Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Press UK for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Trading Game is a riveting page-turner with the entertainment value of The Wolf of Wall Street, laced with serious sublayers of moral self-reflection, a much needed deeper understanding of how our economy is evolving and how the finance industry makes money from it. Loved it.

Recommended reading for not just finance professionals, but for all who want to uncover the nitty gritty of the City.

#TheTradingGame #NetGalley

A memoir by Gary Stevenson who used to be a trader at Citibank – and not just any trader, but one of the most successful traders for the bank ever. But Gary had a slightly unusual background for a trader – he came from a working-class background, grew up in Ilford and was expelled from school as a teenager. However, his maths skills saw him doing a degree at LSE and he eventually won himself a place at Citibank where he started trading.

It was when he started trading by basically betting that interest rates would not only go low but stay low that he really started making a whole lot of money, both for himself and the bank, hence him becoming one of the most successful traders of his time.
I’d always imagined that traders worked very long hours all the time but actually there does seem to be quite a bit of time where Gary doesn’t appear to be doing very much at all – but there are a lot of boozy lunches/dinners going on and he starts early and ends up going home very late. His colleagues tend to have arrived via top private schools (Eton) and having wealthy well-connected family so Gary is something of an anomaly because of his background. But, although the descriptions of some of the people he works with are negative, Gary himself doesn’t come across particularly well either. When he gets his first massive bonus he eventually buys himself a flat but doesn’t give his parents anything other than a subscription to Sky – which he cancels as soon as he moves out, despite his father’s love of football.
Gary dwells on the immorality of making money (and lots of it) while the economy crashes but he doesn’t seem to spend any of it on anything other than a flat which he fails to furnish. He drops his closest friend from school – admittedly his friend has developed a massive drug habit but Gary doesn’t try to help him in any way.

It’s clear too that Gary is on the verge of a nervous breakdown but even though for much of the book it’s clear he doesn’t actually like his job or, really, any of the people he works with, he is adamant that he won’t leave the bank until he gets the massive bonuses he feels are his due. Although I have sympathy with someone who is driven to the edge by work, given that he’s already earned huge amounts of money (more than most people would ever earn in a lifetime), given that he doesn’t seem to have ridiculous outgoings, I really couldn’t understand why he was so desperate to get his last bonus – I totally understand that it was a LOT of money but the determination to get it seemed to make him ill, and he already had enough money to live on.

Finally, I’m not normally bothered by swearing but there’s so much of it in this book I wondered why some of it wasn’t edited out. Yes, it’s his memoir but it just seemed unnecessary to keep it all in.

The Trading Game is a honest memoir from Gary Stevenson about life as a trader. From growing up in London's east end he was not the stereotypical trader plying his business in one of the worlds largest banks. Gary was different though and from an early age had a way with numbers. On leaving school he entered the London School of Economics as a step towards the banking world. He had a dream of being a millionaire and was determined to make that dream a reality.
Entering the banking world was totally alien to Gary with traders dressed in expensive suits and monogrammed shirts. He entered in a cheap suit and was forever going to be different. There was a new language he had to learn very quickly, one that included a considerable amount of acronyms . Every department and trade seemed to have its own abbreviation and acronym. It was quite apparent that the business is very cut throat with other traders reluctant to share their secrets to success and brokers wining and dining the traders in attempts to garner trust and their business.
This story tells the tale of his rise through the ranks and the many different techniques used to be successful. Despite describing the processes throughout I was still left confused. What was very apparent was that wealth does not necessary give you happiness. The wealthier Gary got the more his health suffered as did personal relationships. The banking world, if this book is to be believed, is full of gambling, excessive drinking and fine dining. It is also not a place to make lasting friendships.

Unfortunately The Trading Game was not for me. I felt the information about trading was a bit too much throughout the book. I did find it interesting reading about how Gary worked his way up and the way the trading floor works and the people he worked with. I think it's too long though and I struggled to finish it.

The Trading Game is the type of book where while reading it, I wanted to talk to someone who’d read it but also wanted to throw it out the window at the same time.

Gary Stevenson is a recovering trader. After a working class upbringing in Ilford, he secured a spot in LSE studying maths and economics (he’s a maths genius), and from there secured a prestigious internship and job at Citigroup from the summer of 2008, just as the financial crisis was tipping the world economy into chaos.

