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Money Mavericks: Confessions of a Hedge Fund Manager
If hedge funds were a country, it would be the eighth-biggest on the planet. They can sink whole economies, and have the potential to crash the entire global financial system. Yet they are beyond regulation. We should be very afraid.' New Statesman, 2006 What is a hedge fund and what do hedgies actually do? How are the staggering fees in the hedge industry calculated? And are the managers and the funds worth it? A true entrepreneur, Lars Kroijer was a leading hedge fund manager and founded his own hedge fund, Holte Capital in 2002. In 2008, just before the crash he shut down the fund and returned the external capital to the remaining investors. This is the story of the life of a hedge fund. It charts the interminable rise of Holte Capital from 2002 to 2008, explaining what it was like to run a hedge fund in a period where the industry went from relative obscurity to become something everyone wanted to discuss. Detailing the practices, excesses, tricks and tenacity of the hedge fund industry, Money Mavericks shines the light on the incredible inside workings of hedge funds. This book will appeal to those who are familiar with the hedge fund industry, but also for those who want to know what the fuss is about.
210 pages, Paperback
First published July 27, 2010
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374 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
August 31, 2012
Seeing As this book has so many positive reviews, I will make this review bit less detailed than usual. Instead i'll just contribute to the positivity.
Now first of all, this book is great. It's written by former hedge fund manager Lars Kroijer. Lars starts off by exposing some of the popular myths in the hedge fund industry, the whole glamorous appeal of it all is nothing more than a gross oversimplification society has placed on it, Much like the situation in china. Lars walks you through his life from the genesis of it all to the hedge fund industry. He shows you the kind of child he was, the family he came from and why he decided to go to school to study the land of investing. This book should be read by anyone who is strongly considering going into the hedge fund industry, it shows you that it's not rosy place at all. And how brutal and unreasonable the clients can be. Lars walks us through the journey from the idea to the fruition of it all.
And we all know there are alot of people who tend to harbour the notion that hedge fund managers or people in finance or the business world don't work hard at all. those poeple would probably change their mind after reading this book. Lars shows you the hardships of making it. Just how hard one must work for the idea to actually become a reality, all the people involved, All the meetings, All the people overlooking him because as we all know people like to pay attention to the size of the man rather than the size of the plan. A quality I despise in people. I found that me and Lars had allot in common. And I think any successful person who have made it or are still making it on their own will also relate
The Verdict:
Very good book on the inner clockwork of the hedge fund industry, reveals alot of notions society has placed on the industry as myths. And shows you how hard one must push to accomplish the goal
Physical Quality:
The book was published by FT Publishing International and the quality of the book in it's entirety is impeccable. This the best if not then surely one of the most high quality paperbacks I own.
Thanks for reading my review, hope I was of some help. check out my other reviews if you like this one
Now first of all, this book is great. It's written by former hedge fund manager Lars Kroijer. Lars starts off by exposing some of the popular myths in the hedge fund industry, the whole glamorous appeal of it all is nothing more than a gross oversimplification society has placed on it, Much like the situation in china. Lars walks you through his life from the genesis of it all to the hedge fund industry. He shows you the kind of child he was, the family he came from and why he decided to go to school to study the land of investing. This book should be read by anyone who is strongly considering going into the hedge fund industry, it shows you that it's not rosy place at all. And how brutal and unreasonable the clients can be. Lars walks us through the journey from the idea to the fruition of it all.
And we all know there are alot of people who tend to harbour the notion that hedge fund managers or people in finance or the business world don't work hard at all. those poeple would probably change their mind after reading this book. Lars shows you the hardships of making it. Just how hard one must work for the idea to actually become a reality, all the people involved, All the meetings, All the people overlooking him because as we all know people like to pay attention to the size of the man rather than the size of the plan. A quality I despise in people. I found that me and Lars had allot in common. And I think any successful person who have made it or are still making it on their own will also relate
The Verdict:
Very good book on the inner clockwork of the hedge fund industry, reveals alot of notions society has placed on the industry as myths. And shows you how hard one must push to accomplish the goal
Physical Quality:
The book was published by FT Publishing International and the quality of the book in it's entirety is impeccable. This the best if not then surely one of the most high quality paperbacks I own.
