The Trading Game

A Confession

By: Gary Stevenson

Narrated by: Gary Stevenson

Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

#1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER • A “vivid” (Financial Times) rags-to-riches memoir that takes listeners inside the high-stakes drama and hubris of the trading floor, a “darkly funny” (Guardian) tale of Citibank’s one-time most profitable trader, and why he gave it all up

“Darker than [Liar’s Poker], but if anything even more of a rollicking read . . . the clearest account I've ever read of how trading desks really work.”—Felix Salmon, Axios

If you were gonna rob a bank and you saw the vault door there, left open, what would you do? Would you wait around?

Ever since he was a kid, kicking broken soccer balls on the run-down streets of East London, Gary Stevenson dreamed of something bigger. As luck would have it, he was good at numbers.

At the London School of Economics, wearing tracksuits and sneakers, Stevenson shocked his posh classmates by winning a competition called “The Trading Game.” The prize? A golden ticket to a new life, as the youngest trader at Citibank. A place where you could make more money than you’d ever imagined. Where your colleagues are dysfunctional geniuses and insecure bullies yet start to feel like family. Where against the odds you become the bank’s most profitable trader, closing deals worth nearly a trillion dollars. A day.

Soon you are dreaming of numbers in your sleep—and then you stop sleeping at all. But what happens when winning starts to feel like losing? You’re making a killing betting on millions of people becoming poorer—like the very people you grew up with. The economy is slipping off a precipice, and your own sanity starts slipping with it. You want to stop, but you can’t. Because nobody ever leaves.

Would you stick, or quit? Even if it meant risking everything?

The Trading Game is an outrageous, unvarnished, white-knuckle journey to the dark heart of an intoxicating world—the trading floor—from someone who survived the game and then blew it all wide open.

©2024 Gary Stevenson (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Hilarious, shocking and deeply sad—often in the same sentence.”—The Times

“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 Guardian

“Stevenson is a fine wordsmith. . . . His portrayal as an unlikely hero, brimming with wit and a low tolerance for nonsense, makes for an engaging read.”—Turney Duff, The Telegraph

Great substance and storytelling

Gary Stevenson has become a leading proponent of recognizing wealth inequality as the driving force behind people's declining living standards and broader economic challenges collapse. While "taxing the rich" is a popular idea in some circles, its proponents tend to be ideological leftists who present their arguments in purely moral terms, effectively saying that the unequal distribution of wealth is bad because it is unfair. Gary makes the case that wealth inequality is a destructive force for purely economic reasons, and that the broad failure to understand it leads to bad policy and worse outcomes for most people.

But here he is telling his own story of growing up poor and becoming one of Citibank's most successful traders. He is a fantastic story teller, and he is driven by passion about his ideas, not greed or self-aggrandizement.

I don't know him personally, have no personal stake in his success, and would not even have agreed with his premise before hearing him speak. I've now listened to him for hours and am deeply impressed. And I consider myself a reasonable intelligent, successful, and informed person. The amount I have learned from him is humbling, and I am grateful for that as well as for the content itself.

Listen for yourself. You'll learn a lot, enjoy the story telling, and perhaps emerge with a different worldview.

Fantastic fast paced memoir set in the world of finance, London and Tokyo

Honest, unvarnished, blunt but, most of all, interesting. Plenty of colourful characters along the way.

One of the best

This story was, simply put, one of the best I have come across of any genre. Gary tells you that good trading is done with your nose and that the full reasons for a trade may be inexpressible. That’s how I feel about this story. I love finance, grit, and angst. All of these things are in abundance, but there’s a subtext that I just can’t explain. You’ll feel it, because we’ve all lived, but I simply can’t describe it. A truly wonderful and woeful and beautiful story. One that makes you a bit jealous of the bad times had in it as you smile at all the good. Thank you Gary.

Good storyline

A good storyline and you root for the author throughout the book. It also provides some details as to how the corporate machine works against the individual to force conformity.

Exposes the rotten core of our modern financial system

Gary’s life story is truly incredible. A gifted and talented young man works his way from poverty to achieve his dream of incredible wealth- only to realize the system of wealth is rotten to the core. He sees a system built on ravaging the poor and middle class to line the pockets of the wealthy elite. He uncovers an economic system headed for imminent collapse and the wealthy class of people who refuse to
care.

Gary’s story is compelling. His predictions are accurate. His warnings are dire. Will anyone in power listen?

Unique Wall Street Story

Great classic Wall Street tale of larger than life characters but with a twist - this protagonist seems to have a bit more of a moral compass than most. I loved that the author narrated the book. Every line was perfectly delivered because it is his story.

Engaging

I really enjoyed this one. Gary Stevenson is a great writer as well as trader.

Hell of a story

I don't know how much of it is entirely true and how much of it is creative to tie things together and keep things, but I was hooked regardless. I often love when nonfiction audiobooks are read by the author.

Vivid detail of greed, frustration, and helplessness in the context of the finance sector -- definitely doesn't inspire confidence regarding the people taking risks with the world's financial assets, though I didn't need a book to give me doubt there.

Gary the underground.

For some reason, I dislike Citibank to begin with And this book has Prove it right.

Interesting but!

Gary behaves like a child, he kinda sucks. Grew up poor but acts like a spoiled brat. Start of the book is good and then goes down hill.