When Genius Failed

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Review When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management 

by ROGER LOWENSTEIN

Description

When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management by Roger Lowenstein reminds every trader that not even the giants of modern finance, the ones whose equations we encounter in textbooks, are infallible. This book shows how difficult it is to measure and quantify risk. For a long time, volatility was a proxy for risk. Roger Lowenstein explained that long term’s typical strategies hinged on how markets became efficient over time, which in return led to lower volatilities and shorter spreads between Treasuries and other riskier bonds. It is a great book that details one of the biggest debacles in financial history, long-term capital management.

About the Author

Roger Lowenstein is an American financial journalist and writer. He graduated from Cornell University and reported for the Wall Street Journal for more than a decade, including two years writing its Heard on the Street column, 1989 to 1991. Born in 1954, he is the son of Helen and Louis Lowenstein of Larchmont, N.Y. Lowenstein is married to Judith Slovin. He is also a director of the Sequoia Fund. His father, the late Louis Lowenstein, was an attorney and Columbia University law professor who wrote books and articles critical of the American financial industry.

Table of Contents

  • Title Page
  • Copyright
  • Epigraph
  • Author’s Note and Acknowledgment 
  • Introduction
  • The Rise of Long-Term Capital Management 
  1. Meriwether
  2. Hedge Fund
  3. On the Run
  4. Dear Investors
  5. Tug-of-War
  6. A Nobel Prize
  • The Fall of Long-Term Capital Management
  1. Bank of Volatility
  2. The Fall
  3. The Human Factor
  4. At The Fed
  • Epilogue
  • Afterword, 2020
  • Dedication
  • Notes
  • Also by Roger Lowenstein
  • About the Author