Running Money: Hedge Fund Honchos, Monster Markets and My Hunt for the Big Score - Softcover

Kessler, Andy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060740655 ISBN 13: 9780060740658

Publisher: Harper Business, 2005

Synopsis

A brilliant investor, a born raconteur and an overall smart-ass, Andy Kessler pulls back the curtain on the world of hedge funds and shows how the guys who run big money think, talk and act.

Following on the success of Wall Street Meat, his self-published book on the lives of Wall Street stock analysts, Andy Kessler recounts his years as an extraordinarily successful hedge fund manager. To run a successful hedge fund you must have an investing edge - that special insight that allows you to reap greater returns for your clients and yourself.

A quick study, Kessler gets an education in investing from some fascinating and quirky personalities. Eventually he works out his own insight into the world economy, a powerful lens that reveals to him hidden value in seemingly negative trends. Focussing on margin surplus, Kessler comes to see that current American economy, at the apex of the information revolution, is not so different from the British economy at the height of the industrial revolution. Drawing out the parallels he develops a powerful investing tool which he shares with readers. Contrarian and confident, Kessler made a fortune applying his ideas to his hedge fund. Which only proves that they may not be as crazy as they sound.

About this title

About the Author

After turning $100 million into $1 billion riding the technology wave of the late 1990s, Andy Kessler recounted his experiences on Wall Street and in the trenches of the hedge fund industry in the books Wall Street Meat and Running Money (and its companion volume, How We Got Here). Though he has retired from actively managing other people's money, he remains a passionate and curious investor. Unable to keep his many opinions to himself, he contributes to the Wall Street Journal, Wired, and lots of Web sites on a variety of Wall Street and technology-related topics, and is often seen on CNBC, FOX, and CNN. He lives in Silicon Valley like all the other tech guys.

From Publishers Weekly

Kessler has toned down the namedropping that permeated last year’s Wall Street Meat, and his less-than-appreciative stance towards much of the rest of the finance industry is also somewhat altered for this second memoir, in which he leaves the institutional investment world behind to co-manage a hedge fund. Loosely connected episodes trace his attempts to attract investors and raise the $100 million he needs to be taken seriously, despite not having much of a game plan to start. Then a series of conversations with the mysterious "Mr. Zed" lead Kessler to study the Industrial Revolution and the origins of networked computing as role models for the type of transformative market development a savvy investor needs. These historical digressions are infused with a personal tone, but one that adopts an amiable key. Ultimately, Kessler decides the next big thing probably lies in "high margin" areas like intellectual property that can be sold for much more than they cost to create. According to his admittedly "counterintuitive" scenario, American investment in foreign products will develop their economies so they can invest in our intellectual property and the companies that make it, generating wealth all around. This new level of seriousness could attract readers who value potentially beneficial economic speculation over easy digs at industry players, while those who admired Kessler’s in-your-face attitude the first time around will still find plenty to appreciate here.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Harper Business
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0060740655
• ISBN 13: 9780060740658
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 312