Having just finished Gary Stevenson’s book, I wanted to pen some thoughts and ramblings about it on the blog. Most of this isn’t going to be betting related but if you want the betting/trading related insight and avoid my pontifications then skip to the last part and there are some takeaways with some practical relevance.
I should start by saying I am in full support of Gary Stevenson’s message about rapidly growing wealth inequality and the bleak economic future of the West. I enjoy his interviews where his point is proven merely by the juxtaposition of him being talked over by media and political elites time after time, who either wilfully or disingenuously dismiss the central points of what he is saying. To go into his critiques in detail or even the potential solutions (which I think fairly to some extent, some critics of his have said are either absent or far too simplistic ), this post is really about his book. So the context is that I come into this with some knowledge of him, having watched his videos and interviews with him and somewhat of a fan.
However, after reading this book my estimation of the person, if not the persona of Gary has changed somewhat and I find myself needing to separate the art from the artist and the message from the messenger.
To summarise the highlights of his initial story. Gary grew up in a working class household, his dad was a postman and he grew up in Ilford, with the looming towers of Canary Wharf in the far distance as he kicked a broken football around the streets. He was a very bright lad who got a place in Grammar school before getting kicked out for selling drugs. He finished his A levels, got a place at the London School of Economics and ended up getting an internship at Citi Bank, one of the biggest banks in the world. His internship wasn’t through the usual routes but was by winning a national trading game against other students.
It’s a story in the great tradition of poor kid done good and a real insight into the challenges those from more ordinary backgrounds face when surrounded by those with wealth and privilege and as a recurrent theme in the book, how those life experiences shape behaviours and crucially, underpinning Gary’s success in the markets, how those people think and how that can lead to them being wrong on the economy.
This first half of the book is a great read and Gary paints a picture of this world with a cast of characters in a world most of us never see.
Gary fairly quickly shows his trading prowess and becomes one of the most successful traders on his desk (not as the book descriptions claim, at the bank, let alone the world).
His transparency and openness about receiving his first bonus cheque and then the life changing amount he makes in his 2nd year (around $400,000) is a fascinating insight. It’s a powerful moment when he ponders who to tell in his family and friends circle and his regrets at sharing this with his closest friends and girlfriend at the time.
It’s around this point in the book where I began to struggle to empathise as much as I did initially . I listened to this next part of Gary’s journey, in his dulcet Ilford tones on Audible, somewhat perplexed. Despite the praise of his bosses and the financial rewards from a job well done, he descends into a dark phase of his life, resenting the institution and the entire system that provided him with a chance of generational wealth and all the financial abundance he could ever dream of.
He’s frequently disparaging and sees most of his colleagues and superiors as beneath him in some moral sense. His descriptions of most of the central characters come across as a little condescending and cartoonish. No one seems to be spared any critique other than Bill, who was the best trader on the desk. Perhaps that was the key reason, because some of his interactions with Gary also showed Bill had his fair share of unpleasantness as well.
Spoiler alert, Gary’s disillusionment with the job and his standing means he tries to quit the company, but is loathe to give up any of his bonuses, which he sees as fair payment for his efforts and what he deserves from those f****.
He ends up being transferred to Japan to be paid to essentially do not very much, in the hope that a change of scenery and working with his old boss might revitalize him. His journey in Japan is a kind of Fear and Loathing in Tokyo. Part diary of his loneliness and emptiness and an assortment of passages describing various types of Sushi and Ramen. Credit to Gary that the did fully absorb himself in Japanese culture, learning the language and customs of the Japanese and a further testament to his clear intelligence that he was able to do it so quickly.
But the last part of the book is really just his view of what I see as a rather brattish protest at his treatment, while being given a luxury apartment to live in Tokyo on a generous 120k a year salary and trying to force the company to fire him without him losing any of his bonuses.
It makes me wonder what the point of this book really was and the moral of the story. The initial backstory is something I think we can all get behind. The disillusionment that comes with corporate life and in particularly the greed of the financial system is again highly relatable. Even the emptiness, internal anger and meaninglessness that comes with the 9-5 despite its relative safety is perfectly illustrated in movies like Office Space, Fight Club and Falling Down. Many of us have also got to a point where we just get burnt out in our jobs or our lives and can’t really even pin it down to a single reason and its just an overall feeling.
Where I do find it hard to root for him is what seems to be a pattern of how he engages with those around him. I don’t want to be too unkind because some of this might have been the fault of the editors omitting certain details or perspectives.
For example, there’s very little mention of his parents in the book and his relationship with them. In fact, early on, he admits to not paying his share of the rent while living at home, telling his mum he was giving the money to his dad and telling his dad the opposite, getting away with this for months while he was on a 36k a year salary at Citi (higher than his dad’s at the time I believe). He also admits to not buying any Christmas presents for his family in the year he received a 400k bonus.
Now I’m not saying this makes him Hitler or Stalin, and in one sense its admirable these details are in the book but there doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of reflection on this.
Maybe it’s easy for me to say this, as I’ll never be in a position to suddenly have a 400k bonus and know what to do with it, but perhaps I’ll ask you what you would do if you suddenly became financially successful and your parents were still paying a mortgage and working all hours to make ends meet. Would your first thought, like mine, be how you could help them out and make life easier for the people who put food in your belly, clothed you and housed you in your formative years or would you just leave them to it?
