Rating: 
Summary: A Real Page Turner
Review: This book falls into the genre of very few Wall Street books (Barbarians at the Gates, The Predators Ball) that despite knowing the outcome, you cant put the book down . From the outset, the book has an easy, compelling writing style. You get a real sense of the personalities involved and the ensuing drama. A must read if you have any interest in investing---from novice to Nobel Laurete!
Rating: 
Summary: a page turner
Review: I find I get a lot of pleasure when I read about really smart successful people completely failing. It makes me think, as a promising failure myself, that all is ok in the world. Here we have a bunch of masters in the universe locked in a room together with their supercomputers and their supersecret formulas for derivative success lose ONE TRILLION DOLLARS! How dumb is that? A must read for stock market players like myself who don't know what they are doing and yet - I HAVE NEVER LOST A TRILLION DOLLARS.
Rating:
Summary: Very good insight into a financial debacle
Review: The book is very well written. I agree with the previous reviewer that if you're farmiliar with derivatives, the book can be tedious. The author illustrates how "greed" blinded Nobel Laureates and bankers, who are otherwise pretty intelligent people. Very well done.
Rating: 
Summary: Never Equate a Nobel Prize with Common Sense
Review: As a former professional options and mortgage-backed securities trader on Wall Street I found this book highly amusing. For those who know nothing about derivatives it is probably an easy read. For those who know the derivative markets it is tedious at times. It's the story itself and the well researched details that are most interesting, from the imbicillic bankers that bent over backwards to do business with LTCM to the colorful LTCM team; JM and his old Salomon wunderkinds and the brilliant (ha!) Merton and Scholes. To think this den of fools actually believed that their models were infallable (and these models were greatly flawed in terms of a true understanding of volatility)is not only irresponsible but incomprehensible to any technical trader. I loved this book for once again it proves the words of John Kenneth Galbraith: "There is far more money flowing into the markets than there is intelligence to guide it".
Rating:
Summary: Worth reading, but not that much
Review: I'm not a technical expert and I can't make any statements on whether Mr. Lowenstein's accuracy regarding details on the subject. A lot of things made sense to me though, i.e. that could be true. So, as a non technical person, I tried to focus on the analysis of the people involved in the case (the human factor), and that part of the book is worth reading.On the other hand, I know a couple of people that actually lived the rise and fall of LTCM (working in other companies) and I have even seen some of the people mentioned in the book in person (talking to these people I know). My "sources" say that I should consider about 50% of the book as an accurate story. The other half is probably made of legends and wrong information. I trust my "sources" and that's why I gave just 3 stars to this book. It's not that good but it's a nice read.
Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting, though Opionated
Review: This is a very interesting book. I really enjoyed reading it, even though I disagreed with some of the conclusions that Lowenstein would draw. Even though Lowenstein damns LTCM at the end, I think the actual lesson from LTCM's demise is that first movers (or the first people to start picking apples from the tree) can make a ton of money. The founders of LTCM were brilliant to recognize the opportunities that they found, but were simply unwilling to admit that the eventual competition meant that they couldn't get annual returns of 40% forever without a completely different approach. This book also explains very complicated finance in a manner I found helpful. If you're interested in LTCM or Wall Street, this book is a safer investment of your money than even U.S. treasuries.
Rating:
Summary: When Genius Failed
Review: Mr. Lowenstein has written a masterful account of the rise and fall of Long-Term Capital Management. He succeeds in bringing his characters to life and even though we may know the outcome of the story, the book still has the narrative power of a greek tragedy. You can almost see the words "Pride Goeth Before the Fall" written above the entryway at LTCM's Greenwich headquarters. For those involved in the financial markets, the book also raises many interesting questions about the nature of risk and diversification and the limits of computer modeling as well as the legitimacy of much of the "New Finance."
Rating:
Summary: Was it really Genius that Failed?
Review: A must read for anyone involved in the capital markets. Any finance professor that does not use this as a case study is doing his students a disservice. Notice Neil Barsky's input within the forward. It is particularly interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: abundant facts, but lacking coherance
Review: Without a doubt, the author devoted a reasonable amount of time gathering the facts surrounding the birth and demise of Long Term Capital. However, as the author admits himself, many primary sources proved to be difficult beyond a first interview, therefore, it doesn't come as a surprise that the book packs a tremoudous amount of information pertaining to the subject, yet somehow, couldn't tie it all together succinctly. The reader may gain a clearer understanding by reading "Inventing Money" by N. Dunbar.
Rating:
Summary: Good Book, Lacks Financial Detail
Review: Lowenstein follows in a proud history of Wall Street Journal reporters that have written outstanding books about current events, such as "Den of Thieves" by Stewart and "Barbarians at the Gate" by Burrough and Heylar. Lowenstein walks us through the development of Long Term Capital management at the hands of "Liar's Poker" star John Merriweather. Merriweather and his band of academic, bond-trading proteges raised the mother of all funds in LTCM, dedicated to making massive bets, the majority of which were related to convergence amongst various interest rate spreads. Merriweather and his gang go on to do quite well (all the while we hear the Jaws-like music playing in the background), in fact they do a little too well. At one point they forcibly return money to investors - it is, of course, after this that things start to go tragically wrong. There are wonderful descriptions and backgrounds of the key characters involved along the way, which adds to the reader's desire to know just how things wind up. The fund continues to lose all of its holdings, and as things start to go bad, they continue to get worse and worse. Now it is no longer just the markets conspiring against LTCM, but also the growing number of bankers who learn of LTCM's positions, and knowing that due to their size LTCM's exit of those positions would ruin markets. Everything that could go wrong does, and eventually we are left with the aftermath, the fund being bailed out through the behind the scenes maneuvering of the New York Fed. The book does lack a couple of items, (i) there is little to no in depth discussion of the trading techniques used by LTCM, (ii) there isn't really any 'insiders' view of the behind the scenes maneuvering going on at the fund through the fall, and finally (iii) there isn't a real sense of finality at the end of the book. All in all this is a well written book about an interesting point in the financial history of the US, as there are few other major incidents that don't involve some kind of criminal misdeeds. Rather, what we see here is the sheer error of man's hubris and seeming belief that a resounding knowledge of the past would allow LTCM to be victorious no matter what the future lay before it. I believe that this book will grow more interesting with every revision and addition to the epilogue. I recommend the text, but I do look forward to reading "Inventing Money" by Dunbar, which supposedly is a bit more detailed when reviewing the actual trading techniques that LTCM was was built on.
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