The Trading Game cover art

The Trading Game

A Confession

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The Trading Game

Written by: Gary Stevenson
Narrated by: Gary Stevenson
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.


*NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER*

An outrageous, white-knuckle journey to the dark heart of an intoxicating world - from someone who survived the trading game and then blew it all wide open


'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 footballs on the streets of East London in the shadow of Canary Wharf's skyscrapers, Gary wanted something better. Something a whole lot bigger.

Then he won a competition run by a bank: 'The Trading Game'. The prize: a golden ticket to a new life, as the youngest trader in the whole city. A place where you could make more money than you'd ever imagined. Where your colleagues are dysfunctional maths geniuses, overfed public schoolboys and borderline psychopaths, yet they start to feel like family. Where soon you're the bank's most profitable trader, dealing in nearly a trillion dollars. A day. Where you dream of numbers in your sleep - and then stop sleeping at all.

But what happens when winning starts to feel like losing? When the easiest way to make money is to bet on millions becoming poorer and poorer - and, as the economy starts slipping off a precipice, 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?

'An unforgettable story of greed, financial madness and moral decay' Rory Stewart

'Hilarious, shocking and deeply sad — often in the same sentence' Sunday Times

'The Wolf of Wall Street with a moral compass' Irvine Welsh
©2024 Gary Stevenson (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Economics Investing & Trading Racism & Discrimination Social Sciences Stocks True Crime

Critic Reviews

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. (Irvine Welsh)
Compelling, intensely readable, unsettling. An unforgettable story of greed, financial madness and moral decay. (Rory Stewart)
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. (The Secret Barrister)
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. (Zeke Faux, author of Number Go Up)
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…
All stars
Most relevant
The earthy cockny accent annoys at first, but slowly draws us into Gary's
world during those tumultuous years of trading.
A fascinating young man, and a story
brilliantly told.
We will hear much more from him - I'm sure.

A story very well articulated

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Loved it. Although its kind of a story about his career and nothing to learn about trading or economics, it felt very engaging as one can mostly relate to the stuff he said about his professional career (no matter what your profession is) if you were part of any large company, You can really feel that he is very honest and that's the best part about Gary. Whether you agree with his views or not, one thing is certain that he does not lie and tells it as he sees it.

Good one Gary

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very grounded narrative and helpful information..very grounded narrative and helpful information..very grounded narrative and helpful information..

Good

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Liked the skilled writing. Gary’s love for humanity is inspirational. Very well played Gary, best wishes

A wonderfully life story

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Inequality economist Gary Stevenson has been taking the U.K. by storm recently with his engaging discussions and debates in the mainstream media about the collapse of the middle and working classes. This book chronicles how he arrived at this conclusion from his experiences on the trading floor - where he joined just as the 2008 economic crisis occurred. A fantastic book that gives an insider view of the slow, passive moral decay that has occurred in our socio-economic and political systems where only the rich are catered to, drawing parallels with how Stevenson himself slowly starts to fall ill as his conscience is stirred upon realising that being consistently correct in predicting the current global economic outcomes was making him a rich man.

Darkly funny in some places, Gary does a great of painting morally grey characters. As an aside, he did a great job on voice acting the different characters too, very fun to listen to. ;-) Please read this book, and make your friends, colleagues and family read it too!

A must listen for anyone wondering what is happening to the times!

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