The Greatest Trade Ever
The Greatest Trade Ever is the thrilling story of the trader John Paulson who predicted the economic crash in 2008 and made the biggest windfall in history. John Paulson, a softly spoken hedge-fund manager who still took the bus to work, seemed unlikely to stake his career on one big gamble. But he did. And the greatest trade ever is the story of how he realized that the subprime housing bubble was going to burst, making $15 billion for his fund and more than $4 billion for himself in a single year. The Greatest Trade Ever is a tale of folly and wizardry, individual brilliance versus institutional stupidity.
Praise for The Greatest Trade Ever
"Simply terrific. Easily the best of the post-crash financial books."
"Mr. Zuckerman is a first-rate reporter who is also able to explain the complexities of real estate finance in layman’s terms. At times, The Greatest Trade Ever reads like a thriller."
— The New York Times
“How Paulson and a handful of contrarian investors pulled off this once-in-a-lifetime coup is the subject of The Greatest Trade Ever. A fascinating and believable counter-narrative to the growing pile of books recounting the disastrous mistakes made by many of the supposedly smartest minds on Wall Street. It is also a surprisingly dramatic work. In The Greatest Trade Ever, Zuckerman skillfully shows how Paulson and a few cohorts anticipated a disaster and figured out a way to profit.”
— BusinessWeek
"More than a cinematic narrative of how Paulson and others figured out how to short the market. We’re also reminded of how opaque and illiquid some financial instruments are, how little Wall Street executives understood them, and how difficult it was for more knowledgeable bankers to say that the subprime emperor had no clothes."
— Bloomberg.com
"Zuckerman has a story to tell, a thread to follow, and it just happens to turn out that by following the saga of John Paulson, Zuckerman reveals all kinds of fascinating perspectives on complex finance, the real estate bubble, and Wall Street and Washington's difficulties in putting the two together.”
— TheDeal.com
“A magnificent insider look at how Paulson and others profited off of subprime’s demise, detailing both the formulation and implementation of such a trade. Zuckerman’s work is both insightful and gripping.”
— Marketfolly.com