Gary makes you want to root for him and strangle him all at once. This memoir of how a London city kid made it to the top of the trading floor and then nearly lost it all is full of twists and turns. It's fascinating and heartbreaking. Gary nearly destroys himself to prove a point but along the way he learns about wealth inequality and the true game that is far deeper than the numbers. A propulsive read that is a rare page-turner in the financial memoir space.

The Trading Game provides a fascinating look inside the operations of a major bank's trading floor and how one gets there. Stevenson's vulnerability and self-awareness allow the reader to connect with his story as a little kid who, from his home in the suburbs, could see the lights in the skyscrapers of London where he would once reign supreme. Equal parts intellectually gifted and a hustler, Stevenson is able to quickly understand the machinations and what is required to gain access and move up the ranks, ultimately becoming the most successful trader at Citibank. Stevenson's forced move to Tokyo and his subsequent unraveling was difficult to read, but his honesty about that period of his life made for a powerful counterpoint to the success he had achieved so early in life.

Gary Stevenson tells his story of a kid growing up in East London in family who is scraping by. He was a kid who was always hustling to make a buck. Even though he gets thrown out of school he finds himself going to LSE to study math and economics. Can you imagine going to a lecture that has 1,000 students in the class. He learned early on that the rich students expected students from lesser means to be stupid. He proves this wrong early and even though he does not think he stands a chance against students who will never have to work or ones that have a job waiting for them by winning a Trading Game that leads to an internship. He ends up getting a job as a trader for Citibank and becomes Citibank's most profitable trader.

There are terms in this book that I wish the author would have gone into a little more about like the trading game he participated in, for my simple mind. Overall, this was a good read. The author talks about the people that taught him the ropes as a trader and i was sad to see when he has some success it seems that he forgets who helped him get to where he was. This story takes a turn that you will probably not see coming and reminds me of a phrase in a very popular song where it says you can check out any time you want but can never leave. This book holds your attention all the way through so give it a read.

I don't work in finance but do work for a financial publisher so I was looking forward to reading this book. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy it. Clearly a decision was made to lean into the author's authentic voice, which is fine but means the book is a meandering off the cuff, stream of consciousness that ignores many rules of grammar.

There is no narrative flow and incidents are sometimes glossed over only to be referenced repeated later. One short paragraph used the word 'quite' three times. While I appreciate a conversation tone, it was jarring to move between that other passages with fifty cent vocabulary words.

I will say the book works best when the author is explaining economic ideas and how trading works -- that information is clear and interesting which made it all the harder for me to navigate the rest of the text.

I had high hopes, but this wasn't for me.

This book should have been better than it was. An interesting subject matter, but the author just did not manage to keep me all that invested (o pun intended!).

It was well researched by kind of dry with the flow of the story. At times, I felt like skipping pages, but I didn't.

I am recommending purchase of this book because the actual subject matter will be interesting to our library clients and we do not have many books on the subject.

In my quest to open my mind up to new things, I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. I have to admit, I know nothing of stock/bond/futures trading, other than what I saw in movies like Wall Street, and the Wolf of Wall Street.
The author has exposed me to a world I never knew existed. The competition, the greed, the long hours, the networking, the partying, the burnout.....all was covered in this book. Granted, what Stevenson was doing was way, way over my head, I still don't understand what a "FX swap" is or means really. But one really doesn't need to understand the process to enjoy the book. He has written an interesting peek behind the scenes on the trading floors. The book is pretty easy to read (if you don't get held up by the acronyms) and has a good flow to it. The characters are amazing! What a bunch!
The author presents himself in an honest light. He has A LOT of flaws. Someone could spend years trying to unpack all his personality quirks. In the end, he finds his peace, and starts to actually produce some value to society. I wish him luck.
It's a good read, and I recommend it.