Hedgehogging
by Barton Biggs
List Price:
Our Price: $6.72
You Save: $10.23 (60%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.99 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Barton BiggsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-02-04
ISBN: 047006773X
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Wiley
Book Reviews of Hedgehogging
Book Review: Citing Buffett's Success to Build Your Portfolio
Summary: 5 Stars
I currently finished Barton Biggs' new book, Hedgehogging. Biggs was with Morgan Stanley for 30 years, during which time he created the company's research department and became a national figure as an investment strategist. Hedgehogging is an entertaining and impressionistic memoir that covers a lot of ground. But one piece in the book really brings home this idea that you don't have to beat the market every year. Indeed, most of the greats rarely do.
Biggs writes about Warren Buffett's famous essay "The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville." In this essay, Buffett refutes the idea - popular among academics - that the stock market is efficiently priced and beating it is largely a matter of luck. He then goes through the track records of 10 investment management firms that crushed the market over time. Each of these firms is committed to the approach begun by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd, but since elaborated upon and improved by many others.
Biggs, though, focuses on another facet of their returns. The surprising thing is these superstars, with the exception of Warren Buffett himself, lagged the S&P 500 in about 30-40% of the years studied. John Templeton, another legend - but not included in Buffett's study - lagged the big index about 40% of the time.
As Biggs writes: "None in the group always beat the S&P 500, probably because no one thought that was the primary objective." Even more interesting, some of the greats had relatively long periods of time, three or four consecutive years, where they lagged the market. "Almost invariably, sustained bursts of spectacular returns either preceded and/or followed those bad periods."
One of the striking things in reading Biggs' book is the number of times professional investors - people with hundreds of millions of dollars - buy near tops and sell near bottoms.
A money manager will have a good year and his fund will balloon from $50 million to $1.2 billion as money pours in. Then he has a bad year, and investors take their money out. The fund shrinks in half. Then he has a good year... You get the idea. These are not just individuals making these decisions, but pension fund managers and people who handle multibillion-dollar endowments. You would think they would be smarter about it.
Biggs notes the study done a few years ago by Dalbar, an investment research organization. Dalbar's study showed that the average mutual fund earned a return of 13.8% per year (during the great bull market that ended in 2000). Yet the average investor earned only 7% per year. Why? Because the average investor was switching his money in and out at the worst times. He takes his money out when the market has a bad year and puts it back in when things are back up.
Review by a writer for Agora Financial, publisher of economic and financial analysis including Financial Reckoning Day Fallout: Surviving Today's Global Depression, The New Empire of Debt: The Rise and Fall of an Epic Financial Bubble, and I.O.U.S.A.: One Nation. Under Stress. In Debt.
Summary of Hedgehogging
Rare is the opportunity to chat with a legendary financial figure and hear the unvarnished truth about what really goes on behind the scenes. Hedgehogging represents just such an opportunity, allowing you to step inside the world of Wall Street with Barton Biggs as he discusses investing in general, hedge funds in particular, and how he has learned to find and profit from the best moneymaking opportunities in an eat-what-you-kill, cutthroat investment world.Investing Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Investing Books
Fixed Income Securities: Tools for Today's Markets, Second Editionby Bruce Tuckman
Wiley; Published: 2002-08-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $98.70
The Warren Buffett Way: Investment Strategies of the World's Greatest Investorby Robert G. Hagstrom
Wiley; Published: 1994-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.85
Price in other shops:
Foreclosure Investing For Dummiesby Ralph R. Roberts, Joe Kraynak
For Dummies; Published: 2007-05-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.09
Price in other shops:
Uncommon Grounds : The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our Worldby Mark Pendergrast
Basic Books; Published: 1999-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $26.75
Price in other shops:
Charles Schwab's Guide to Financial Independence: Simple Solutions for Busy Peopleby Charles Schwab
Crown; Published: 1997-12-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Introduction to Derivatives and Risk Management (with Stock-Trak Coupon)by Don M. Chance, Roberts Brooks
South-Western College Pub; Published: 2009-08-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $185.10
Price in other shops:
Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know About Wealth and Prosperityby James D. Gwartney, Richard L. Stroup, Dwight R. Lee, Tawni Hunt Ferrarini
St. Martin's Press; Published: 2005-02-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.98
Price in other shops:
Fundamentals of Futures and Options Markets (4th Edition)by John C. Hull
Prentice Hall; Published: 2001-06-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.06
Price in other shops:
An Introduction to High-Frequency Financeby Michel M.; Gençay, Ramazan; Muller, Ulrich A.; Olsen, Richard B.; Pic Dacorogna
Academic Press; Published: 2001; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $80.53
24 Essential Lessons for Investment Success: Learn the Most Important Investment Techniques from the Founder of Investor's Business Dailyby William J. O'Neil
McGraw-Hill; Published: 1999-12-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.98
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Liar's Pokerby Michael Lewis
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 2010-03-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.51
Price in other shops:
The Most Important Thing: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor (Columbia Business School Publishing)by Howard Marks
Columbia University Press; Published: 2011-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.77
Price in other shops:
More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Eliteby Sebastian Mallaby
Penguin Press HC, The; Published: 2010-06-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.19
Price in other shops:
You Can Be a Stock Market Genius: Uncover the Secret Hiding Places of Stock Market Profitsby Joel Greenblatt
Touchstone; Published: 1999-02-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.07
Price in other shops:
The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial Historyby Gregory Zuckerman
Crown Business; Published: 2010-12-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.80
Price in other shops:
When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Managementby Roger Lowenstein
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2001-10-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.48
Price in other shops:
Wealth, War and Wisdomby Barton Biggs
Wiley; Published: 2009-10-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.47
Price in other shops:
Inside the House of Money, Revised and Updated: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Profiting in the Global Marketsby Steven Drobny, Niall Ferguson
Wiley; Published: 2009-01-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.97
Price in other shops:
More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite (Council on Foreign Relations Books (Penguin Press))by Sebastian Mallaby
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2011-05-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.56
Price in other shops:
A Hedge Fund Tale of Reach and Grasp: Or What's a Heaven Forby Barton Biggs
Wiley; Published: 2010-12-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops: