Rating: 
Summary: The rise and fall of LTCM
Review: Inventing Money is a compelling read to everybody interested in the inner workings of wall street and the derivatives industry in general. It gives an excellent history of the development of the financial markets, with interesting examples, such as the role of the CBOT grain markets during the civil war. In great detail it covers the development of option theory, and the role that Black, Scholes and Merton had. Meriwether's rise at Soloman (see Liars Poker) and the events leading to his departure are also detailed. Finally the details of LTCM and their 'money making machines' are discussed, along with the events that finally brought about LTCM's downfall. In places the book gets very technical but in general Dunbar does an excellent job of explaining and simplifying some extremely complicated principles. I highly recommend this book. It now sits on my bookshelf next to some other great financial reads such as Liars Poker, Barbarians at the Gate, Market Wizards and Den of Thieves. Enjoy
Rating: 
Summary: Nice Try....
Review: Mr. Dunbar does a decent job of detailing the history of modern finance. However, the book falls short of it's title detailing the story of LTCM. Perhaps Roger Lowenstein does a better job of telling the LTCM story.
Rating: 
Summary: Very interesting book
Review: Nicholas Dunbar does a very good job of telling the story of Long Term Captial Management and the people behind it. The book provides a general overview of the company and the events that eventually would lead to its demise. As someone on the inside of the situation I can say that the facts are fairly accurate, however not much specific deatil is provided. Very good read!
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Summary: Can Of Worms
Review: Nicholas Dunbar has skillfully taken the lid off the can of worms which was the LTCM collapse with this story of the individuals and institutions involved in one of the most spectacular business failures of the past decade. His clinical yet gripping account is impartial and fair in dealing with the ethical aspects of the story and sympathetic to the human tragedy played out by the principal actors in this financial melodrama. Dunbar's account will last as a portrait of the world of derivatives, options and markets long after "Wall Street" and other attempts at putting flesh on the bones of the financial world have been consigned to the fantasy shelves, where they belong. In telling the story of LTCM's rise and fall, Nick Dunbar manages, very subtly, to initiate us into some of the more arcane mysteries of risk management in the world of options and derivatives. Like all the best instructors, he succeeds in enthusing us for his subject. From his opening sentence, Dunbar persuades us to be fascinated by the LTCM story and to want to understand it. Readers across all shades of the spectrum from professional to amateur will acquire valuable information from "Inventing Money"; as well as having a hugely enjoyable read.
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Summary: Enjoyable on Many Levels
Review: Nick Dunbar's literate, compact volume takes the reader from the beginnings of the financial revolution marked by Black, Scholes and Merton's discovery of the heralded "Black-Scholes Options Pricing Forumula" through the heady days of John Merriwether's "Bond Arb" group and the treasury scandal that threatened to end his career, to the formation and ultimate demise of Long Term Capital Management, perhaps the most famous hedge fund in history. With minimal technical jargon, Nick Dunbar manages to tell the story with sufficient detail that the unititiated can appreciate the complexity of the financial instruments and models employed by Long Term Capital. These same details are often swept aside in journalistic accounts as generic "highly sophisticated financial instruments" and well-known "mind-bogglingly complex mathematical models". Details notwithstanding, Inventing Money never takes its eye off the human side of the story: money was made and lost, careers soared and plummeted, reputations were shattered and many questions were raised as a result of this important episode in the history of financial markets.The book blends an historical perspective of the developments in financial markets over the past 25 years that led to the opportunities as well as the risks presented to the partners of Long Term Capital with a well-researched account of the fund's operations and ultimate demise. Properly researching the rise and fall of LTCM could only have been a daunting task. In its heyday details of the funds operation were kept mainly private and could only have become more so as the proverbial sh-t hit the proverbial f-n. Despite these obstacles, Dunbar does a fine job piecing together published accounts (some not likely to have been seen by the average reader, like statements by David Modest at the "Measurement and Management of Global Financial Risk" conference held at Wharton, April 29-30 1999, a conference I spoke at) and private interviews with key players to arrive at a book that is coherent and likely to provide something new for almost any reader.
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Summary: DO YOU HAVE A FINANCE BACKGROUND?
Review: The book is really good but if you dont have a finanace background, its complicated as hell. Gets too technical at places and leaves the reader confused. I know a lot about derivatives and it took me time to understand. But overall a good account on how LTCM almost created a global meltdown.
Rating: 
Summary: Too biased
Review: The book starts with a long and broad overview of the history of finance in general and derivatives in particular. The development is slow, but one can argue that that is necessary for the lay reader. By the second half of the book, it becomes clear that the author is fast running out of material. His trouble may be that he had no access to many of the people that he talks about. At this point, the book becomes very thin on facts and very thick on fill in paragraphs. One gets a strong impression that the author's contract with the publisher contains a clause related to the number of pages to be delivered. To compensate for lack of depth, the author adds judgement. On the positive end of the spectrum is Fischer Black. That is fully expected. Black was a quiet brilliant man, who was very much admired by every one who knew him. On the negative end is John Meriwether. JWM is strongly projected not only as delusional, but also as a shallow manipulator. He looks politely over the shoulders of the risk managers seconded by the bail out consortium, and marvels at how they expertly liquidate his arbitrage positions. I just doubt if any of this is true. I suspect that JWM offended the author one way or another. Probably by granting Michael Lewis an interview, but not the author. Well, the point about Mike Lewis is that he can write. Given the fact that the author is an ex-scientist, I expected a bit more objectivity.
Rating:
Summary: Dull, Dull, Dull...
Review: This author took what should have been a fascinating subject and turned it into a boring, long-winded and, for the most part, incomprehensible tome. After having read "When Genius Failed" by Roger Lowenstein, I looked forward to reading Dunbar's book, which I thought would be another informative take on the fiasco. Even in the beginning pages, Dunbar jumped around soooo much, from country to country, from financial discovery to mathematical equasions, from era to era AND from subject to subject that is was just TOO DISTRACTING to be enjoyable. Maybe Wall Street traders or mathematicians would be drawn in by this drivel but I don't think the average reader would be. The biggest disappointment was that Dunbar failed to make even these complex, intense traders interesting! "When Genius Failed" is a far better read.
Rating:
Summary: Dull, Dull, Dull...
Review: This author took what should have been a fascinating subject and turned it into a boring, long-winded and, for the most part, incomprehensible tome. After having read "When Genius Failed" by Roger Lowenstein, I looked forward to reading Dunbar's book, which I thought would be another informative take on the fiasco. Even in the beginning pages, Dunbar jumped around soooo much, from country to country, from financial discovery to mathematical equasions, from era to era AND from subject to subject that is was just TOO DISTRACTING to be enjoyable. Maybe Wall Street traders or mathematicians would be drawn in by this drivel but I don't think the average reader would be. The biggest disappointment was that Dunbar failed to make even these complex, intense traders interesting! "When Genius Failed" is a far better read.
Rating:
Summary: Good story telling, but too dumbed down
Review: This book definitely chronicles what you are looking for from the beginnings of option pricing to the LTCM liquidity crisis in Aug/Sep 98. Also, the book gets better as you read on as Dunbar fills in the story quite well by linking events together and relating their significance. My only material criticism is that the book is dumbed down too much. I imagine this is so that the book will appeal to a broader audience than just Wall St types. But, for Wall St types, it drags at times as Dunbar explains basic option pricing, and portfolio and risk management theories. On the other hand, if you are not familiar with these concepts, you should not fear this book for not understanding those concepts - they are explained quite deftly. All in all, certainly worth the read. A great story! I recommend it to anyone interested in LTCM.
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