Thanks for reading my review, hope I was of some help. check out my other reviews if you like this one
October 7, 2019
Really enjoyed reading Lars Kroijer's memoir on running a hedge fund. The down to earth writing style makes Lars' book easy to read. It's not everyday you get to go "behind the scenes" in starting up a hedge fund and the fundraising activities involved. Lars digs deep in the industry and questions the high fees and value added as a hedge fund towards the end of his journey running Holte Capital. Even if you're not into finance, it's worth a read.
January 6, 2026
There aren’t many books on start up funds due to either selection bias where those that make it don’t take about the early days, and those who don’t have no books. In light of that, I enjoyed reading this book by Lars as he paints a neutral view of Holte Capital from its early days to its peak and finally when he had to close.
High level, this book is a mixture of deep narrative building, technical finance jargon, and investing advice for amateurs reading this book. In particular, Lars’s funny writing style is a blast - there’s scenes where he talks about broker conferences and how people (liked his doctor/wife) had different opinions on him from work that I thought were funny.
On the educational side - the discussion of fees was VERY VERY helpful. I had no idea that 1.64% of the 2% funds charge go to operating costs of a HF, that pensions and FoF take up 3%+ of the mgmt fee and incentives make any HF return beta. A lot of this got me thinking about the expense of the finance space and showed me how high the bar truly was for alpha.
The small case studies with the German spin offs and short medical company were all very interesting - it was like a spin out form Greenblatt’s you can be a stock mkt genius.
The weakest parts of the book were the last part where modern portfolio theory is discussed in depth to an academic level which I didn’t think was helpful. The book is also very very short and could have been written to be longer. Lastly, I loved the book but wasn’t “hooked” by any means and maybe that aspect of writing is intangible but that’s also why it’s a 4/5.
Fantastic read especially if you’re into L/S!
—
Notes:
- Typically master feeder structure - where Cayman or other feeder funds feed the master
- $250k starting cost for them
- Prime broker charges you for assets - and there’s a min fee that eats at you if you don’t raise
- Why good to have high fees: 1) looks higher tier 2) more buzz if you can raide with it
- Usually a multiplier to invest 5/10x in follow on rounds
- First round gets a 5% incentive fee and higher after
- Employed paper portfolio to input trades immediately
- Larger funds have Econ of scale by levering off fixed costs - means small funds need to pay out of pocket to launch
- LPs don’t want to be 30%+
- Econ of scale with larger funds - renegotiate previous bad terms (less minimum funds, trading bps, IT, etc
- Broker also connects you with research and other sources
- Scaling biz to trade illiquid securities is VERY hard - analysts forget abt positions
- Bure: Swedish internet co that owned stakes in other tech cos - through activism (focus mgmt on buying shares) they brought SP to NAV
- Most LPs were FoFs vs HNWIs
- Strats: pair trade special sits (stub trades), long/short sectors by analyzing better biz (pod model)
- Should’ve taken more risks - 1) lever up GMV when doing pair trades 2) set up multiple fund products to diversify returns
- Payout system (of the carve): 50/25/25 - capital provider, PM, analyst, everything else from mgmt fee
- Chris Hohn: Perry Cap -> TCI and aggressively raised, known to be tough to work for
- Idea dinners - caused people to frequently converged ideas
- Prime brokers and seed investors are like the life blood of a start up fund
- Brokers: 8 bps for trading, half a bil firm like Holte generated $1.6m which is why they hang out with you
- Hard to scale niche strats - stopped hold at sub billion trail
- Mgmt fees: pension fund advisors 25 bps, pension fund 75 bps, FoF 100 bps
- Softing: broker charges you higher but gives you other resources (BBG etc) -> makes fees higher
- Borrow fee 38 bps, commissions 80.56% and 70 bps of officer spread
- 1.64% in total -> means like no money from mgmt fee
- HF - 20 bps fund expenses, 150 bps mgmt fe2, 20% carry
- Fog - 15 bps expenses, 100 bps mgmt fee, 10% carry
- Pension - 15 bps advisor, 75 bps fees
- Indexes are 10x cheaper than HFs
- Banks have internal talent groups to move analysts between HFs
- Regret - should have increased GMV to 3-400% way earlier to raise return profile as returns were consistent
- Your EV buying puts is negative if vol is 23%+
High level, this book is a mixture of deep narrative building, technical finance jargon, and investing advice for amateurs reading this book. In particular, Lars’s funny writing style is a blast - there’s scenes where he talks about broker conferences and how people (liked his doctor/wife) had different opinions on him from work that I thought were funny.
