Book Review by John Coggins
The Trading Game is Gary Stevenson’s memoir, recounting his time as a London City trader for Citibank from 2008 to 2014. He is not your typical city trader. He is from a council estate near to the city trading desks. Some people don’t even recognise his accent at all. Gary makes no effort to fit in or to disguise his background. He feels as though it gives him an advantage. People underestimate him.
From an early age Gary is fixated on becoming rich, he looks up at the skyscrapers in Canary Wharf and promises himself he will be a millionaire. Fortunately, he possesses extraordinary mathematical aptitude, he is also resourceful and utilises these attributes to level the playing field with the richer, better educated fellow students. He finds it difficult to follow the conventional route of networking such as going to dinners and events to find his way into a job opportunity. Therefore, when he discovers the Trading Game, the winner of which gets a direct path to an internship, he knows he has to win it.
The Trading Game is a microcosm of the trading floor which itself is a microcosm of the global economy. Gary starts out as an outsider in a world of questionable ethics, high stress and high stakes. He slowly but surely learns the levers and triggers that influence the markets to become one of the most successful traders in the bank. He learns to use his unique vantage point to understand both the economic situation for the disadvantaged and also the structures that favour the mega rich to the detriment of the poor.
In the novel, Gary puts forward the idea that the rich will always get richer because they own assets which are growing in value and providing them with income they do not need and will never spend. This is contrasted with people with little or just enough to get by on, who pay the wealthy to use their assets and then spend everything they have from month to month, never accumulating any wealth of their own. Therefore, the wealth gap will continue to get bigger.
Nowadays, Gary uses his platform as a successful author (The Trading Games was a bestseller) and popular youtuber, to share his message and to drive for change to help to narrow the wealth divide. The Trading Game is an interesting read and poses a lot of questions about professional and general ethics. Maybe, just maybe, it has the kernel of an idea which could help to narrow the wealth gap in the UK. Tax wealth, not work.
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