This book is like the greatest hits compilation of the derivative market scandals. It's fast, funny and viciously juicy. Two thumbs up for Das! My favourite bit: The lawyer's pencil-sharpening Zen moment lol.

This talks about the evils, absurdities and shenanigans of Investment professionals tasked to design & sell complex financial instruments known as Derivatives. The writing is humorous and the author manages to captivate your attention throughout the book

This just seemed like an attempt to jump on the finance industry autobiography bandwagon. There is precious little that's new -- or interesting -- here.

This book is a very cynical (yet I suspect highly accurate) account of derivatives trading from a guy that's been there and done that. You do not need to be a financial geek to appreciate this book. It is written in a very entertaining way. For those that are interested you can expend some mental effort and get a basic understanding of derivatives, but you can ignore the details and still enjoy the story. The chapter on credit derivatives is particulary entertaining given the recent meltdown

An excellent discussion of financial derivatives and their use/abuse. Understanding the use of derivatives provides a clear understanding of last years' crash of the credit markets. Should have read this one sooner.

Required reading to understand the financial industry. *****

I did learn a few things about derivatives from this book. For example, I had not previously realized how mark to market accounting can be used to inflate profits and traders' bonuses and can lead to margin calls on illiquid top level CDO tranches when the failure of lower tranches causes a ratings downgrade in upper level tranches that would probably actually pay full value if held to maturity, so even if the models were right in predicting tiny risks of default, the accounting rules helped to accelerate the financial crisis. The book does a good job in showing how derivatives can create an economic house of cards rather than having positive value in increasing liquidity and stability. But in trying to be light and humorous, the author frequently becomes too cynical and snarky. And he could have gone a bit deeper than he did in explaining the math and the modeling. Surely it can't all be as much of a shell game as the author suggests, or if it is, I wish that he would have given me a little more substance to reach that conclusion on my own.

A tour through the deceptions that brought us the 2007 Credit Crunch. From the investment agencies that produced worthless piles of garbage dressed up in pretty acronyms to the gullible buyers that believed what they were told.

amazing....

If you are interested in learning a little about derivatives this might be a good book for you. Author shares lengthy market experience as buyer and seller of bonds and derivatives.

After reading this book, I learned how one of my annuities manages to guarantee the lesser of 6% per year or the actual market growth of my investments. (Zero coupon bond worth 106%, call option on my portfolio purchases, they keep a percentage for themselves.) I also learned that I was a sucker for buying into this annuity - except that I was lucky and did it a year before the market drop of 2008. Now if I can just get my 106% out...

I was a big fan of Frank Portnoy's Fiasco and this is the geekier version with more finance than most people want to read. The author, Das, also includes stories of derivatives deals which drive home how outmatched most purchasers, no matter how sophisticated they think they are (Fortune 500 CFO's et al), compared to the folks who spend their entire days thinking of novel financial vehicles.

"Good reminder that derivatives, securitization, financial engineering, excess liquidity, leverage, lax regulation, compromised rating agencies, and culpable home buyers were key factors in triggering the financial meltdown in 2008. ABS, RMBS, CDO, CMO, CDS, SIV, mezzanine tranches, warehouse loans, risk transfer, etc. No matter how hungry investors are for yield, if you don't understand the product, don't buy it"