WSRL
Book club
Book club

Book of the Month

One timeless book on finance and markets each month, read together. There is a four-week reading plan, and when the month ends the email recaps the five takeaways and the next pick. One email a month, nothing else.

Cover of When Genius Failed

November 2026

When Genius Failed

The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management

by Roger Lowenstein · 2000

A fast read about the hedge fund that nearly broke the system in 1998, and the best place to start a club on leverage and risk.

The story of Long-Term Capital Management, the Greenwich hedge fund run by John Meriwether's Salomon arbitrageurs and two future Nobel laureates, which lost $4.6 billion in under four months in 1998 and had to be rescued by 14 banks in a deal brokered by the New York Fed. It is the classic lesson in leverage, model risk and crowded trades.

Keep track of your reading

Create a free account to save books, mark what you have read, and share your shelves.

Mark it "Reading" to read along.

Reading plan

About a quarter of the book each week, following its own structure.

  1. Week 1 Meriwether's group Building the hedge fund
  2. Week 2 The good years
  3. Week 3 The fall
  4. Week 4 The rescue and after

Finished? Mark it read and write a review; reviews show on the book page for other readers.

Cover of Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
Next month: December Reminiscences of a Stock Operator Edwin Lefèvre Get a copy now to start on the 1st.

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Book of the Month: one timeless finance book and a reading plan, one email a month.

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