Fiasco - Hardcover

Partnoy, Frank

3.92

2,150 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1861970692 ISBN 13: 9781861970695

Publisher: Profile Books Ltd, 1997

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An insider's diary of 1990s high finance from New York to Tokyo. It tracks the progress of a young Morgan Stanley salesman as he learns the ropes, where billions are lost in the creation and trading of securities so complicated that nobody - and certainly not the buyer - understands them.

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Review:

The game of Russian roulette is alive and well and living on Wall Street, where it's known as the derivatives market. In his aptly named book F.I.A.S.C.O., Frank Partnoy, a former derivatives trader at Morgan Stanley, exposes the seamier side of high-stakes finance. Derivatives are securities whose worth is determined by the value of other securities; according to Partnoy, however, the derivatives market is an elaborate illusion performed with smoke and mirrors. In fascinating, frightening detail Partnoy describes several of Morgan Stanley's slick deals that, in his eyes, are just this side of outright fraud. More than just dishonest, the bait-and-switch tactics Wall Street traders employ to rig the markets are downright dangerous, since the massive debt these deals conceal will inevitably come back to haunt the dealmakers.

F.I.A.S.C.O. could be subtitled Portrait of the Trader as a Young Man, for Frank Partnoy is indeed young, and his short tenure on Wall Street left him sadly disillusioned but much wiser. His book will leave you wiser, too--and probably very worried.

About the Author:

Frank Partnoy was a derivatives trader on Wall Street, and has been a financial journalist and lawyer. His enormously successful F.I.A.S.C.O., about men behaving badly on Wall Street, was 'gripping, unreal stuff, delivered with wry humour' (Sunday Times)

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