly comic exposé of the culture, games, and pure deceptions played out every day in trading rooms around the world, usually with other people’s money. Whether you move in the financial world yourself, know people who do, or have money invested in stocks, shares or derivatives, this is a fascinating read guaranteed to make you think.

Liar’s Poker with more lies and more insight,Traders, Guns & Money is a sensational insider’s view of the business of trading and marketing derivatives for a living.  It reveals the nature of the business, the players and how the real money is made and lost.  An accessible companion, a wise counsel and a great read.

• A sensational and controversial first-person account of the business of derivatives trading and the financial products industry.

• Offers a true insider’s view.

• Funny and poignant, written in a wry and wickedly comic style.

• Reveals how shareholders, clients, regulators, and the tax paying ordinary public bear most of the risk in the trading rooms.

• Reveals the story of how one set of clients discovered the perils of unknowns in a derivatives deal. 

• Traders, Guns & Money cleverly weaves together: the dazzling world of derivatives and how to work out what you know, don't know and need to know; an insider’s, expert witness account of the rise and rules of the world of derivatives and the astonishing story of how one set of clients discovered the perils of unknowns in a derivatives deal. 
• Benchmark: Liar’s Poker 0340767006.Das now offers more lies and is set in today’s derivatives market, and Traders Gun's and Money is written not by a journalist but by a world-famous insider.

 

Satyajit Das is a leading international authority in the area of financial derivatives and treasury management. He was the treasurer for the TNT Group on Australia for six years. Prior to this he worked in the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Citicorp Investment Bank and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets. He is the author of Swap Financing and has published widely on financial derivatives, corporate finance, treasury and risk management. He has presented seminars on financial derivatives and treasury management/corporate finance all over the world.

 

Prologue

1. Financial WMDs - derivatives demagoguery

2. Beautiful Lies - the 'sell' side      

3. True Lies - the 'buy' side

4. Show Me The Money - greed lost and regained

5. The Perfect Storm - risk management by the numbers

6. Super Models - derivatives algorithms

7. Games Without Frontiers - the inverse world of structured products

8. Share and Share Alike - derivative inequity

9. Credit Where Credit Is Due - fun with CDS and CDO

Epilogue