Book Review: "The Art of Short Selling"

I was really looking forward when I opened the Amazon package. This was touted as one of the "Must Reads" for anyone interested in short selling.

However, after having it read now, I am actually quite dissapointed. The book starts with a small introduction and short portraits of some famos short sellers which was interesting.

However, then in the next 200 pages there is example after example of stocks which at some point in time crashed due to different reasons.

SOme of those examples were quite interesting, however most of them were relatively short descriptions with some charts and a quick story.

The best part of the book are the last 50 or so pages which summarize what and where to look for if you want to spot porential short candidates. In contrast to other books however, the content is relatively "shallow".

For me the book was quite hard to read, as the examples do not really comprise a story. All in all something you may read but it is definitely not a "must Read".

Book Review: Confidence Game

An interesting book which describes the fight of another Hedgefund hot shot, namely Bill Ackman against another financial company MBIA.

Already in the early 2000s, Bill Ackman came to the conlusion that the business model of the so called "Monoline" Insurance companies made no sense and started shorting the stock and critize it openly.

What followed was a huge backlash from the company the SEC and even Elliot Spitzer, then Attorney General in New York.

The story is well told, however there is one drawback: Different to Einhorn's Book "Fooling some people all the time", this book was written by a journalist and not by Ackman himself. It therefore doesn't offer the same insight into the "thinking" of the genius. But it is still a worthwile read and highly recommended for anyone interestes in short selling.

Book Review: "Fooling some people all the Time"

This is the ultimate short selling case study of one of the most respected Hedgefund and Value Investors of our time.



It describes the year long crusade of David against the Management of a almost criminal financial services companyAllied Capital). As it is written by himself, it shows his style of analysis which combines highly sophisticated balance sheet analysis and extensive field research.

It also shows in detail, how much resistence he was facing, not only from the Company itself but also from angry investors, the SEC and others. The company tried to put any kind of preasure on him, like even spying on his telephone calls.

Besides the analytical angle, the book also shows the absolute will of EInhorn to fight this through. At some point in time he even commits all potential profits out of this position to charity.

I would actually recommend it also as an outstanding book on analyzing financial statements for anyone interested in this field.

And of course this is a Must Read for anyone interested in short selling stocks.