Ever since he was a kid, kicking footballs on the streets of East London in the shadow of Canary Wharf’s skyscrapers, Gary wanted something better. Then, he won a competition run by a bank: ‘The Trading Game.’ The prize: a golden ticket to a new life – which Gary took with both hands to become the youngest and most successful trader in the city.
In a journey equal parts extraordinary and unsettling, Gary will take us deep inside the high-stakes world of trillion-dollar trades, where profit and moral compromise collide. 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 begins to crumble, how do you stop your own sanity slipping with it?
Fortunately, Gary did manage to walk away. Now a leading voice on economic inequality, he has traded the trading floor for real-world change. Through his popular YouTube channel, media appearances and #1 Sunday Times bestselling book, The Trading Game, he’s dedicated to teaching the truth about how money really works–and how it can work for everyone.
With the opportunity to ask your own questions, don’t miss your chance to hear this outrageous and unvarnished journey to the dark heart of an intoxicating world – from someone who survived the game.
About the Book
‘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? This is an outrageous, unvarnished, white-knuckle journey to the dark heart of an intoxicating world – from someone who survived the game.
Gary Stevenson left his trading career behind, convinced that solving inequality was the only way torepair the world economy. He has since studied for an MPhil at Oxford, worked with economic think-tanks and founded a YouTube channel, GarysEconomics, teaching people about real-worldeconomics. He regularly appears on television and radio and has written for the Guardian andOpenDemocracy, among others