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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

#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

In development as a limited series

• Longlisted for the FT and Schroders Business Book of the Year

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
Banks & Banking Professionals & Academics Soccer Business
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What the critics say

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

What listeners say about The Trading Game

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Amazing book

I have never been hooked by any book like this, on top of that i agree with all Gary’s views on the world and economy. great job Gary!
Ill see you on youtube

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Get the audiobook versus the paper book!

Great story told by the author in his own voice. Some parts in the book had a little too much minute detail but gets much better in second half. A great view from inside the bank trading world most people have never heard about.

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Brilliant

Good story mixed in with economics insight and policy questions for western societies to consider

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Gary burst open my heart

I’m in the publishing game and I’m all in with Gary’s manner of confession. He never falters from weaving his ethics into his motivation to win, presenting economic forecasts that expose truckfulls of bad banking behaviour. I wish he was one of my authors. I envy the editors and publisher who got to work with him on this book and audiobook that burst open my heart. I wonder who gets to play Gary on the limited series? Gotta be a young Paul Newman type, eh Gaz?

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Couldn’t put it down

As a young person trying to make my way in the world and understand why things just seem to be getting harder and harder, Gary’s youtube channel does a fantastic job at explaining economic topics in a plain easy to digest way.

I was thrilled to pick up this book and learn more about his story and it did not disappoint. I could not put it down and finished it in 3 days.

I can only help spread these ideas and hope things will take a turn for the better one day. Until then, work hard, stay safe, look out for your friends and family and don’t forget to appreciate the beauty in life that money cant buy.

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One of the most human and introspective stories.

Gary does a remarkable job at conveying a his changing attitude without coming across as self important. A remarkable story that helps understand and identify the mood of trading deals without lionizing the trades as often happens in most trading books.

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