Hedge Hogs (book)

Has anyone on WSO had a chance to read this new book by Barbara Dreyfuss? I have read only one review for it (in the Economist), so I wanted to reach out to the WSO Hedge Fund community for their thoughts/opinions.

What do people think? Is it worth a buy? Or should I stick to borrowing from the library?

 
ytinifni:

Reading it right now. I agree, it's not a must read, but John Arnold is the man. Billionaire by 35 AND married a hot lawyer (Wachtell, Lipton if I'm not mistaken).

That's like saying he's a billionaire AND drives the most tricked-out Impala on the block.

There have been many great comebacks throughout history. Jesus was dead but then came back as an all-powerful God-Zombie.
 
Kenny_Powers_CFA:
ytinifni:

Reading it right now. I agree, it's not a must read, but John Arnold is the man. Billionaire by 35 AND married a hot lawyer (Wachtell, Lipton if I'm not mistaken).

That's like saying he's a billionaire AND drives the most tricked-out Impala on the block.

That's like saying he's a billionaire AND has a jail-broken iPhone 4S with only a few cracks on the back.

There have been many great comebacks throughout history. Jesus was dead but then came back as an all-powerful God-Zombie.
 
Best Response
Kenny_Powers_CFA:
Kenny_Powers_CFA:
ytinifni:

Reading it right now. I agree, it's not a must read, but John Arnold is the man. Billionaire by 35 AND married a hot lawyer (Wachtell, Lipton if I'm not mistaken).

That's like saying he's a billionaire AND drives the most tricked-out Impala on the block.

That's like saying he's a billionaire AND has a jail-broken iPhone 4S with only a few cracks on the back.

That's like saying he's a billionaire AND has a pretty good frequent-flyer standing on Delta.
There have been many great comebacks throughout history. Jesus was dead but then came back as an all-powerful God-Zombie.
 

Wait, so Barbara Dreyfuss' s new book is about Brian Hunter and Amaranth? That was a while ago and before the subprime crisis. Wonder what took her so long to write about this.

Incidentally She is participating in a debate about the positive contributions (or lack thereof of) of HFs to the market this July at the NYSSA. Those of you who are members of either NYSSA or New York Hedge Fund Roundtable can get an invite to that event. I am a member of the latter organization and might possibly attend that one.

http://www.newyorkhedgefundroundtable.org/events.php?view=upcoming

Too late for second-guessing Too late to go back to sleep.
 

Just finished reading the book and found it to be a decent read, however the title is obviously somewhat misleading as it is almost entirely focused on the background story of Amaranth and to a lesser extent Centaurus, hence collectively energy HFs. Picked up more anecdotal personal background history on the personalities involved than anticipated, a testament to the deep digging conducted by the author.

 
Macro Arbitrage:

I find it surprising that all media sources that I've come across claim that Hunter was a 'prodigious math whiz'. His grades at uAlberta were less than mediocre, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Will check it out.

Then why did TransCanada Corp hire him in spite of his less than impressive academic credentials? Presumably they saw something else in him like the CIA did with Edward Snowden?

Too late for second-guessing Too late to go back to sleep.
 
brandon st randy:
Macro Arbitrage:

I find it surprising that all media sources that I've come across claim that Hunter was a 'prodigious math whiz'. His grades at uAlberta were less than mediocre, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Will check it out.

Then why did TransCanada Corp hire him in spite of his less than impressive academic credentials? Presumably they saw something else in him like the CIA did with Edward Snowden?

Because graduate grades aren't everything? Particularly when a degree in math is unequivocally more rigorous than most academic disciplines.

 
Macro Arbitrage:
brandon st randy:
Macro Arbitrage:

I find it surprising that all media sources that I've come across claim that Hunter was a 'prodigious math whiz'. His grades at uAlberta were less than mediocre, not that there's anything wrong with that.

Will check it out.

Then why did TransCanada Corp hire him in spite of his less than impressive academic credentials? Presumably they saw something else in him like the CIA did with Edward Snowden?

Because graduate grades aren't everything? Particularly when a degree in math is unequivocally more rigorous than most academic disciplines.

Still I doubt every math graduate student that wants to get a job as energy trader would actually get one. I think Brian Hunter's professor of mathematical finance was a pretty renowned scholar in the field and wrote a Springer textbook on this (that I skimmed through a while ago). Perhaps Brian got a solid reference from him which enabled him to secure the job with TransCanada despite his grades.

Too late for second-guessing Too late to go back to sleep.
 

Molestias quos doloremque omnis dolores voluptates. Qui et sed voluptatem veniam quae repellendus. Beatae tenetur voluptatem vel magnam fugit dolores.

Voluptates vitae omnis illum blanditiis odit eius qui. Veritatis esse corporis et vel et. Sapiente beatae minima provident reiciendis. Natus facere sit et aut excepturi magnam.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Hedge Fund

  • Point72 98.9%
  • D.E. Shaw 97.9%
  • Magnetar Capital 96.8%
  • Citadel Investment Group 95.8%
  • AQR Capital Management 94.7%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Hedge Fund

  • Magnetar Capital 98.9%
  • D.E. Shaw 97.8%
  • Blackstone Group 96.8%
  • Two Sigma Investments 95.7%
  • Citadel Investment Group 94.6%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Hedge Fund

  • AQR Capital Management 99.0%
  • Point72 97.9%
  • D.E. Shaw 96.9%
  • Citadel Investment Group 95.8%
  • Magnetar Capital 94.8%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Hedge Fund

  • Portfolio Manager (9) $1,648
  • Vice President (23) $474
  • Director/MD (12) $423
  • NA (6) $322
  • 3rd+ Year Associate (24) $287
  • Manager (4) $282
  • Engineer/Quant (71) $274
  • 2nd Year Associate (30) $251
  • 1st Year Associate (73) $190
  • Analysts (225) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (22) $131
  • Junior Trader (5) $102
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (249) $85
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
3
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”