He worked at Citi for around six years as an FX trader, making millions by betting that interest rates would keep going lower and stay low, while everyone else believed they couldn’t possibly go lower and the world economy would bounce back.

Stevenson says he saw what others didn’t - that as the economy crashed, the value of assets rose and the cost of borrowing crashed, turning the fundamental rule of capitalism on its head, thereby making the rich richer and everyone else working their arses off to pay for it.

Stevenson portrays everyone he worked for as absolute pricks, most of them utterly unhinged with it. This is very entertaining at times but wears thin too. I found the idea that he abhorred the amorality of it all dubious - I mean, this is the guy who refused to leave under any circumstances until his exorbitant bonus was guaranteed to be paid to him. He has since called on Rishi Sunak to introduce a wealth tax and he runs a successful YouTube channel on economics. The vibe is more embittered finance bro than Robin Hood in the book - he comes across every bit as egotistical and full of self-loathing as his erstwhile colleagues.

Conpulsive reading but also, I kind of hated it! It lacks the self-reflection to be truly thought-provoking though it’s undoubtedly very compelling. Read it but don’t blame me if you hate it too 😂. 3.5/5 ⭐️

*Many thanks to the publisher for the arc via Netgalley. The Trading Game will be published this Tuesday 5 March. As always, this is an honest review.

I really enjoyed reading this book as it helped give you a clue why the world economy collapsed and why it hasn’t yet fully recovered from. Gary is very frank and open about all things and that helped with the enjoyment of it.

Gary Stevenson’s memoir concentrates on his career as a trader and provides a lot of detail about how he became involved in the first place, the atmosphere of trading rooms at the time, how exactly they make money for banks, and (which I found fascinating!) how the 2008 collapse of the global banking system resulted in an environment which for a time made it easier for traders to make money for their banks and ultimately for themselves. The writer is candid about how the system enables the rich to become much richer, arguably contributing towards the growing wealth inequality, and is clearly disgusted by this; however, his attempts to demonstrate his moral superiority to the other traders is undermined by both his mockery of others and his determination to get his 'cut' out of the system. It is evident from reading this that you need some inherent 'nastiness' to thrive in this environment, which made for some uncomfortable reading. Nonetheless I applaud this writer’s unflinching honesty and think the book is definitely worth a read!

What a fantastic story a proper rags to riches tale that had me hooked from the start, a really interesting book that really gets to you. Funny and dark and witty it was fantastic!

A real rags to riches read. I have to say the numbers had me baffled but a gripping and sometimes dark read.
My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy.

Not my usual genre of choice, but The Trading Game was an interesting read, giving an insight in how to get into, and what your life would be like working in this particular trade. Overall a good read.

An interesting subject explain how trading works. I enjoyed the explanations at first but as the novel went on they became tedious and more difficult to concentrate on. The characters described throughout played greatly onto my stereotypes of what these people are like. Obviously this was not a book for me.

If you ever thought that making millions each year on the trading floor in a major bank was a job to covet I suggest you read this compelling confession of Gary Stevenson as to how he found it.
Gary, a boy made good . He goes from state school to The London School of Economics to a job with Citibank. From newspaper delivery boy to millionaire. Sounds like the dream come true but, in reality, for Gary at least it became anything but.
His narrative vividly captures the pace and ruthlessness of the Trading Floor along with exposing the isolation of working from 6am until late at night dealing on screens in short term interest rate instruments. There are moments of real humour contrasted with the extraordinary aggression he sometimes experiences from the people he works with. It is only blind faith in his own decisions, allied to his ability to think outside the box, that creates his extraordinary success. But at what cost?
The trouble is, however many millions he was making for himself, he was making hundreds of millions for Citibank and Citibank weren't about to let him go. His battle to leave drives him into a downward spiral in which his health, friendships and belief in his colleagues all collapse. Like Icarus, Gary falls prey to flying too close to the sun.
A salutary tale perhaps perhaps confirming the adage that money isn't everything.

All hail Gary! What a ride. A rags to riches story and the dark side of wealth. I found the memoir an eye opening look into the banks and how they make their money, and I was astounded at the amounts that could be made per trader. I really related to the struggles Gary had and it reassured me that when I myself had doubts about earning money compared to doing what felt right that I made the right choice.

I was gripped from page one, I just wish it had a little bit about what Gary's been up to since, maybe an epilogue?

