brett messing

While there have been many great investment books written about how to identify winning stock ideas, there are few that explain how to dodge the losers. It's a crucial lesson to learn.

The capitalist system regularly produces characters so destructive that they shake the nation's financial system to its very foundation. The losses these rogues generate extend well beyond those incurred by company stakeholders. Corporate scandals sap investor confidence, savage the stock market, make it more difficult for companies to raise money and often deal a blow to the whole economy.

Like Charlie Brown who tumbles on his back every time Lucy pulls the football away after promising not to do it "this time," investors have fallen for the same bag of tricks again and again. This occurs despite the fact that every business rogue leaves tracks in the sand.

This book will identify the common manifestations of fraud visible to investors. The presence of a number of these danger signs should alert investors that the risk level associated with investing in a specific company's stock is elevated, and it is increasingly probable that something is amiss. When an investor encounters a collection of these danger signs, he should follow the lead of a poker player with a lousy hand and fold.  

The stories of America's biggest business bad guys are fascinating on their own, but our goal is more ambitious. We want to learn from these rogues, understand their tactics and identify the manifestations of their misbehavior, and thus avoid getting duped in the future.

Brett Messing is the Managing Partner of GPS Partners, a hedge fund specializing in income-oriented strategies. He was previously a Managing Director at Lehman Brothers. He has contributed to Fortune magazine and appears regularly on CNBC. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Brown University and lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife, Marla, and three daughters, Natalie, Samantha and Morgan.

Steven Sugarman is a Partner and Portfolio Manager at GPS Partners. He previously worked at Lehman Brothers and McKinsey & Company. He lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife, Ainslie, and daughter, Sierra.

Both authors appear regularly on various CNBC Financial Shows as experts and will be featured on Jim Cramer's "Mad Money" upon publication of their book.