Confessions of a Trader With Gary Stevenson

#GaryStevenson once dealt in nearly a trillion dollars a day. He joins us to reveal his ‘unforgettable story of greed, #financial madness and moral decay’ (Rory Stewart).
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?

[@WilliamAhlert]

Fantastic interview, shame with the issues in audio. Gary Stevenson is on the way to becoming an incredibly important voice in Britain - I think it our civic duty to bolster him whererever and however we can!

[@jaynewest2013]

agreed. im old enough to be his grandmother so im on security for G xx

[@orissacube4162]

F*****g brilliant. A long time since I have been enthused about something that seems so crucial for us all Top bloke Gary, thank you

[@voidwraithprime8521]

The audio is shit, but this is a great interview. I very much enjoyed the question and answer period.

[@TheBurdenOfHope]

Amazing video. Gary is becoming a force to be reckoned with. I’m sure he wouldn’t want it any other way.

[@andy_ppp]

This is one of the best/funniest interviews I’ve seen on this Trading Game press junket 😂🎉

[@flipmodeisthegreatest7247]

"Selfishness as religion." Nail meet hammer. Hammer, nail. Gary for Chancellor.

[@MeenakshiRaman1]

I was lucky to get a ticket to the event. Brilliant talk, really thought provoking. And thanks to Gary for signing my book.

[@TheBurdenOfHope]

That first question and answer had me choking back tears. ❤

[@MidNightDrivingUk]

Ive sat down and listened to this guy for a few hours now i only found him tonight, when i heard him speak i realised that i can actually relate to what hes saying in many many ways, im having a smiliar experience right now in my life, hes the first person in a long while that i heard talk about some of the issues and solutions, when you work so so hard solve some problems and at the end get rewarded with the money, things change, people change, everyone shows their real self....

[@eahannan]

Gary is a walking United Nations (intended to be a compliment ). He learns quickly from people and situations. A decent brother 🎉 and leader whose book raises many questions and calls to action!

[@mrmustard1633]

Its a great book, swallowed it in a couple days

[@redv0472]

Same and I’m a working mother of a small child, I haven’t finished a book in years😝

[@mrmustard1633]

@@redv0472 Lucky kid clever mum!

[@dxfifa]

It's a great book, but about halfway through it became obvious Gary has Antisocial Personality Disorder (Psychopath)

[@mrmustard1633]

@@dxfifa well firstly I’m amazed how confident you are in that having never met him, but I also don’t think you need to reduce people to medicalised categories which are constantly changing and completely arbitrary - people are much more complex than that!

[@msylvini]

​@@dxfifaif Gary was indeed a psychopath he would not care about the crumbling state of the country or economy. He would have continued to play the game to his benefit.

[@sedgieroobets]

At many times in history we have outlawed the selling and trading of various products and services. There is nothing in principle that stops us from outlawing the buying and selling of all sorts of financial products and services.

[@lynnhickinbotham3784]

Love Gary

[@Scitzowicz]

Gary Stevenson: fully authentic person

[@traceymallaghan4716]

Maybe Rishi was right , we should all be made to be better at math...then when i realised the economic theory we follow is bonkers and out of control id have know i had to buy green euro dollars... instead of a hammer n chisel

[@maria8809ttt]

Paul Romer earned his PhD in economics in the 1980s at the University of Chicago, the temple of neoliberel economics. He gave a scathing attack of his own profession. The paper titled " The Trouble With Macroeconomics" Well worth a read. Commons Memorial Lecture of Omicron Delta Epsilon Society, New York University, 5th January 2016.

[@Skylark_Jones]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@zombiehunter170]

excellent, In Life I have found 1the ones without much are the most giving"

[@sedgieroobets]

We have, indeed, been better. See e.g. the chartists from 19th century who turned around a lot of the fortunes of the poor. We need people like Gary and others to keep raising awareness, finding metaphors to help people see what's happening and suggesting practical solutions which we should try.

[@MalcolmMXTaylor]

Wow what a great interview gary!! The questions at the end were also really good i thought! The movement is growing...

[@oliverbrookes27]

24:00 the £10m man. My wife was a nanny in the late 80s working for a '£10m' man and his family. A city banker and barrister. House in Surrey which is now worth about £5m, flat in central London, house in France, Rolls in the garage, 3 lovely children, a wife with a fantastic personality. He rarely saw his house, he rarely saw his children, he rarely saw his wife. At 60 he was a dead "£10m" man. Quite a sad life really.