Gary is a a trader and at the top of his game. The book is very fast moving and details mans greed and obsession. I haven't read such a fast paced book and couldn't put it down. I was sorry when it was finished. Having worked in a high finance environment it was a 5* for me. Thanks to NetGalley for a great ARC.

Wow, I didn't expect it at all! This gave proper Bret Easton Ellis vibes, with a major bonus of it being a true story. I picked it up because I work with Financials and thought it would help me understand them better. I didn't know this would take me on a pretty wild and dark journey which made the reading experience amazing. I loved the writing style - it was very punchy, gripping and visceral. The observations were on point. Great balance of irony and darkness. I loved being in Gary's head from when he's still green and has no idea what it happening to "robbing" the bank and being acutely aware of the inequality in the world. The last part set in Japan was very powerful - it had such a surreal quality to it and I could imagine it so well. Overall a brilliant memoir. Loved it

Gary is a trader - not just any trader but the biggest one ever.
This is his life story from looking and admiring the skyscrapers in the City of London as a kid to working at Citibank via the London School of Economics.
This is Gary’s confession and it is a very well put together novel with interesting characters and a compelling story.
I really enjoyed reading The Trading Game and would recommend it with 5 stars.

This is not the type of book I would usually be drawn too but the blurb hooked when I read it and so glad I got the opportunity to read The Trading Game.

This memoir was so informative and made sense of a subject that I only ever had a very vague knowledge and a subject I would, until know, have always shied away from learning more about. I feel like I could hold my own now if I was trapped in a lift with a load of traders or trapped at an event sitting beside one, commodities, securities, futures... Bring it on, I have more than ever now, zero interest in ever investing myself!

This is the quintessential rags to riches story from being expelled from school for dealing, to nurturing his love of numbers at the London School of Economics to becoming the youngest trader at Citibank. Stevenson takes his reader along every dizzying step of the way , eye watering deals to devasting lows and its a wildly entertaining, at times tense at others deeply uncomfortable , read. I liked how Stevenson details it all and doesn't necessarily paint himself in a forgiving light. The brutal honestly kept me turning the pages of this one and I couldn't put this down.

Thought provoking, informative and easy to read. Recommend wholeheartedly, so glad I read this one. I will be buying copies of this for several people.

I found this fascinating and disturbing in equal measure. Having worked in the City many years ago, it did remind me of how a dealing room can go from dead to frenetic in a split second. Also a reminder of how young traders are, because they burn themselves out by 30. Disturbing because the economy rests in the hands of these fickle youngsters who are only doing it for the money. A great insight into this world.

ARC REVIEW:

I heard so many amazing things about this memoir by Gary Stevenson and truthfully it had its really interesting parts. However… for me I found it very hard to pick up and want to read more. It took me over a month to finish the book (which was hard to do anyways) because I didn’t find it attention grabbing. I also found that some parts were “jumpy” and stories changed without reasoning. That being said the way Stevenson explains how the trading business works for people who won’t and don’t understand is brilliant. As well as the author being from somewhere so close to home and from “lesser well off background” made this much more interesting for me personally. Overall, I think this memoir would be more suited for people who are from the background of trading or industries like it where they would be able to related and maybe understand better than I did.

Favourite quotes:
•”That day, it sounded like the future.”
•”Cover. Your. Arse.”
•”And I never forgot that, and thank fuck that I didn’t.”
•”Play this one with me.
Good Luck.”

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the chance to read this memoir!!

I spotted this title whilst looking for something else and something drew me to it. The financial world isn’t one that interests me, but I do enjoy an autobiography and this looked a little different. Gary Stevenson was a trader in the London stock markets. It’s a world alien to most of us, but many will recall the days of the dot com boom in the 1980s and early 1990s where scenes if frenzied traders were often on tv, along with their champagne lifestyle and ridiculous overnight wealth. Gary opens the door to the Kay person and gives a glimpse into a frightening reality.

I really enjoyed this book for a number of reasons. It feels as if it’s written with honesty. The insights into a world driven by greed are truly disturbing, although no worse than I expected. He raises a number of interesting issues about morality and the human condition when affected by wealth and he charts his later difficulties with honesty. I found it a brave and frank and he has clearly evolved to put what he’s learned from the experience into better practice for a different life.

This is a genuinely remarkable book. There’s a lot of detail about the world of trading which I found astonishing. But Gary’s journey is the heart of this and it’s far more than a human interest story. Well written and I found it totally compelling.