Book Review and Giveaway: When Markets Collide

Yet another book review and giveaway.  This time, we got contacted by the publisher of the book When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change by Mohamed A. El-Erian.

Who is Mohamed A. El-Erian?

According to the back of the book, he has very high credentials:

Mohamed A. El-Erian is co-CEO and co-CIO of PIMCO, one of the largest investment management companies in the world. He formerly served as president and CEO of Harvard Management Company, the firm that manages the university’s $35 billion endowment. He spent 15 years at the International Money Fund, working on policy, capital market, and multilateral economics issues. El-Erian has been featured by Bloomberg, Forbes, Financial Times, Latin Finance, CNBC, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. In 2004, Fortune named him a member of its eight-person “Mutual Fund Dream Team.”

What is this book about?

In “When Markets Collide”, Mohamed El-Erian writes for 3 audiences, individual investors, economists and policy makers.  With that, he explains how to to distinguish between market noise and market signals, gives his perspective on the big picture of global markets and suggestions for changes to global market economic policies.

Here is a snippet from McGraw-Hill:

The world economy is in the midst of a series of hand-offs. Global growth is now being heavily influenced by nations that previously had little or no systemic influence. Former debtor nations are building unforeseen wealth and, thus, enjoying unprecedented influence and facing unusual challenges. And new derivative products have changed the behavior of many market segments and players. Yet, despite all these changes, the system’s infrastructure is yet to be upgraded to reflect the realities of today’s and tomorrow’s world. El-Erian investigates the underlying drivers of global change to shed light on how you should:

* Think about the new opportunities and risks
* Construct an appropriately diversified and internationalized portfolio
* Protect your portfolio against new sources of systemic risk
* Best think about the impact of central banks and financial policies around the world

Offering up predictions of future developments, El-Erian directs his focus to help you capitalize on the new financial landscape, while limiting exposure to new risk configurations.

My Thoughts

Although the credentials that Mr. El-Erian carries makes this book automatically interesting for me, at times, the book was a bit dry as it seemed to ramble on a little bit.  As a simple minded individual, I enjoy books with clear headings and clearly indicated main points which this book lacked.

Also note again that the book seemed to be written for varying audiences, with only a smaller portion of the book directed toward individual investors.

Want a Free Copy?

• Simply leave a comment and you’ll automatically be entered in the draw for a free copy.
• Please only 1 comment entry / person (please enter a valid email address).
• Only those with a North American mailing address may enter (publisher rules, sorry).
• Contest will end Friday 5pm EST Oct 10, 2008 and the winner announced shortly afterwards!