Amazon.com: Customer reviews: The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History

Top positive review

Wonderful inside view of the contrarians of finance

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2019

I’ve been reading a lot of books over the past several years starting with the Great Depression and spanning most of the economic histories to the present. This is a hobby, but one that’s been highly gratifying. I find Mr. Zuckerman to be a highly readable author, extremely talented in his ability to convey the messy complexities of the markets and economy. He also has the skill to provide developed descriptions and motivations of the players. This is one I’ll be reading again. Much thanks to the author.

7 people found this helpful

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bigandrew

Meh. An okay read about an unlikable "hero"

Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2016

I just couldn't make myself give a hoot about any of the central characters in this story. All of them struck me as self-centered crybabies. It's worth a read to get an insight into the machinery that failed and caused the housing market crash, though one can get a much more entertaining story of that regard from "The Big Short."

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From the United States

David Gableman

Interesting, informative, and enjoyable

Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2010

Verified Purchase

This is a fascinating recount of how several groups of investors anticipated the crash of the housing market and their strategies for profiting from the inevitable (as we now know) "bubble" burst.

First, and a key point in any non-fiction book, the Author makes this book extremely enjoyable to read. A key part of the book is understanding the parties involved, their experiences, their motivations. Mr. Zuckerman accomplishes this an easy to read style that always keeps your interest.

Secondly, I am not a financial expert who understands the complex world of hedge funds and financial transactions. Yet this book manages to capture the essence of the bubble and the trades with enough detail to allow us "non-financial" people to understand, but does not overly simplify the topic. The Author does an excellent job of describing the financial transactions in an easy to understand style that most people should be able to follow.

And finally, the lessons in this book is why I will have my 17 year old son read it. It is a true story how common sense can get lost in a herd mentality, how what appears to be a great thing now may have disastrous repercussions later, and how difficult it can be to remain strong in your views despite withering pressure to change. It is also a story on how sometimes "older" is "wiser" -- hope he learns that lesson, lol!

A few items I would change in the book: Although not a short book, I found myself really wanting to know even more about the various parties. Also, when describing the financial transactions, I think a few nice diagrams would be helpful for us non-finance people.

However, those are just minor issues in an overall outstanding book. The Author manages to take a complex topic and make it understandable. Not only understandable, but thoroughly enjoyable to read. And, perhaps most importantly, a imparts some valuable lessons regarding standing firm to your principles in the face of overwhelming pressure to conform.

One person found this helpful

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Neil Harrington

Fantastic read. Couldn’t put it down

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2019

Verified Purchase

Great book. Really good read and great insight

2 people found this helpful

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Markus Schmidt

Entertaining and hard to put down.

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2011

Verified Purchase

I just finished the book within two days, which is rather untypical for a financial book. Before reading it I was rather well informed about the whole financial crisis itself, but did not know any of the players which were more or less acting behind the scene. So I wasn't looking for a technical explanation of its mechanics or alleged reasons, but was looking for the soft part of the story, much like an article about Michael Burry which I recently read.

In any case, the book does a very good job delivering just that. It introduces a hand full of people (Michael Burry among them) who were betting against the housing and mortgage security boom and releases their story bit by bit, each time leaving the reader wondering how they will do and if in the end they will actually succeed or fail making money from being right. People know that Paulson did succeed but with those lesser known characters there was a good deal of suspension, wanting to know if the big banks playing against them would get them or not.

In other words, it was informative, entertaining and hard to put down.

Quite honestly ... it might just as well have been a Grisham thriller.

One person found this helpful

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gungadin

The Greatest Trade Ever

Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2014

Verified Purchase

I read this book with quite a few others at the time of the financial debacle. This is very exciting for the subject and holds your
attention. It also gives good information as to how the market works and gives the general reader a captivating look at the inner
workings of the financial world and its people.

One person found this helpful

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Narada

The psychology of a speculator

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2010

Verified Purchase

The book gives a lot of insight into the psychology of a gambler, and into why it is so difficult to be a contrarian. The book is NOT just about Paulson, but just as much about other players, and their struggles with The Trade. As to the actual technical content, the book could be much better: it is highly unclear why the later phase of the trade worked: one might think that as things started unraveling, counter-party risk would drive the price of the CDS products way down, but this appeared not to have happened. The author essentially does not mention the involvement of AIG, which (as far as I can tell) was the biggest writer of CDS products in the market -- from what I gather, Michael Lewis' book (which I have not yet read) might have addressed that.

