Inside the house of money is a book about Global Macro hedge funds.
I wrote my MBA thesis on a quant approach to trading for hedge funds. I started investing in silver at 10, stocks at 13 and japanese yen futures at 17. This book was great. Warning, this is not everyone's cup of tea.
I sat riveted reading about what happened as various people responded to the British pound falling out of the ERM or the Asian contagion of 97 followed by LTCM and Russian issues in 1998. This is a great book, if you are into global macro events and markets. I was pleased and surprised that a significant number of global macro hedge fund managers read the Economist. It has been my favorite magazine for 18 years. Jim Rogers, former co-manager of the Quantum fund is like an anthropologist crossed with an opportunistic economist, very cool.
If you invest actively, you might want to think a bit like a global macro manager. If you own a house you are long dollars, long the US housing market and short long term US interest rates. An interesting thing is that the past 3-4 years in volatility are the exception to the rule. Current markets are showing the reversion to the historical mean.
Quite a few of the traders in this book mention wanting to be long Gamma. If you know what that means you should read this book, it is a fantastic read about an industry which is currently shaking out the amateurs. By the way in global macro hedge funds, amateurs can manage billions and have nobel prizes, but still blow up. A PHD doesn't always mean you are smart. I used to manage over 70 of them, some were geniuses, others less so. If you are picking a fund manager, look for humility, low leverage and low volatility that isn't just created by selling gamma and volatility.