[@nadeemashraf304]

Fantastic

[@vaughnmiller185]

A pillow shop next to a sewage works, that is definitely pre-Recession and it feels like a lifetime ago.

[@GrahamCallison]

Was at this talk-- great to listen and meet Gary but 6.75 for a 330ml beer? Obviously the venue didn't get the memo about social inequality... 😂

[@musiqtee]

Her in “rich” Norway, the beer is a ten’er - at it’s lowest. 😅 Everything Gary’s describing (except Noxit) has happened here and across the OECD. We’re all in it, at slightly varying degrees and timing. The corporate & financial sector is after all global… 👍

[@matthewnewberry7275]

Low volume.

[@3rdager]

I bought a signed copy of 'The Trading Game' on the morning of 04 March 2024 and finished reading it the following evening. Since then I've loaned my copy to people who've never heard of it; dire consequences will follow failure to return it because 3rdager has been wittering on about the housing market for over 20 years!

[@billykotsos4642]

1:05:08 !

[@3rdager]

Raquel Rolnik's URBAN WARFARE ... also explains the housing situation of the world's workers.

[@tropics8407]

‘Greed is good’….

[@robbie609]

is the audio on this rubbish?

[@NoobRideseMTB]

I’m finding that also

[@treyquattro]

garbage

[@Nousmourronsseuls]

Sad how people celebrate this sort of guy. Just because he is good at maths, became a trader and made some money doesn’t mean he has a clue about anything else. The fanboys can’t seem to see beyond that. He can’t seem to grasp the link between immigration and inequality. There are over 10 million people living in this country who were not born here. The vast majority very poor. This huge source of cheap labour benefits the owners of capital, reducing their costs and increasing their profits. The profits are often offshored with little tax paid on them. The ‘hidden’ cost of this sort of mass immigration falls on the poorest in our society. It creates hugely increased competition for jobs (pushing down wages) and for housing (pushing up rents). The quality of public services (healthcare, schooling, road repairs etc) is diluted. The rich are the net beneficiaries; the indigenous poor are the ones paying the price. How does that not fuel inequality? Over time immigrants quite rightly want a better standard of living and higher wages, necessitating ever more poor immigrants to replace them. The whole policy is completely unsustainable and has and will continue to create long term economic, social and cultural problems.

[@Skylark_Jones]

Have you seen the famous cartoon depicting a Rupert Murdoch figure with a plate in front of him piled high with cookies sitting at a table between a worker with a plate in front of him with one cookie and an immigrant sitting opposite the worker with nothing on his plate, and Murdoch pointing at the immigrant as he says to the worker, "Careful, that foreigner wants your cookie"? Because that's what I think Gary means. I don't doubt that immigration is an important issue, but I think what Gary was trying to say is that the government use immigration to distract away from the core issue of inequality and their disastrous policies that have helped fuel it for decades. The government and the very rich who they represent try to get us to point the finger at each other instead of where it should be pointed: straight at them.

[@stevec5034]

Oh wow still living in a Brexit mindset. "Get them out, then we'll be fine". Wise up mate.

[@Nousmourronsseuls]

@@Skylark_Jonesif that’s what Gary means then it proves my point that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The last thing the owners of capital want is for anyone to question or challenge mass immigration. Why would they? It is an amazing source of cheap labour for them. They want to nurture it and encourage it regardless of the detrimental effect on the indigenous population. To hell with them. The false narrative promoted by the likes of the Guardian and the rich metropolitan elite that mass immigration is a good thing and if you dare to even question it you are a xenophobe or racist just plays into the hands of the have yachts at the cost of the have nots. Sadly, many well intentioned and fair minded people fall for this sleight of hand.

[@daveuk1324]

You are right. But immigration is a symptom not a cause. We are all on the same side! Remember - Divide and Conquer!

[@Nousmourronsseuls]

⁠​⁠@@daveuk1324 well, my point is that it is both a symptom and a cause: mass immigration is a symptom of the extent to which big business dictates policy; and mass immigration is a cause of the relative impoverishment of the indigenous majority. That’s not to say that immigrants are bad people, they certainly are not. It is just to say that we are all being used to benefit those with power and money.