The Trading Game

A Confession

By: Gary Stevenson

Narrated by: Gary Stevenson

Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

In this bestselling audiobook read by the author, Gary Stevenson relives his time on the trading floor with raw honesty, gritty humour and true conviction.

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

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?

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

'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

Amazing look behind the curtain

what a nice change to hear a frank, no holds barred account of the inside of these institutions that hold so much power. Gary is a great writer and narrator. interesting to hear the differences between his accent on the audiobook and his YouTube channel or podcast appearances.

highly recommended

Good story, great message.

A bit too light on the finance stuff but compelling and well told! Check out his youtube, its good!

Open your eyes to the traders’ world

Gary’s story is vivid, real and I highly recommend his book.
Diving inside the biggest legit gambling world from below. You realize that you’ve seen them next to you, you’ve seen them boasting and being miserable. Unfortunately this rigged game is killing all of us, some quicker than others… Through your eyes, I have lived our slow collective demise. It seems we’re going down a slope without having the opportunity to use the gears available to stop the fall. All hoping to be the last to live it the best… riding « the system ».

excellent story well told

the sheer honesty of the telling of the events in a world of high jinx and misdirection

To the void of cynisism and back

Never would I have dreamed to be riveted to a book of a trader. Very inlightening. Now I understand a bit more of that madness.

Eat the rich bruv

The first hand account of the a long term issue of wealth inequality and how we as the people of the world must come together to solve this problem.

fascinating read

a real page turner; very well told account of life behind the scenes at an investment bank

Brilliant, genuine and touching

I approached this book expecting lessons about trading with some life stories peppered in thoughout. However, this book is actually about the difficult journey of a working class man from successful trader to a socially-conscious citizen who uses his anger and frustration toward inequality as a motivation to build a better world through education.

The way it is written makes it feel like the author opened his heart to the world by writing about a very traumatic time in his life. I appreciate that the author took this risk and I am sure that he was rewarded by the reception that this book got.

I also commend the excellent narration that the author of this work delivered for this audiobook. His delivery made it feel like an old friend is telling you a crazy experience that he had gone through around a couple of beers.

Thank you for sharing your story, Gary.

What a performance - never have I heard an author narrate their own book so well. Gary is clearly a polymath.

An alternative narrative of the financial industry - unputdownable 10 nine ten eleven twelve out of twelve

Unique

A great, entertaining and illuminating insider/outsider critique of the absurdity of high finance in contemporary society. In the end it is a story of how meritocracy works only by accident, and how financially reward is out of kilter with productivity or any other meaningful metric. A great listen even if you are not interested in macro-economics or finance in general. It is, at its heart, an engrossing autobiography of a smart young man's experience of a world most of us will never know anything about. Highly recommended.