The Buy Side

A Wall Street Trader's Tale of Spectacular Excess

By: Turney Duff

Narrated by: Turney Duff

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A former Galleon Group trader portrays an after-hours Wall Street culture where drugs and sex are rampant and billions in trading commissions flow to those who dangle the most enticements.

A remarkable writing debut, filled with indelible moments, The Buy Side shows as no book ever has the rewards—and dizzying temptations—of making a living on the Street. Growing up in the 1980’s Turney Duff was your average kid from Kennebunk, Maine, eager to expand his horizons. After trying – and failing – to land a job as a journalist, he secured a trainee position at Morgan Stanley and got his first feel for the pecking order that exists in the trading pits.

Those on the “buy side,” the traders who make large bets on whether a stock will rise or fall, are the “alphas” and those on the “sell side,” the brokers who handle their business, are eager to please. How eager to please was brought home stunningly to Turney in 1999 when he arrived at the Galleon Group, a colossal hedge-fund management firm run by secretive founder Raj Rajaratnam.

Finally in a position to trade on his own, Turney was encouraged to socialize with the sell side and siphon from his new broker friends as much information as possible. Soon he was not just vacuuming up valuable tips but also being lured into a variety of hedonistic pursuits.

Naïve enough to believe he could keep up the lifestyle without paying a price, he managed to keep an eye on his buy-and-sell charts and, meanwhile, pondered the strange goings on at Galleon, where tens of millions were being made each week in sometimes mysterious ways.

At his next positions, at Argus Partners and J.L. Berkowitz, Turney climbed to even higher heights – and, as it turned out, plummeted to even lower depths – as, by day, he solidified his reputation one of the Street’s most powerful healthcare traders, and by night, he blazed a path through the city’s nightclubs, showing off his social genius and voraciously inhaling any drug that would fill the void he felt inside. A mesmerizingly immersive journey through Wall Street’s first millennial decade, and a poignant self portrait by a young man who surely would have destroyed himself were it not for his decision to walk away from a seven-figure annual income, The Buy Side is one of the best coming-of-age-on-the-Street books ever written.

©2013 Turney Duff (P)2013 Random House

Critic reviews

“This is why I keep my money safe and sound under the mattress. You could get high just reading this book. Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Wall Street traders." (James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls)

“Bracing…calls to mind books like Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney, and especially Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis…As spectacle [the book] easily trumps both…Mr. Duff proves a fine wordsmith: his prose is smooth, lean and rhythmic…An entertaining and cautionary tale, well worth your time.” (Bryan Burrough, The New York Times)

“Turney Duff is a natural storyteller, and his tale of how a naive kid from Maine traded in L.L. Bean for Armani and got sucked into the seamy side of Wall Street is almost impossible to put down. The book is by turns hilarious, harrowing, maddening, and illuminating. After this debut, the smart money will be on Duff.” (Bethany McLean, New York Times bestselling author of The Smartest Guys in the Room and All the Devils Are Here)

Weekend listen

Great story! I probably got through it in one weekend. Duff is an excellent story teller. I could not stop listening.

Captivating Glance Into The World Of Wall Street..

I loved this book. Chapter by chapter a wild ride through the excessive life of a trader unfolded.

Really enjoyed the book

A well written book about many different life experiences from a Wall Street trader. Kept me drawn in the entire time. Cocaine is one hell of a drug

Catching story

Couldn't put i down. Great story and very entertaining. Captivating narrator. I would recommend this story to anyone who've tried balancing family and career.

Highly recommended

Great storyteller, very enjoyable, with funny but also serious parts. If you enjoy listening to stories from the financial industry, listen to this book.

Hooked

I felt like an addict listening to your book. It was so captivating and suspenseful; I ignored everyone and everything just to get to the next chapter. This was my 1st, of hopefully many books on audio.

A enlightening story.

Great firsthand account off the highs and lows of being a wall street trader.

Worth it

It's more than just a Wall Street story, it shows how bad choices can affect your life and those around you.

As an insider, this book was very well written

Very accurate account of how Wall Street careers could turn into a negative cycle. Kudos to the author for his success in his battle with addiction.

Personal book about a bad drug experience

Overall well narrated and an interesting story. Even though I thought it would be Wall Street related, instead, it felt like I was reading a diary, it was still engaging and made me curious to keep going. Hopefully, the author took further steps than writing the book since it has been a dark path.