FIASCO: Blood in the Water on Wall Street

A Businessweek Bestseller


"You fail to read F.I.A.S.C.O. at your peril." —Los Angeles Times

F.I.A.S.C.O. is the best-selling account of Frank Partnoy's education in the jungle of high finance from 1993 to 1995. It follows the young Morgan Stanley salesman as he learns to navigate a marketplace where billions of dollars are made and lost in the creation and trading of derivatives, a type of security that almost nobody fully understands. Seen in relief against the financial meltdown of 2008, F.I.A.S.C.O. appears ever more prescient, and in a new epilogue written for this edition, Partnoy connects his story to the central role derivatives played in that crisis.