There are many good books that talk about frauds and other industry problems. I find this type of book an excellent way to get the ‘feel’ of the industry and to learn from others’ mistakes.

Most of these books are available in paperback and are just a good read.  

If you come across a book that falls into this category and you’d like to share the title, please send an email to hal@tsgc.com.  We’ll be happy to add it to this list.

Rogue Trader by Nick Leeson
	This is one of my favorites since it shows how easy it is to circumvent controls when a lot of profits are involved. It was written by the main player in the fraud so there is a slight slant to it, but basically he explains exactly what he did (and why he went to jail). – Hal ISBN-13: 978-0751517088 Publisher: Time Warner Paperbacks Pages: 378 Pub Date: 1997

Barings Lost: Nick Leeson and the Collapse of Barings Plc by Luke Hunt and Karen Heinrich
	This is a more factual report of the same Barings story, so it makes a good counterpoint to Nick Leeson’s account of what happened when one person was put in charge of operations and trading. - Hal ISBN-13: 978-9810068028 Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann Pages: 296 Pub Date: 1996

Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar
	It was a good movie, but the book goes into more detail about how M&A really works. - Hal ISBN-13: 978-00605363 Publisher: Collins Pages: 592 Pub Date: 2003

Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street by Michael Lewis
	This is a classic that everyone in the industry should read.  The cast of characters (who really exist) is rich and varied, and the pace of the writing makes it very hard to put down. - Hal ISBN-13: 978-0140143454 Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) Pages: 256 Pub Date: 1990

Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind
	The ENRON managers were smart, but then they got greedy.  Some were greedy personally and some were greedy to continue the growth of their business.  - Hal ISBN-13: 978-0141011455 Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd Pages: 464 Pub Date: 2004

Trading Secrets: Seduction and Scandal at the Wall Street Journal by R. Foster Winans
	This book is a bit dated, but the idea of insider trading never goes completely out of style. If you have ever hoped that you could get a copy of tomorrow’s WSJ today (as I have) you’ll enjoy reading about how the Heard on the Street Columnist shared information before he wrote about it. - Hal ISBN-13: 978-5551640578 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub Date: 1986

When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management by Roger Lowenstein

The Nobel laureates at LTCM calculated that different markets and instruments historically behaved differently and believed they could identify arbitrages abound the world that would require a large amount of capital, produce thin margins but be essentially risk free in the long run. They missed two basic points: a historic trend is not a predictor of the future and it is possible for everything to go bad at once. LTCM used up its capital and credit and dragged the largest investment banks in so that the banks had no choice but to loan more to try to rescue what they could. The bankers found out the truth of an old adage: When you owe the banks a little, they own you. When you owe them a lot, you own them. - Hal ISBN-13: 978-0375758256 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Pages: 288 Pub Date: 2001

Black and White on Wall Street: The Untold Story of the Man Wrongly Accused of Bringing Down Kidder Peabody by Joseph Jett and Sabra Chartrand
	Joe Jett was trader who either exploited an accounting flaw in Kidder’s computer system for his own profit or who was a dupe who didn’t understand the market. Although he tries to blame everyone around him, his book makes for interesting reading. - Hal ISBN-13: 978-0688161361 Publisher: William Morrow & Company Pages: 387 Pub Date: 1999