I read both books: “Traders, Guns, and Money” and “An American Hedge Fund“. And I had two completely different reactions. I received an early copy of An American Hedge Fund and have not said a word on it. Why? I disliked it, it rubbed me the wrong way, and thought if you can’t say anything nice then don’t say it at all.
I read Traders, Guns, and Money and I loved it. And there is my conflict. Both books are written in a similar style using similar mannerism’s of being in your face. Yet I liked one and disliked the other one. What gives? After all both books provide an account of the inner workings of the financial community? And both are critical of the financial community. I gave that question a thought and came to the realization that I could relate to “Traders, Guns, and Money.”
I can relate to the issues, and actions described in the book Traders, Guns, and Money. Yet in An American Hedge fund I could find no relation, no thread where I could sink my teeth into. I then decided to reread Tim’s book and while I still can’t relate to it, I have to admit it is not a good book. It has its amusing and interesting bits.
If you are wondering what the major difference is between Tim, and Satyajit, its trading vs structured products. Time is looking for the next trader whereas Satyajit talks about structured products and modeling them. I guess I can relate to structured products.
End Result: Both books are recommendable… Though with Satyajit’s book you might want to know at least a bit about the concept of a structured product. If you don’t know about structured products the book is still very readable, but you will not catch all of the nuances.