Gary’s siblings also barely get a mention beyond his description of his older brother as someone a bit weird and who got bullied at school and a mention that he was sitting quietly drinking tea in the kitchen at a house party Gary hosted in his flat. His sister only gets a mention later in the book when she comes to visit him in Japan and for barely a few lines.
His interactions with bosses and team members paint a picture of someone hard to work with and not particularly a team player. Again, not everyone is a team player, but it does seem like there’s a recurring pattern of a coldness and change of attitude towards people who helped him on his journey, mentored and advised him. Several situations occur when people close to him are clearly struggling and troubled and Gary seems to acknowledge this but either ignores it or deliberately cuts them out of his life.
Again, I’m not judging per se, we might have all been in those situations and who can say what you do. In life you do need to protect yourself and in some cases just put yourself first and avoid that negative energy, but it is just another example where I find it harder to like him as a person. But this isn’t a Hollywood movie or a traditional hero story, which Gary I’m sure would say himself. However, that does make it a little jarring to read at times.
So I find myself on the one hand, admiring many aspects of his story but increasingly frustrated as the book went on.
It makes me ponder the chicken and egg question of whether you have to be a bit of a ruthless dickhead to make it in this world to begin with or that this world shapes you into that and that’s what you need to become to survive?
It also makes me wonder what I should take away from this book beyond a window into the trading floors and the operations of high finance. We have someone who gained success from humble beginnings, given all the tools at his disposal to continue doing that but decided he hated the thought of it and silently protested by doing no work, trying to force the company into paying him out all his bonuses rather than take the moral high ground, quit and do something else.
If this was the end of the story then it would be a rather bitter pill to swallow and an indictment of what’s being published these days but we know that isn’t the case. The sales of this book are driven by Gary’s frequent media appearances and his campaign to highlight inequality. His central messages shouldn’t be lost despite what one may think of him on a personal level or from the book, which is more a story about his journey rather than the intricacies of economic policy. I would still recommend it as a good read, but would be curious of your take on it and if you had the same jarring reaction.
Practical Takeaways for Life/Betting and Trading
What I’ve written so far probably does sound a bit harsh but there’s lots to admire about Gary’s story and some practical wisdom there.
His early days as an intern at the bank are a great insight to any young aspiring person on how to be proactive in networking and learning from seniors and making a name for yourself. He willingly takes lunch orders for the team as a way to endear himself to the team and showcase him as being reliable. It sounds obvious and simple but something actually concrete and realistic that a lot of young interns or apprentices can offer to do if they aren’t already. It’s also a general rule for life to showcase how you can help others and you can sometimes get ten fold back in support in the future.
His interactions with Bill were a highlight for me. From his early days trying to get him to unofficially mentor him, he made a point of turning up early than Bill did so he could have a coffee ready for him on his desk, with one notable instance where he had to buy 3 coffees so there was a warm fresh one ready because Bill turned up slightly later than usual. But through that act of being useful as a fairly fresh intern, it endeared him to Bill and built up a relationship. You can see the respect he had for Bill and how he wanted to learn what made him one of the best traders at the bank.
He was thrown onto the trading floor initially with no clear guidance or tasks to do, so he made sure to go and talk to people rather than wait to be told what to do. He sat next to senior traders and absorbed their knowledge. He let the traders who wanted to talk, talk and he listened. He asked questions and when he didn’t know something, he wasn’t afraid to say he didn’t know.
He backed himself on his most successful trades and crucially when a position went against him, didn’t panic. This is an absolutely huge asset to anyone who wants to successfully trade for a living. To maintain emotional control and a clear head when everything seems like its conspiring against you is not an easy thing and really highlights those who can make a good go of it.
And even though some might describe his confidence as arrogance, Gary’s drive to succeed clearly worked. He worked very hard to get to where he was, and continued to in his initial career with the ambition of becoming one of the best traders in the world. Like anything in life, you have to really really want it to succeed and there are countless others you’re competing against.
One of the examples from how he won the trading game (which was probably my favourite part of the book) that secured his internship was that he spoke to someone who knew the rules of the game and he learned the most successful strategies and the mechanics of it, building a spreadsheet and practicing before it commenced. This put him at a huge advantage to others who simply turned up and relied on their mathematical skill to try to win. Even in the game itself, Gary tuned out of the noise and like a good poker player, read his opponents and their expected behaviours to turn this to his advantage. Even when the second round of this game was rigged (to try and test Gary who won the first round at a canter compared to everyone else), he still stuck firmly to his strategy despite all obstacles against him. He actually came in last place in the second round because of this but because of his resilience and sticking to his guns to what would be a long term profitable way to play it, the bigwigs at Citi bank were so impressed they offered him the internship.
So in conclusion, I think the book paints a picture of what it takes to really succeed but also at what potential cost that might be. There are nice people who are successful but a very significant amount of highly successful people in their domains have sacrificed something to get there and it often doesn’t always manifest positively. Some might turn to drink or drugs to manage their internal conflicts, some may let family relationships fall by wayside, some will just work themselves into an early grave or some may just mentally break down somewhere along the way. The key thing is that to be extraordinary, often something has to give, whether that applies to your trading or any other aspect in your life. Seemingly everything comes with a cost.
Let me know if you’ve read the book and what your thoughts are below!
My Bettor Life 