Conflicted

Rating:
Summary: Conflict on Wall Street
Review:

Michael Culp has a winner here!

You know how they always tell you that the editorial section of the newspaper is absolutely autonomous, and is not affected by the fact that the party in question is a big advertiser? Well, Wall Street has similar conflicts of interest between the analysts in Research, the bankers and the brokers.

This is a fast-paced novel by a man who has been there,and it shows the seamy underside of Wall Street--the part we only read about occasionally in the papers. It reads as smoothly as any spy story by Clancy, and with as much suspense. The characters are alive and recognizable.

In any good fiction, there has to be enough of a grain of truth to make the story plausible. The plausibility here is enhanced by the author's many years as a Wall Street analyst. He is writing about the world he knows, and you get the feeling that it is just as he describes it.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre

author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books.

Rating:
Summary: A compelling novel if you have any interest in Wall Street
Review: Conflicted reveals the inner-workings of a fictitious, mediocre equity research department as management attempts to improve its standing over a 14 month time period. David Meadows, research director, hires ranked talent in a tight time frame to improve his department's standing and his own compensation. The conflicts continue as analysts with compromised integrity commit a myriad of indiscretions (some blatant, some more difficult to trace). The author, Michael Culp, uses his Wall Street experience to make the conversations and department meetings seem real (because they probably were). His conversational style flows well and makes for a quick read. Extraordinary attention to detail of New York City life, Hampton's real estate and even bad Wall Street jokes could only be written by someone who lived it. Many real companies and people are mentioned which help blur the line of fact and fiction. These details seemingly effortlessly bring the fictitious research department to life for the reader. Conflicted is an entertaining and thought-provoking novel from a Wall Street vantage point unlike any other. It will be enjoyed by most.

Rating:
Summary: A Terrific Novel
Review: Congratulations to Michael Culp, the author of the book,Conflicted, for his extraordinary insights into the inner workings of a Wall Street Research Department. Mr.Culp who has over 27 years of experience on Wall Street both as a top ranked Institutional Investor analyst and as a Director of Research at several major Wall Street firms speaks with great authority in this new novel. With all of the controversy surrounding Wall Street research, this book is a must read.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, Entertaining, Realistic - a good read
Review: Due to the minute and detailed writing style of this novel, I would only recommend this to those who work within the banking world, or those who are generally interested in i-banking, the stock market, etc.

The truth is, I wasn't pleased after getting this book and seeing how long it was. It took me a while to get into, but once I became familiar with the characters and understood the conflicts that made their roles interesting, I flew through it and enjoyed it greatly.

There is a lot going on in this book. The characters are sufficiently developed and I found myself rooting for the main character (David) while loathing a few of the others (Carl, Lavery, Dieter, etc.) I found it intriguing how Culp mixed fiction with reality - even going so far as naming actual analysts, the companies they work for and the industries they cover. How much of this story is real, and how much of it is imagination? I would have to guess that reality probably wins by a ratio of 4 to 1.

I also enjoy how he finished the story. This is no fairy tale, and there is no "happily ever after."

In the end, I really found this book to be deeply interesting, entertaining and generally well written. I am looking forward to reading more from Michael Culp.

Rating:
Summary: Exciting read and educational for those of us on the outside
Review: Every day, about three times a day, people email me and say "I want to come to Wall Street, I want to be an analyst, I want to pick stocks." I used to give them the whole rap, now I tell them to buy Conflicted. Michael Culp knows more about how Wall Street works than virtually anyone i have ever known, and he tells it all, in a fast and funny form that works even if you have no deside to come to Broad & Wall. Read this book, it is tremendous!

Rating:
Summary: Sigh, I wanted to like this book, really,
Review: I enjoyed this book and I suspect that the complexity of the subject is better treated in a novel than an essay but I found myself longing for a little more Kurt Anderson-Tom Wolfe-Charles Dickens than I got from Michael Culp. I don't know what any of the characters look like. So many comic and satirical opportunities rise up and disipate without really getting those belly laughs or drawing the reader along. Nice book for those of us who eat and sleep this stuff but could have been a great novel.

Rating:
Summary: Sigh, I wanted to like this book, really,
Review: Sigh, I wanted to like this book. I really did. There is a lot of room for someone to write a whole series of business books that do for business what has been overdone by Grisham, Turow, et al., in the legal world.

But this book isn't it.

Rating:
Summary: WoW!
Review: Step inside the shoes of David Meadows, the Director of Research, at a large New York brokerage firm. The Director of Research mediates between the stock analysts, the firm and the world at large. 'Conflicted' gets it's title from the intrigues that go on behind a 'Buy' or 'Hold' rating a high-paid analyst gives a stock and how markets can be manipulated.
I specifically enjoyed the author's (a former Director of Research himself) use of language, dialogue and the glimpse afforded into the lives of those who influence financial markets.

Rating:
Summary: Tells it like it is.
Review: The book is told to be based on ficticious events. However, after reading this piece, I question how ficticious it really is or how far it really is from the truth. I will never look at another research report the same. A must read. Quick, entertaining, and argueably transparent. A fun read for anyone on the Street or considering a career in ER.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Subject but too Long in the Story
Review: This is a novel of the conflicts faced by a director of reseach at a mid-level investment bank trying to raise it's stature. This book is a mixture of good and bad. The author is an extremely experienced research analyst and director so he knows the subject. Maybe too well. This book gives a complete view of what is involved working as an analyst from the type work, the incestuous relationships, to the sexist environment encountered on Wall Street trading floors. You will leave this book feeling much more confident in your understanding of Wall Street and for that purpose this is a great read.

But, the author is clearly not experienced in novel writing and it appears he tried to jam every anecdote of his career into one novel. And that unfortunately, makes the book read very slowly. The research director in the novel is on a search to hire top analyst. Page upon page is discussions of who to hire and the status of each recruiting search ad nauseum. He clearly made an effort to drop the name of every friend still in the business. This subplot could have been shortened in half and since it's the central story of the book, I think you can see how this could inflate and slow the book.

That aside, the other story lines are interesting but play lower roles and are left for extended lengths of time even though they may have increased the interest to the readers. Stories such as blatant sexual harrassment and moving stocks for analyst's personal gain or in cahoots with Russian thieves, not to mention for the sexual favors of a client, would probably have moved the novel along just fine without an in-depth analysis of how to hire an analyst.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. But only because I had an in-depth interest in learning about the working environment of stock research analyst as it is another side of the business I am in. I would recommend this book for anyone with interest in the stock market. But be forewarned. I believe many will find this book boring and too detailed. Make an informed decision prior to purchasing as it is a time commitment to read at over 400 pages of small print.