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This book reminds me of Liar’s Poker. Instead of the bond and trading experience of Michael Lewis at Solomon Brothers in the 80’s, Monkey Business is about the experience of our two authors as investment associates at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) in the new century.

As associates, they are Ginny pigs that are there to assist, create pretty pitches, and trying to convince potential clients that their banks are better than everyone else. The works are long, demanding, but well compensated, financially. But is the money worth the cost of altering lifestyle? John Rolfe and Peter Troob did not think so. This book takes you from the beginning of interviews to the moment they left the firm DLJ and offers you a glimpse inside the business of investment banking and daily tasks of our junior bankers, with their printers.

In comparison, this is a storytelling, not so much of technical meat as seen in Liar’s Poker. Nevertheless, if you haven’t read a dozen alike, you will get a good feel for the investment banking as business and its structure. The book is still interesting, easy and fun to read, but language definitely was not intend for good old chaste Southern Belles.

Investment bankers spend most of their time finding, creating and selling pitches for potential clients. A pitch book contains four main sections: overview, capital markets updates, valuation, and expertise. Experienced clients know majority of the pages are filled with copy paste contents and mostly gibberish. They turn directly to valuation section of the book most of time. So, banking associates devote significant portion of their existences perform valuation works. And like a lot of corporate tools as we know in the capitalism, valuation are worked backward from the target, compelling, deal-making numbers then with some artistic maneuvers, the pitch books make the valuations look like deals of the century.