The Trading Game

Reviews

Compelling, intensely readable, unsettling. An unforgettable story of greed, financial madness and moral decay. Astonishing, enraging, extremely funny and exquisitely sad - a magnificent exposé of the 'masters of the universe' whose greed imperils us all. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. An incredibly important and timely book, very much of its era. The Wolf of Wall Street with a moral compass, it lays bare the spiritual vacuity of the systems and processes that both dominate and reduce our humanity. The Trading Game is the best finance memoir I’ve ever read. Gary Stevenson's tale of plundering Wall Street like some kind of cockney pirate is by turn hilarious and harrowing. A thrilling read that raises profound questions about who runs the global financial system. A well written and often darkly funny book that makes a convincing case that high finance is as toxic, reckless and deeply cynical as ever. The Trading Game is Stevenson’s account — his confession — of how he achieved this dream, becoming Citibank’s most profitable trader, and how it made him angry, dejected and ill. There are parallels with Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis, an autobiographical account of a young man’s adventures in the financial markets… This dark but profitable vision is lightened by moments of comic self-importance. Stevenson is a sharp observer, with a gift for colourful if merciless description… His breakdown started with trading mania and ended with his exile to the Tokyo office, pleading to be allowed to leave. His bonuses had brought him torment, not freedom. For a self-proclaimed mathematics nerd, Stevenson is a fine wordsmith. His greatest strength is his ability to unravel complex concepts… Stevenson candidly shares his traumas and experiences… finance, for all its allure and excess, is a world where excess comes at a cost, a cost not measured in dollars but in the essence of who we become. As a critique of the monstrous modern evolutions of finance, Gary Stevenson’s account of the frenzy and follies of trading “trillions a day” on behalf of the US giant Citibank is powerful… Rude and funny… demotic fast-paced prose... he tells a vivid story and invites us to make our own judgement. Gary Stevenson’s rags-to-riches memoir exposes a system where the rich can’t lose and the economy is choked by inequality.… Stevenson brings alive the unease of trying to survive in the purgatorial space between being an employee and an outsider… Expand reviews