The Trading Game: A Confession

Gary Stevenson's memoir recounts his rise from East London to becoming Citibank's most profitable trader. After winning a trading competition at the London School of Economics, he entered the high-stakes world of the trading floor at age, where he closed deals worth nearly a trillion dollars daily and earned extraordinary wealth. Stevenson describes the intoxicating environment of the trading desk—populated by dysfunctional geniuses and insecure bullies who become like family. But success came with a cost. As he made money betting on economic decline that would harm ordinary people like those from his own background, his mental health deteriorated. Sleep became impossible, and the moral weight of profiting from others' poverty mounted. Despite wanting to leave, Stevenson found himself trapped in a world where nobody ever exits. This memoir explores what happens when winning begins to feel like losing, and the choice between staying in a lucrative but corrosive career or risking everything to walk away. The book offers an unfiltered account of how trading desks operate and the human toll of the financial industry.