Fooling some of the people all of the time
by David Einhorn · first published 2011
73% recommend27% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A hedge fund manager's account of short-selling Allied Capital and doubting its accounting; valued for its clear, detailed look at how fraud and weak governance are uncovered. Suits those interested in investing.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
How far will some unscrupulous companies go to keep the truth about their dealings from the American investor? Farther than the eye can see, according to this account by Einhorn, the founder of Greenlight Capital, a long-short value-oriented hedge fund. Einhorn's firm has achieved greater than a 25 percent annualized net return for its investors since 1996, proof that Einhorn can literally put his money where his mouth is. At a charity investment conference he did just that, and told the world he had become alarmed by the practices of Allied Capital and had sold it short. The result was near-c
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There is theory and there is practice. Before suggesting any additional funds for SBA loans, I would suggest you read David Einhorn's book "Fooling Some Of The People All of the Time". In short, when the govt. guarantees loans, loan standards go down and fraud goes up. Yes, there are checks and balances in place but motivated parties find ways to scam the system. It is a travesty…
on “9.2% Unemployment? Blame Microsoft.” ↗…pretty well, overall. Government bonds pay nothing now - if every investor had to exit the market (me and you) we'd just be stuck with useless dollars and no means to deploy them. If you haven't read it, Fooling Some of the People All of the Time is a great, but also depressing read into this.
on “Texas electric firm files for bankruptcy citing $1.8B in claims” ↗Highly recommend Fooling Some of the People All of the Time by David Einhorn here as relevant reading.
on “Turkish Magician Built a $600M Nasdaq-Listed Scam Based on Lies” ↗…(of Greenlight Capital) at the recent Ira Sohn conference. Einhorn discusses his Microsoft holdings and talks about the company's performance in some depth. I'm a big fan of Einhorn - he wrote the book "Fooling some of the people all of the time."
on “An investor's take on Microsoft” ↗…resources. Wall Street Training is a good, practical one. Two good resources that give a strong philosophical foundation are Howard Mark's Chairman's Letters (free @ Oaktree Capital website), David Einhorn's "Fooling Some of the People All of the Time", and Nassim Taleb's "Fooled by Randomness."
on “Ask HN: What are some good resources for programmers to learn finance?” ↗^ This. A great book on a specific example is David Einhorn in "Fooling Some of the People All of the Time". He routinely finds fraud and shorts them, in this case, Allied Capital.
on “Robinhood denies claims that it sold GameStop shares out from under its traders” ↗I really enjoyed Fooling Some of the People All of the Time by David Einhorn. He goes clearly and deeply into his suspicions about Allied Capital, a company that he thought/thinks had unethical/illegal accounting and business practices.
on “Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?” ↗two from finance: Confidence Game: How Hedge Fund Manager Bill Ackman Called Wall Street's Bluff // Christine Richard Fooling Some of the People All of the Time // David Einhorn
on “Ask HN: Books about people who persevered when no one else believed in them?” ↗Fooling Some of the People All of the Time: A Long, Short Story by David Einhorn is one of my favourite books.
on “Books to read to understand financial crime” ↗Not only German regulators are like that... The bigger the country, the more absurd things get... Think Madoff, mortgage-crisis, etc. “The Big Short” and “Fooling Some of the People All of the Time” are quite interesting reads in that respect. And as one Finance professor once put it: “If you do business or buy stock in ‘the far east’, P/Ls and Balance Sheets are just fake”. Having seen what is…
on “Wirecard CEO exits as search for missing billions hits dead end in Asia” ↗"The Art of Profitability" by Adrian Slywotzky "The Myth of the Rational Voter" by Bryan Caplan "Fanatical Prospecting" by Jeb Blount "Fooling Some of the People All of the Time" by David Einhorn "Confidence Game" by Christine Richard "Mouth Matters; How Your Mouth Ages Your Body and What YOU Can Do About It" by Carol Vander Stoep "Adventures in Stochastic Processes" by Sidney…
on “Ask HN: What books have you read in the first half of 2016?” ↗This reminds me of the book title "Fooling some of the people, all of the time".
…around them. I am not sure I would recommend learnjng more about investing, getting prepped up: watch Wulf of WallStreet, WallStreet, the big short, read the books from Taleb (brilliant) and the book “fooling some of the people all of the time”. Academia is full of retards and morons in the field of investing. If anybody starts talking crap like “CAPM”, “beta” or “trend analysis” - run. It’s fairy dust and bullshit wrapped in suits (I worked…
on “Ask HN: What to do after $8M (all cash, post tax) exit?” ↗