The Trading Game: A Confession


Price: $17.00 - $9.99
(as of Sep 09, 2025 05:56:41 UTC – Details)



#1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER • “The Best Wall Street Book of 2024”—Bloomberg

A “vivid” (Financial Times) rags-to-riches memoir that takes readers 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.

From the Publisher

Matt Levine says, “Stevenson captures what really happens on the trading floor.”Matt Levine says, “Stevenson captures what really happens on the trading floor.”

It’s a story of how I became CitiBank’s most profitable trader, and why, after all that, I quit.It’s a story of how I became CitiBank’s most profitable trader, and why, after all that, I quit.

Diana B Enriques says “Not since Liar’s Poker has a book brought the trading floor into such life.”Diana B Enriques says “Not since Liar’s Poker has a book brought the trading floor into such life.”

Irvine Welsh calls it “The Wolf of Wall St with a moral compass.”Irvine Welsh calls it “The Wolf of Wall St with a moral compass.”

Zeke Faux calls it “Hilarious and harrowing.”Zeke Faux calls it “Hilarious and harrowing.”

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CBRBVVQR
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Crown Currency
Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 5, 2024
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 5.4 MB
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 332 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593727225
Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Best Sellers Rank: #39,381 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store) #6 in Banks & Banking (Books) #7 in Banks & Banking (Kindle Store) #16 in Biographies of Business Professionals
Customer Reviews: 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 5,435 ratings var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });