The Missing Billionaires

”…a smart and sophisticated primer on quantitative risk-management techniques.”–The Wall Street Journal“A compelling book dealing with an important and neglected question in finance: not what to buy or sell, but how much. Even sophisticated professionals tend to answer this question badly, leading to lost fortunes. But financial theory provides the answer. Mathematical but not excessively so, this will appeal to anyone with an interest in markets.”–The Economist Best Books of 2023, December 9-15, 2023“The most important investment decision is not ‘what’ but ‘how much.’ If you ever hear a professional investor talk about a trade that taught them a lot, prick up your ears. Usually, this is code for ‘a time I lost an absolutely colossal amount of money, ’ and you are in for one of the better stories about how finance works at the coalface. On this front, Victor Haghani is a man to whom it is worth listening. Now, along with his present-day colleague James White, he has written a book that aims to spare other investors his mistakes … The Missing Billionaires … examines what its authors argue is a much more important–and neglected–question than picking the right investments to buy or sell: not ‘what’ but ‘how much.’”–The Economist Buttonwood column “Size Matters, ” September 21, 2023

Victor Haghani has 40 years’ experience working and innovating in the financial markets, and has been a prolific contributor to academic and practitioner finance literature. He founded Elm Wealth in 2011 to help clients, including his own family, manage and preserve their wealth with a thoughtful, research-based, and cost-effective approach that covers not just investment management but also broader decisions about wealth and finances. Victor started his career at Salomon Brothers in 1984, where he became a Managing Director in the bond-arbitrage group, and in 1993 he was a co-founding partner of Long-Term Capital Management. He lives in London and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

James White has spent two decades working in finance, covering the gamut of quantitative research, market-making, investing, and wealth management. He is currently the CEO of Elm Wealth, and previously has held research, trading, and executive roles at PAC Partners, Citadel, and Bank of America. He lives in Philadelphia.