On the educational side - the discussion of fees was VERY VERY helpful. I had no idea that 1.64% of the 2% funds charge go to operating costs of a HF, that pensions and FoF take up 3%+ of the mgmt fee and incentives make any HF return beta. A lot of this got me thinking about the expense of the finance space and showed me how high the bar truly was for alpha.
The small case studies with the German spin offs and short medical company were all very interesting - it was like a spin out form Greenblatt’s you can be a stock mkt genius.
The weakest parts of the book were the last part where modern portfolio theory is discussed in depth to an academic level which I didn’t think was helpful. The book is also very very short and could have been written to be longer. Lastly, I loved the book but wasn’t “hooked” by any means and maybe that aspect of writing is intangible but that’s also why it’s a 4/5.
Fantastic read especially if you’re into L/S!
—
Notes:
- Typically master feeder structure - where Cayman or other feeder funds feed the master
- $250k starting cost for them
- Prime broker charges you for assets - and there’s a min fee that eats at you if you don’t raise
- Why good to have high fees: 1) looks higher tier 2) more buzz if you can raide with it
- Usually a multiplier to invest 5/10x in follow on rounds
- First round gets a 5% incentive fee and higher after
- Employed paper portfolio to input trades immediately
- Larger funds have Econ of scale by levering off fixed costs - means small funds need to pay out of pocket to launch
- LPs don’t want to be 30%+
- Econ of scale with larger funds - renegotiate previous bad terms (less minimum funds, trading bps, IT, etc
- Broker also connects you with research and other sources
- Scaling biz to trade illiquid securities is VERY hard - analysts forget abt positions
- Bure: Swedish internet co that owned stakes in other tech cos - through activism (focus mgmt on buying shares) they brought SP to NAV
- Most LPs were FoFs vs HNWIs
- Strats: pair trade special sits (stub trades), long/short sectors by analyzing better biz (pod model)
- Should’ve taken more risks - 1) lever up GMV when doing pair trades 2) set up multiple fund products to diversify returns
- Payout system (of the carve): 50/25/25 - capital provider, PM, analyst, everything else from mgmt fee
- Chris Hohn: Perry Cap -> TCI and aggressively raised, known to be tough to work for
- Idea dinners - caused people to frequently converged ideas
- Prime brokers and seed investors are like the life blood of a start up fund
- Brokers: 8 bps for trading, half a bil firm like Holte generated $1.6m which is why they hang out with you
- Hard to scale niche strats - stopped hold at sub billion trail
- Mgmt fees: pension fund advisors 25 bps, pension fund 75 bps, FoF 100 bps
- Softing: broker charges you higher but gives you other resources (BBG etc) -> makes fees higher
- Borrow fee 38 bps, commissions 80.56% and 70 bps of officer spread
- 1.64% in total -> means like no money from mgmt fee
- HF - 20 bps fund expenses, 150 bps mgmt fe2, 20% carry
- Fog - 15 bps expenses, 100 bps mgmt fee, 10% carry
- Pension - 15 bps advisor, 75 bps fees
- Indexes are 10x cheaper than HFs
- Banks have internal talent groups to move analysts between HFs
- Regret - should have increased GMV to 3-400% way earlier to raise return profile as returns were consistent
- Your EV buying puts is negative if vol is 23%+
November 28, 2017
It's a rare thing for a non-finance person to be utterly absorbed in a book about finance.But Lars Kroijer's memoir is a refreshingly honest and humble account of his success/failures in the mysterious world of hedge funds. He brings to light the struggles and the stress of running a business with Danish dead-pan humor and humility. Terrific book that had me laughing aloud !!!
December 23, 2022
Lars Kroijer’s memoir on the early part of his career through to the full lifecycle of Holte Capital, an event-driven long-short equities fund he launched in the early 2000s. It is a refreshingly honest account of starting a fund, with a unique focus on fundraising and operations, that, despite ringing true today, stands out among other books in the genre.
October 20, 2022
Fantastic overview of starting and running a hedge fund. I enjoyed this book more than “Hedgehogging”. Kroijer is an excellent write and keeps the story focused on his own internal struggles, rather than commenting more broadly on the economy or Hedge Fund industry like other books do.
November 14, 2020
An engaging read - although I knew what was going to happen at the end, Lars came across as a nice guy and I was willing him to succeed!
February 27, 2024
A very well written first hand account of finance at the edge. Very good for people looking to better understand how markets really work.
February 22, 2017
Interesting and easy to read. If I were to recommend any hedge fund book (to people working outside of hedge funds), this would probably be it!
