Traders, Guns and Money: Knowns and Unknowns in the Dazzling World of Derivatives

Unlike the military kind, financial WMD are not hard to find. Many great companies use them. These businesses use derivatives to make money or protect them from risk. It's a simple case of greed or fear. Or is it? In derivatives, whoever you are, there are things that you don't know that you don't know. These are the real risks of derivatives. They're generally left to the client to discover. So, if you're entering the dazzling world of derivatives, ask yourself this: What do I know?...
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Unlike the military kind, financial WMD are not hard to find. Many great companies use them. These businesses use derivatives to make money or protect them from risk. It's a simple case of greed or fear. Or is it? In derivatives, whoever you are, there are things that you don't know that you don't know. These are the real risks of derivatives. They're generally left to the client to discover. So, if you're entering the dazzling world of derivatives, ask yourself this: What do I know? What do I need to know? What don't I know? What am I doing? You can find the answers in "Traders, Guns & Money," a sensational and controversial first-person account of the business of derivatives trading and the financial products industry in the spirit of "Liar's Poker." It is a true insider's view of the business of trading and marketing derivatives for a living. It details the nature of the business, the players, how money is made and lost, and the "deceptions" that underlie the entire process. Funny and poignant, and written in a wry and wickedly comic style, the book provides the ordinary reader with an insight into the seeming madness that underlies financial markets and the out-of-control process that is trading in complex financial products that few understand. "Traders, Guns & Money " throws light on the culture, games, and pure deceptions played out every day in trading rooms around the world, and played out with other people's money. It describes the processes by which a small group of gifted, if avaricious, individuals parlay their knowledge of the arcane world of financial products into wealth, leaving shareholders, clients, regulators, and the tax paying ordinary public to bear most of the risk. This is the story of how one set of clients discovered the perils of unknowns in a derivatives deal. This tale will leave you amazed, and this book will make it all clear.In the sometimes dazzling world of derivatives," Traders Guns & Money "shows you how we got here and tells it how it is. Go on, follow the money. An accessible companion and a wise counsel, Traders, Guns & Money weaves together three core themes: "Known unknowns": if you're entering the dazzling world of derivatives, ask yourself this: What do I know? What do I need to know? What don't I know? What am I doing? "This book will make it all clear." "Follow the money": an insider's, expert witness account of the rise and rules of the world of derivatives. "This book will show you how we got here and tell it how it is" "Send traders guns & money": the story of how one set of clients discovered the perils of unknowns in a derivatives deal . Ever since Warren Buffett memorably described derivatives as "financial weapons of mass destruction" there has been a thriller waiting to be written about them. Derivatives have frightened otherwise right-thinking people for some time. In part this reflects a natural tendency to fear what we do not understand.