In his awesome new book The Rise and Fall of Bear Stearns, Ace Greenberg spends the majority of the time setting the record straight from divergences from he thought was the truth. The majority of these divergences came from the mouth of Jimmy “I put it to my mouth and I did inhale” Cayne.

This is a blog about trading so I’ll spare you all the details, but frankly, my take on the whole she-bang as delineated in the book, is that dealing with Cayne was like dealing with a teenager for 30 years. He was a complete pain in the ass, but every now and then he’d make a big play in the game, so his parent (Greenberg) would be proud. Cayne’s ego would be his undoing. He fell on his own saber.

Greenberg gives Cayne credit where it was due and appears genuine. I could not tolerate anyone like Cayne and it’s why I enjoy being a prop trader. If you bust my chops enough, I can tell you to “go forth and procreate with yourself.”

What you’ll get from this book is a great history of Bear Stearns, during which Greenberg spent the majority of the career we know him to have had. Bear was 21 years old when Greenberg started and he spent the next 61 years there. (more…)