Author:Gary Stevenson

“I was a clever, poor, ambitious kid, who just didn’t want to be poor any more.” An unusually gifted mathematician, Stevenson beats the odds first by getting into the London School of Economics, and then wins a trading game to get internship at Citibank. He has no idea what kind of job it would lead to – just that it would give him the chance to make a lot of money. And it does. Not bad for an unsuccessful grime musician (MC Gaz) who was expelled from school for drug dealing.

Ironically, it’s not Stevenson’s numeric skills that enable him to advance. Initially perplexed that he can’t understand how trading works, he quickly realises that he’s far from alone, and that many longer serving traders are as clueless as he initially is. Knowing that many interns are never offered jobs, he makes himself useful in the best way he can think of – fetching lunches, coffees, at his desk by 6am, and always ready to take note as and when a dealer decides to share a few gems of wisdom. Gems like you won’t necessarily make money by being right, but you can really cash in by being … Continue reading The Trading Game