When genius failed: the rise and fall of Long-Term Capital Management

"In When Genius Failed, bestselling author Roger Lowenstein captures the gripping roller-coaster ride of Long-Term Capital Management in gripping detail. When it was founded in 1993, Long-Term was hailed as the most impressive hedge fund in history. Led by the notoriously successful bond arbitrageur John Meriwether, the firm boasted a partnership that included two Nobel Prize-winning economists and a cadre of Wall Street's and academia's elite traders. But after hour years in which the firm dazzled Wall Street as a $100 billion moneymaking juggernaut, it suddenly suffered catastrophic losses that jeopardized not only the biggest banks on Wall Street but the stability of the financial system itself. Today, Long-Term's name is synonymous with financial disaster. Drawing on confidential internal memos and interviews with dozens of key players, Lowenstein explains not just how the fund made and lost its money, but also how the personalities of Long-Term's partners, the arrogance of their mathematical certainties, and the culture of Wall Street itself contributed to both their rise and their fall. It is the cautionary financial tale of our time, and in Lowenstein's hands it becomes a first-rate thriller peppered with fast money, vivid characters, and hight drama"--