"By five-thirty each morning, an armada of about one hundred limousines glided into position around Beverly Hills. Dozens of them ferried guests from the lush green-and-pink medley of the Beverly Hills Hotel - then owned by arbitrageur Ivan Boesky, his wife and his in-laws, and completely booked by Drexel for these four nights - through the city's wide, stately, palm-tree-lined streets. Their destination was the Beverly Hilton, where the annual Drexel High Yield Bond Conference - by now known as the Predators' Ball - was being held, just a few blocks from Drexel's West Coast office." (Prologue, pg. 10)

"The universe of corporate bonds that Milken was entering consisted mainly of 'straight debt' - bonds whose holders receive fixed-interest payments, typically every six months, until maturity, when the principal is repaid. A much smaller, more arcane part of the market consisted of convertible debt - bonds whose holders have...