UGLY AMERICANS is the true story of John Malcolm, a hungry young Princeton grad who traveled halfway around the world in search of the American dream and ultimately pulled off a trade that could, quite simply, be described as the biggest deal in the history of the financial markets.
After receiving a mysterious phone call promising him a shot at great fortune in an exotic land, Malcolm packed up his few belongings and took the chance of a lifetime. Without speaking a word of Japanese, with barely a penny in his pocket, Malcolm was thrown into the bizarre, adrenaline-fueled life of an expat trader. Surrounded by characters ripped right out of a Hollywood thriller, he quickly learned how to survive in a cutthroat world -- at the feet of the biggest players the markets have ever known.
Malcolm was first an assistant trading huge positions for Nick Leeson, the twenty-six-year-old rogue trader who lost nearly two billion dollars and brought down Barings Bank -- the oldest in England. Then he was the right-hand man to an enigmatic and brilliant hedge-fund cowboy named Dean Carney, and grew into one of the biggest derivatives traders in all of Asia. Along the way, Malcolm fell in love with the daughter of a Yakuza gangster, built a vast fortune out of thin air, and came head-to-head with the violent Japanese mobsters who helped turn the Asian markets into the turbulent casino it is today.
Malcolm and his twentysomething, Ivy League-schooled colleagues, with their warped sense of morality and proportion, created their own economic theory: Arbitrage with a Battle Axe. They rode the crashing waves of the Asian markets during the mid- to late 1990s, culminating in a single deal the likes of which had never been seen before -- or since.
A real-life mixture of LIAR'S POKER and WALL STREET, brimming with intense action, romance, underground sex, vivid locales, and exotic characters, UGLY AMERICANS is the untold, true story that will rock the financial community and redefine an era.
Each chapter begins with an excerpt from the Esther story and is followed by highly practical suggestions. Seasoned businesswomen may find some strategies familiar. And the writing is diminished by expert quotes that could have been paraphrased. Yet the authors engaging and thoughtful examples rule the day. Their insights about a tale as old as time are relevant and inspiring. --Barbara Mackoff
Unlike IQ, emotional intelligence can keep growing--it continues to develop with life experiences. Understanding and raising your emotional intelligence is essential to your success and leadership potential. This book is an excellent resource for learning how to accomplish this. --Joan Price
You've been bludgeoned, skewered, crushed, mutilated by the stock market. Every day you read about another corporate scandal: loans to CEOs that didn't have to be repaid, accounting "irregularities," profits that never existed. You think the stock market must have been rigged. And you're right.
You were betrayed by the stock promotion machine -- the mutual fund managers, the brokers, analysts, strategists, and stock gurus who brainwashed you into buying and holding and believing that stocks, like parents, always come through and bail you out in the end.
So now what do you do? Where do you put your money? You can't just leave it in the bank or stuff it under the mattress.
For fourteen years Jim Cramer ran a hedge fund that compounded money at a rate of 24 percent annually after fees, and then he got out at the end of 2000. He knows that there are ways to make money, smart ways that don't require you to own stocks blindly. There are other investments that won't send you to the poorhouse.
This book will tell you what went wrong, who the bad guys were, and what you have to do to restore your financial health. You can't just close your eyes. Ignoring Wall Street isn't the answer. Cash alone isn't the answer. This book has the answers.