3 people found this helpful

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John Lu

Truly amazing book

Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2010

Verified Purchase

From all the books on the market, at least recent books this turly is the best book. You can understand both the biz and personal life of some of the main players and also understand clearly what went down leading up to the crash.

Yes paulson made a ton of money, and with that will come tons of hate.

If this book was all about everyone losing everything than I guarantee there would be no neg. reviews. But when you have people struggling to feed their families I fully understand that some here will scream and cry on anyone wiritng or being part of someone who make extremes amounts of money in a short period of time.

Great book, every page is full of great info and its an easy good read.

If you are the type that likes reading tabloids all day because you enjoy and feel better about reading about peoples problems on end than this book is not for you, you will hate this book, as it talks about those who made it big time. But if you already realized that your life wont get better by reading about disasters and dooms than buy this, you'll like it.

I buy many things here and don't leave to many reviews, but when I see the misrable style reviews I felt the need to tell it like it is.

One person found this helpful

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Larry Underwood

A Contrarian's Remarkable Home Run

Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2009

Verified Purchase

Contrarian investment guru Doug Casey used to say, "You know the time to dump an investment is when it makes the cover of Time Magazine." I don't rememeber if it was 2004 or 2005 when Time's cover story was "Will Your House Make You Rich?" Casey was right, the time had come to get out of real estate, although profiting from that move was as treacherous as playing a game of high stakes craps in a casino used to fleecing its players.

In a story revealing one man's prescience about the housing bubble, Gregory Zuckerman describes with rich detail how John Paulson zigged when the rest of Wall Street zagged, and wound up making billions in the process; this was by far, the "greatest trade ever", and the story behind it is a most compelling one, indeed. The complexities of the huge power play that Paulson parlayed into outrageous fortune, also left others who bet the farm too early, out in the cold. To make a fortune when betting against a tidal wave of growing valuation, you've got to time it just right; and you've got to have a lot of courage and conviction in your strategy.

Certainly, "conventional wisdom" will be shouting in your face that you're way off base; of course, as we've seen time and time again, "conventional wisdom" is often anything but "wise". In the case of the wildly escalating housing market in the middle of this decade, even Alan Greenspan was fooled.

Zuckerman's behind the scenes story of Paulson's brilliant trade is one of contrast; between the logical and pragmatic approach Paulson took when calculating the upside potential of betting against the stampeding real estate market, versus the illogical rationale behind those expecting the bubble to never burst.

The lesson learned here is simple; eventually, everything returns to its logical state of being. Never bet against that for too long, unless you want to end up like so many of the former Wall Street high rollers, who shot craps on their last turn at the table.

8 people found this helpful

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Brian Morgan

Amazing!

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2013

Verified Purchase

This is a very well researched account of how John Paulson,(and a few others) sniffed out the real estate bubble of the first decate of the 21st century. It tells a lot of the stories of the 'experts' who said that Paulson was nuts. In the end he certainly had the last laugh.

One person found this helpful

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Jonathan Smith

Greatest Financial Story Ever

Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2010

Verified Purchase

Wow! This was a great book in every way. I now understand what happened with sub-prime lending down to the parts, if not the nuts and bolts. Yet I never felt that I was being taught. In fact, it seems that the individuals constructing these trades were all outsiders and started out understanding the trade from a very layman's point of view. The idea behind the trade was very much focused on common sense evaluation of the fundamentals, the guts to feel their way through the process even if they worried that they might be missing some key piece of information, hard analytical work, a little bit of gutsy political maneuvering, and the technical ability to navigate the complex financial instruments used.

And the book was well written. The writing was not sensationalist. But I couldn't put it down. I felt I understood the motivations of the individuals in the book. I came to admire most, though not all, of them. And for a book that tells a story to which everyone has a general knowledge, I was surprised that I was in suspense to the very end. There were so many different ways the trade was played by various actors. One can identify with all of the worries and mistakes made by each of the individuals in the story.

I highly recommend this book!

One person found this helpful

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Jeffrey S Roberts

Wow!

Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2013

Verified Purchase

Until I read this book, I had no idea how much pressure John Paulson was under from his investors even when his big gamble on mortgage defaults was starting to be proved correct in 2007. Shows that you must have a strong conviction that you are right and be willing to hold on while others berate your investment hypothesis. Great book about an incredible gamble which paid off big.

One person found this helpful

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