November 22, 2011
Ooh, a book written by a fund manager! Even allowing for the predictable lack of 'juicy' details, this should make a very interesting book! We've got plenty of books on the matter written by journos, but an actual fund manager?
Unfortunately, this is a distinctively uninteresting story written in a distinctively way. Kroijer fails to adequately describe the frantic world of hedge funds and in the process makes it appear comparable to any desk job. There's some usual soul-searching and the predictable moral questions raised but nothing really important.
The most interesting chapter is arguably the last one, where Kroijer describes why hedge funds do not add any value to the economy (conveniently, he thought of that after going bust).
There are also some gray areas: in describing his fund's failure, Kroijer said that after his long position on a company failed, his hedges also failed, so shutdown was imminent. He says that this was obvious in a market-neutral strategy, and it indeed seems to be, but then... why did he call his other positions "hedges" if they hedged him against nothing? Doesn't make sense. Now, I'm far from being an investment expert, but I've read about all sorts of really, really stupid things done by people like Kroijer, so...
Unfortunately, this is a distinctively uninteresting story written in a distinctively way. Kroijer fails to adequately describe the frantic world of hedge funds and in the process makes it appear comparable to any desk job. There's some usual soul-searching and the predictable moral questions raised but nothing really important.
The most interesting chapter is arguably the last one, where Kroijer describes why hedge funds do not add any value to the economy (conveniently, he thought of that after going bust).
There are also some gray areas: in describing his fund's failure, Kroijer said that after his long position on a company failed, his hedges also failed, so shutdown was imminent. He says that this was obvious in a market-neutral strategy, and it indeed seems to be, but then... why did he call his other positions "hedges" if they hedged him against nothing? Doesn't make sense. Now, I'm far from being an investment expert, but I've read about all sorts of really, really stupid things done by people like Kroijer, so...
December 30, 2011
I quite liked this, but being an event-driven prop trader in London at the same time this book was set, I am probably the perfect audience. I found the book informative - particularly the sections dedicated to getting his fund up and running (all the admin tasks as well as the fund raising aspects) - as I hope to run my own hedge fund some day. While his approach to trading was far from unique, I appreciated the efforts he went into describing how he identified opportunities and hedged out his risk. And the year which broke him, 2007, I remember very well: it was fun to relive the painful times through somebody else's experience. Overall, a very realistic account of running money. Ironically I now manage money in Denmark, and bike regularly through Holte, which makes this story even more serendipitious.
November 11, 2015
Maybe it's because my investing style is so dissimilar to his, but nothing in this book really grabbed me. You keep waiting for something big to happen. He's trying to launch the fund, now it's going, now it's a bit bigger. And then it all just ends. Good memoirs require drama, there was no real conflict here to push the story forward. I appreciate the author's honesty and clear writing, but I can't get past three stars for something this devoid of the high drama that normally defines finance.
September 7, 2012
If hedge funds were a country, it would be the eighth-biggest on the planet. They can sink whole economies, and have the potential to crash the entire global financial system. Yet they are beyond regulation. We should be very afraid.' New Statesman, 2006 What is a hedge fund and what do hedgies actually do? How are the staggering fees in the hedge industry calculated?
Read
February 4, 2016Mortifyingly frank, yet winsome, Kroijer lifts the veil on starting a hedge fund like no other writer. If you ignore the woefully inaccurate title (surely the fault of a demented publisher), you'll find in these pages a veritable manual of start-up wisdom, along with a cautionary tale for those who aspire to be their own investment bosses.
March 24, 2014
Fairly enjoyable, and provides a quite detailed account of the otherwise cloudy world of hedge-funds. A must read for anyone entertaining the thought of pursuing a career within investment banking and hedge-funds.
February 19, 2015
Good story about hedge funds and lifestyle. Captures the stress and types of people who are in it. The author tries to be quite humble yet not so humble at the same time. Kind of felt as though it was fake humbleness.
August 27, 2012
First-hand, down to earth, amazing story about setting up one's own hedge fund. The book makes sure the reader gets a real view on the hedge fund not to make it look like investment banking.
February 1, 2013
Great perspective of a fund
February 11, 2013
Full of candid storytelling and heartwarming humor. One of the best pieces of writing from an industry's insider.
November 21, 2013
Excellent read for anyone interested in the industry. But especially interesting read for those dreaming about someday starting their own fund.
February 28, 2014
was fun to read. author sounded authentic and didn't try to flatter himself too much.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews