His secret is that he understands that the world is hopelessly unequal, that the economy is always in crisis, that the rich get richer, and that interest rates will forever be close to zero. Most people seemed impressed. But then, it's Stevenson's book.
Along the way, Stevenson gets a girlfriend nicknamed Wizard and they break up, but she is unimpressed and keeps telling Stevenson that if he doesn't like his job, he should quit. Unable to accept the advice, Stephenson is sent to a remote part of the Tokyo office and buried under many layers of managers after winning the London exchange swap. For a kid who, as Stevenson claims, was supposed to be the City's “most profitable trader” (an unverifiable and eyebrow-raising claim), this is a difficult transition to explain frankly. , readers will wonder what was skipped.
Speaking of omissions, there are a few. Notably, during Stevenson's time at City, the major banks were embroiled in scandals surrounding the manipulation of arcane but important interest rates (LIBOR, the London Interbank Offered Rate, and the lesser-known Isdafix). That's what happened. These were exactly the kinds of fees that were central to his STIRT desk's work. Unpacking it may help explain the extraordinary profits Stevenson has amassed better than his sketchy theory of global inequality.
Should Stevenson have gone there? Let him tell the truth. There are many exciting possibilities hidden in the details of interest rates. The best books on finance manage to navigate these difficult equations and make them appealing. Novels about Wall Street, on the other hand, omit details altogether.
“The Trading Game” falls somewhere in between. As a novel, it doesn't work at all. The dialogue is often too on the nose. And the book's conclusion, with the action moving from the trading floor to the human resources office and Stevenson's efforts to flee the City with his $2 million-plus bonus intact, is not necessarily harrowing.
I doubt Stevenson could have written a more compelling exposé if he had just told HR to blow it up and left the money on the table. But there's a reason they're so rare. At the end of the game, insiders tend to choose between winning money and winning stories. And most of the time, money wins.
trading games: confession | gary stevenson | crown currency | 329 pages | $28
