Traders, Guns and Money

Satyajit Das is a globally known and respected consultant in the area of financial derivatives and risk management. He is the author of bestselling Traders,Guns & Money: Knowns and Unknowns in the Dazzling World of Derivatives and Extreme Money.

List of figures and tables

Prologue   

   Miracles and mirages

   Serial crimes  

   Beginning of the end/end of the beginning  

   Knowns and unknowns   

   Unreliable recollections   

   Summary judgment  

  1   Financial WMDs – derivatives demagoguery

   School days  

   It’s all Chinese to me  

   A derivative idea   

   Betting shops  

   Secret subtexts   

   Leveraged speculations   

   Under the radar  

   Whole lotta swapping going on

   The golden age/LIBOR minus 50  

   Warehouses

   Serial killings

   Forbidden fruit   

   Derived logic   

  2   Beautiful lies – the ‘sell’ side  

   Smile and dial   

   Market colour  

   Rough trade  

   Analyze this  

   Class wars  

   Ultra vires  

   Feudal kingdoms   

   Uncivil wars  

   Golden rules  

   Business models   

   The medium is the message  

   Bondage  

   Tabloid cultures

   Conspicuous currency  

   Ethnic cleansing

   Foreign affairs

   FILTH   

   Lost in translation

   A day in the life  

  3   True lies – the ‘buy’ side  

   Turn of the fork  

   Risky business   

   Magic kingdoms   

   Stripping or stacking/hedging perils, again   

   Me too  

   ‘Zaiteku’ or the bride stripped bare

   The gamble in P & G   

   Tobashi, baby

   Gnomes of Zermatt and Belgian dentists

   Death swaps

   Investment fashions   

   Alpha, beta, zeta   

   Looking after the relatives  

   Agents all   

   Unique selling propositions  

  4   Show me the money – greed lost and regained  

   Money uncertainty  

   Toll booths   

   Take a seat

   Efficient markets

   On the platform  

   A day at the races

   Black swans, black sheep   

   Trading places

   Secret intelligence

   Overwhelming force   

   Oracle of Delphi

   Free money   

   The colour of money  

   In reserve   

   A comedy of errors  

   Black holes

   What’s the number?   

   Nothing like excess  

   Nice work if you can get it  

   Dukes of Hazard

  5   The perfect storm – risk mismanagement by the numbers  

   Shock therapy

   Holy risk!

   Risk spin