The Uncanny and Long Term Capital Management

In 1998, the Long Term Capital Management Investment Trading Company, the richest and most prestigious firm of its kind in the world, began to lose hundreds of millions of dollars within weeks as its excessively high-risk trading positions turned against it. A consortium of financial institutions, led by the Federal Reserve, was formed to keep the firm from insolvency. If Long Term Capital went bankrupt it was thought to be possible that the world could be thrown into bankruptcy. This paper reviews the history of the firm's management and, in particular, its founder, John Meriwether. The author makes the case that Meriwether's management style was analogous to the role of the hypnotist. Next, the author portrays the history of the firm and the grandiosity that led to its demise within the framework of The Uncanny. Copyright (C) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.