Acknowledgments
There are so many incredible people who believed in my potential—and then this book—even before I did. First and foremost, I’d like to thank God for always picking me up when I am down and for lifting me higher than I could ever have dreamed to see myself. With strong conviction in my faith and beliefs, it’s a lot easier to keep things in perspective and remember who’s really calling the shots.
I’d like to thank my incredible parents, Herwinder and Sarbjit Ahuja, my wonderful older sister Amy (kidding), and my wise-beyond-his-years brother Partap. My life’s greatest blessing has been having such wonderful and supportive parents and siblings. Sant Ji, Arlene Ji, Melanie, and Darren—you guys are also my family and I am extremely grateful for all of your support.
David McCormick, my awesome agent at McCormick & Williams—you took me and this project on within 15 seconds on the phone and landed me my first great book deal.
A special thank you to Mohamed El-Erian, PIMCO CEO and co-CIO, for being a superior mentor to me during the tedious writing process, and for such a well-thought-out and researched foreword to this book. To all the individuals who read my entire manuscript and provided very useful feedback, perspective, and comments, like Julian Robertson, Bill Ackman, Roxanne Donovan, Roy Katzovicz, Nouriel Roubini, Myron Scholes, Jeff Kaplan, Rick Sopher, Josh Friedlander, Mary Beth Grover, Jonathan Gasthalter, Parag Shah, Alexei Nabarro, Ryan Fusaro, Jim McCaughan, Jim Spellman, Mike Spence, Mario Gabelli, Leon Cooperman, and Meredith Whitney—I understand how valuable your time is; your support is priceless.
A special thank you to CNBC president and CEO Mark Hoffman and senior vice president and editor-in-chief of Business News, Nik Deogun, for supporting me in writing this book. Thank you both for always believing I could do great things. To my Squawk anchors: Joe Kernen, Becky Quick, and Andrew Ross Sorkin—I cannot think of a better team of talent to work with. You three are simply the best in business news. Andrew, thank you for taking the time to read the manuscript and giving me constructive feedback and suggestions. To the rest of my Squawk family: you guys have been amazing. None of this would have been possible without you. Words cannot express how grateful I am to Matt Quayle, executive producer and co-creator of Squawk Box and “Squawk on the Street,” for taking a chance on me when I was a 22-year-old with absolutely no TV and very little journalism experience. To Rob Contino, Anne Tironi, Matt Greco, Allison Keavey, Toby Taylor, Stephanie Landsman, Lori Ann Larocco, Dave Evans, Camilla Lyngsby, Dean Meelarp, and Brian Dorr—you guys are my heroes for putting up with all of my book emergencies for what seemed like endless interviews over the past two years.
To my agent, Henry Reisch, at William Morris Endeavor, for accepting the challenge that I posed; and to Morgan Oliver Mirvis, for always taking my calls—even when I called too much.
I’d also like to thank Brian Steel, SVP of Public Relations at CNBC, for all his sound guidance; Joanne O’Brien, SVP of HR, and Erin Culhane, vice president, for finding me and helping to hire me at the network; and Meredith Stark, SVP and executive producer of CNBC.com, for opening my eyes to all the things and opportunities I was missing—especially on CNBC.com.
Nick Dunn and Margaret Popper, you both have helped me extensively with learning the ropes of reporting and what it takes to break—and then present—a great story. I’d also like to thank Mary Duffy for getting me “ready to go at a moment’s notice,” and the following folks: Elisabeth Sami, Susan Krakower, Carl Quintanilla, Max Meyers, Sonya Uribe, Jason Gewirtz, Claudine Gizenski, Debbie Perry, Jeannine Lavin, Todd Bonin, Shpresa Neziri, Gail Terry, and Mary Ann Laeteno-Fox.
To my external editorial team: my editor, Adrienne Schultz—you kept me sane for the past two years (and yes, more concise); my researcher and fact checker, Elana Margulies—you kept me well sourced; and Jamie Malanowski—your polish on prose is truly a thing of beauty.
And to the team at Wiley including Nicholas Snider, Sharon Polese, Jocelyn Cordova, Vincent Nordhaus, Tula Batanchiev, Judy Howarth, and Laura Walsh. As well as the team at CJP Communications, including Suzanne Hallberg, Brendan McManus, and Caroline Cannon.
To all of the data providers that generously compiled charts and graphs for this book, especially Hedge Fund Intelligence, LCH Investments NV, Ipreo: Bigdough, and Hedge Fund Research.
To all of my friends, sources in the industry, and individuals who have aided me through various stages of the book, including: David & Cheryl Einhorn, Whitney Tilson, James Grant, Alan Greenspan, Katie Broom, Sam Zell, Terry Holt, Barry Sternlicht, Beth Shanholtz, Ace Greenberg, Israel Englander, John Novogratz, Nelson Peltz, Anne Tarbell, Marc Andreessen, Michael Vachon, Elissa Doyle, Margit Wennmachers, Randall Kroszner, Jenny Farrelly, Tom Hill, Jonathan Gray, Peter Rose, Anne Popkin, Anthony Scaramucci, Victor Oviedo, David Waller, Sallie Krawcheck, Armel Leslie, Stefan Prelog, Chris Gillick, Alexis Israel, Lex Suvato, Kenny Dichter, Steve Starker, Saadi Ouaaz, Jonathan Wald, Jayesh Punater, James Wong, Joseph Weisenthal, Julie Vadnal, Darcy Bradbury, Trey Beck, Kyle Bass, and Jacob Wolinsky.
Finally, to all of the subjects of this book, the Alpha Masters.