Confidence Game - Christine S. Richard

[Liberty]

[amazonsearch]Confidence Game[/amazonsearch]

 

Just started reading this and it's very interesting so far.

 

 

[jjsto]

The transcripts are good too:

 

http://www.confidencegame.net/read-transcripts-from-investigation.html

[Liberty]

Thanks for posting that!

[yp]

Great book! Almost halfway through it and I'm really enjoying it. My respect for Bill Ackman has grown immensely due to this book.

 

It must take great guts to go against the herd in such a public way for 5 years and face all those challenges (SEC, attorney general's investigations, taking a battering from MBIA, news reporters, etc.) but then to come out a victor must be well worth it.

 

Course I don't get a lot of the derivative related lingo/concepts but it gives me a reason to learn.

 

And yay, my first post on this forum! :D 

[Liberty]

Great book! Almost halfway through it and I'm really enjoying it. My respect for Bill Ackman has grown immensely due to this book.

 

This book increased my respect for Ackman dramatically too!

 

 

And yay, my first post on this forum! :D

 

Welcome to the board!

[yp]

Great book! Almost halfway through it and I'm really enjoying it. My respect for Bill Ackman has grown immensely due to this book.

 

This book increased my respect for Ackman dramatically too!

 

 

And yay, my first post on this forum! :D

 

Welcome to the board!

 

I think one of the many things I can take away from this book is that to attain that sort of success; it's supremely important to have done your research and know the company inside out.... which I guess would lead to gigantic photocopying/printing bills too.  ;D

 

"Ackman Devoured 140,000 Pages Challenging MBIA Rating (Update2)"

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a7.NpGwa19TY

 

And thanks, glad to be here!

[Liberty]

I think one of the many things I can take away from this book is that to attain that sort of success; it's supremely important to have done your research and know the company inside out.... which I guess would lead to gigantic photocopying/printing bills too.  ;D

 

You definitely need an edge over other market participants, and that can come from doing research until your eyeballs bleed.

 

It also helps to be wicked smart like Ackman  :P

[Rabbitisrich]

Good book. One interesting nugget was that, according to Richard, financial publication editors measure story "success" by next day market impact.

[Liberty]

Good book. One interesting nugget was that, according to Richard, financial publication editors measure story "success" by next day market impact.

 

Indeed. It's probably a consequence of teaching efficient market theory for so long.

 

After all, if that theory is true and you make public some info about a company and the market doesn't move, it either mean that the information was either not important or not new.

[yp]

Good book. One interesting nugget was that, according to Richard, financial publication editors measure story "success" by next day market impact.

 

Indeed. It's probably a consequence of teaching efficient market theory for so long.

 

After all, if that theory is true and you make public some info about a company and the market doesn't move, it either mean that the information was either not important or not new.

 

Exactly, if I recall correctly; Jay Brown of MBIA played off anything that came up against MBIA as "not new news"... "reassuring" the market that they were still good for their insurance issues.

 

Also, I think Richard was also suggesting that MBIA was repurchasing shares (especially heavily) when any negative reports came out against them ensuring no decrease in their share price. Though I may be wrong about this.