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When Genius Failed

The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management

How brilliant minds and too much leverage nearly broke the financial system.

by Roger Lowenstein

When Genius Failed chronicles the rise and spectacular collapse of Long-Term Capital Management, a hedge fund staffed with Nobel laureates and star traders. Their mathematical models worked until markets behaved in ways the models said were nearly impossible. The fund's failure required an emergency bailout to prevent broader contagion.

Founders learn how intelligence plus leverage plus overconfidence becomes catastrophic. It is a warning that elegant models can blind even brilliant teams to real-world risk and that survival depends on respecting what you cannot predict.

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