Tiger Woman on Wall Street

October 14, 2013
In this business memoir, Li traces her journey from her childhood in Shanghai to her career on Wall Street, crediting much of her success to her strict Chinese parents. It was the harsh discipline of her “tiger” parents, she asserts, that made her fiercely determined to attend college in the U.S., pursue a career in finance, and compete in the aggressive world of hedge funds and global investing. Li touches on her formative experiences as a student at Middlebury College in the mid-1990s and describes her climb on Wall Street, where she worked at Aurarian Capital before it went under during the recent economic downturn, as well as her subsequent decision to start her own firm, JL Warren Capital, which provides analysis of Asian companies. While it provides a noteworthy glimpse into modern-day China’s economic evolution, the book jumps from the personal to the professional and back without establishing a clear point of view. After writing about her character and early education, Li spends chapter after chapter describing stock analysis and countless individual companies, both American and Chinese. With brief mention of the fallout of her “tiger” work ethic—such as the failure of Li’s short-lived marriage—the reader is left with a portrait of a woman obsessed with success but not sure if this is the path to happiness. Agent: Esmond Harmsworth, Zachary Shuster Harmsworth.

October 1, 2013
Anyone considering doing business with China or investing in Chinese companies may find Li's book to have relevant insight into the business culture of China. A successful equity analyst and founder of an equity research firm, the self-proclaimed tiger woman of Wall Street has the unique perspective of having been raised in China and college educated in the U.S., and she shares her experience and observations of Chinese culture's impact on its business environment and her opinions on the economic stability of China. A mixture of autobiography and economics, the book is a warning to those considering investing in China to look past the growth potential and do the investigative research required to make an informed decision. It illustrates China's weak corporate governance and questionable business ethics through examples of fraud by Chinese companies including Longtop and Sino-Forest. Li advises against a top-down approach to stock selection in China because of the inaccuracy of reported data and alerts investors to China-specific risks. She believes the Chinese growth model has stalled, and an eventual economic crash is inevitable.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)