This title looks at the workings of hedge funds showing their successes and failures. Well known hedge funds are scrutinized through research and interviews with fund managers, consultants, regulators, and central banks.

Acknowledgements.

Courtesans of Capitalism.

Masters of the Universe.

Speculators and Hedgers.

Rogues, Philosophers and Philanthropists.

The Archimedes of Greenwich.

Toxic Waste and Vultures.

Highwaymen of the Global Economy.

The Hedge Fund in Your Bank.

Finance's Four-Letter Word.

Dance of the Seven Veils.

Attaining Respectability.

Taming Archimedes.

Bibliography.

Index.

Like the courtesans of a bygone age, hedge funds cater to the wealthy and project an aura of mystery and excitement. But as the Long Term Capital Management debacle showed, their activities affect us all.
Far from neutralising risk, as their name might suggest, some are simply vehicles for large-scale speculation - raiding currencies, disrupting bond markets, and embarrassing governments.
This book looks in detail at the secret world of hedge funds, how they work, the larger than life characters who run them, their private passions and the risks they run.

Acknowledgements. Courtesans of Capitalism. Masters of the Universe. Speculators and Hedgers. Rogues, Philosophers and Philanthropists. The Archimedes of Greenwich. Toxic Waste and Vultures. Highwaymen of the Global Economy. The Hedge Fund in Your Bank. Finance's Four-Letter Word. Dance of the Seven Veils. Attaining Respectability. Taming Archimedes. Bibliography. Index.

This book is about hedge funds, their influence on the global financial markets and how they affect us all. Hedge funds have come a long way since Alfred Winslow Jones first used them in the 1950s and '60s to reduce risk. Hedge funds today can wield immense power capable of disrupting the financial markets.
More alarming still is the hedge fund in your bank, epitomised by so-called 'proprietary trading'. Banks trade with, lend to, and mimic hedge funds in their own trading - generating fat bonuses for their managers. Customers rarely know, let alone are consulted about it. As with many other 'enthusiasms' to which banks have been prone, it may end in tears.
The book's controversial conclusion is that it is banks' exposure to hedge funds and their sometimes inept proprietary trading that needs to be regulated more closely. It is in the urgent interests of the global banking system as a whole, and concerns all of us.