Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Review of The Shipping Man by Matthew McCleery

I highly recommend The Shipping Man, a gripping, hilarious novel about a hedge fund manager who buys a decrepit dry bulk carrier at what he thought was 1x EBITDA. It is also a crash course on the shipping business:

"[H]e who is the most bullish on the market, or has the lowest cost of capital, or has some other personal motivation for doing a deal, or ideally all three, wins the ship. Everyone else does nothing but talk about the very good and rational reasons they have for not doing deals. The simple fact is that you must take a view on the market."
True of other assets as well. 5/5.

3 comments:

TSJ said...

This book isn't just a great finance read, it is absolutely hilarious! I had to pull a not stop marathon reading session and devour it all, looking forward to the Robert Fairchild story coming out this summer.

Jason said...

I enjoyed the industry background and thought the story was entertaining, but the dialog was so bad I had to force myself to read it.

Apt333 said...

Glad this rec made it to my summer reading list. It is hilarious, but also instructive - both for general investment (you get either price or cash flow - not both!) and shipping industry nuance.
Love Gerhard - takes meetings in Hambury with NY hedge fund guys just to support Luftansa and local hotels.