Conflicted

Every day, about three times a day, people email me and say "I want to come to Wall Street, I want to be an analyst, I want to pick stocks." I used to give them the whole rap, now I tell them to buy Conflicted. Michael Culp knows more about how Wall Street works than virtually anyone i have ever known, and he tells it all, in a fast and funny form that works even if you have no deside to come to Broad & Wall. Read this book, it is tremendous!

Michael Culp has a winner here!You know how they always tell you that the editorial section of the newspaper is absolutely autonomous, and is not affected by the fact that the party in question is a big advertiser? Well, Wall Street has similar conflicts of interest between the analysts in Research, the bankers and the brokers.This is a fast-paced novel by a man who has been there,and it shows the seamy underside of Wall Street--the part we only read about occasionally in the papers. It reads as smoothly as any spy story by Clancy, and with as much suspense. The characters are alive and recognizable.In any good fiction, there has to be enough of a grain of truth to make the story plausible. The plausibility here is enhanced by the author's many years as a Wall Street analyst. He is writing about the world he knows, and you get the feeling that it is just as he describes it.Joseph (Joe) Pierreauthor of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenanceand other books.

Conflicted is a fast-paced visit through the previously cloaked halls of an equity research department. So that's what happens in there! While we have all read a lot about the investment-banking conflicts with which many real-life analysts have shamed Wall Streeters, Culp exposes many other temptations that lure analysts to behave in dishonest ways and are well rewarded for it. Michael Culp's novel is revealing, enlightening, and entertaining. The character development is so rich as to put a face on each name, to empathize with Robin, to feel Carl's sleaziness, and to imagine the skid marks left behind by Ken's Bentley. Culp's story-telling is captivating. The story's cadence is strong. I could easily visualize the action as it played out. It takes only a few initial pages to get sucked in. Then, you're hooked through the last word.

This book gave me a detailed look into the world of Wallstreet and all its hidden secrets, treasures, opportunities for monetary success as well as potential for financial doom. The main character (David Meadows) is well developed and likeable-Michael Culp takes us through David's world of managing the Research Department at a pretigiuos brokerage firm where every player is focused on the same prize- and the means in which they procure their prize really gives the term "conflict of interest" as whole new meaning! A truly enjoyable read!

"Conflicted" is the explanation that we all are looking for to understand where our pension money went. The well-developed characters in Mr Culp's book are clearly more dedicated to their own well-being than they are to the hapless investors whose money creates the platform for these Wall Street icons to earn their extraordinarily high salaries. The leading character in the book seems to be the most principled character and the reader will find out where that attribute gets him. The breath and scope of the morality deficiencies portrayed by the "Conflicted" characters will keep the reader mesmerized and outraged.If you ever wanted to know how Wall Street reasearch departments really work then Mr Culp's book "Conflicted" is a must read