Day One Trader: A Liffe Story
$13.85
| Author(s) | , |
|---|---|
| Pages |
192 |
| Format |
|
| Published Date |
2009 |
Day One Trader is the exclusive story of John Sussex on his journey from son of a Basildon factory worker, leaving school at 16, to successful City financier and member of the Liffe board. Providing a unique insight to this competitive and often brutal industry, readers will discover the tactics used by dealers to survive the jungle of the pits in a story that chronicles the floor banter and characters that made Liffe a global derivatives powerhouse.
Introduction:
Throughout the book there lurks the nagging trader’s fear that a sudden market move, a careless error, an unwise hire, could lead to bankruptcy. For John Sussex this moment came when in 1999, while his fi rm was adjusting to electronic trading, he took on a trader whose actions almost destroyed him. The episode, and the evaporation of trust it caused, are described in stomach – churning detail. He picked himself up and went on to set up a trading arcade in his home town of Basildon, where he continued to provide the benefit of his experience to younger traders at times when market volatility has surged in this, uncertain, decade.
This is a book primarily about the people who make a market and it was the size of their personalities that made it hard to believe that electronic trading could ever supersede them. John Sussex continues to believe that, in extreme circumstances, it is better to have a human making trading decisions than a computer trading programme. And, chastened by his own experience perhaps, he sounds a warning about the risk of algorithmic trading models malfunctioning and putting banks and markets under dangerous stress.
Contents:
- The Chicago Inferno
- A New Liffe
- What’s in a Name?
- Laws of the Jungle
- The Royal Exchange Days
- Local Heroes
- The Crash of 1987
- Cannon Bridge Boom
- The Omen
- Crimes and Misdemeanours
- Bubble
- The Liffe Board
- My Rogue Trader
- Liffe After the Floor
- The Last Hurrah
Day One Trader: A Liffe Story By John Sussex, Joe Morgan pdf
11 reviews for Day One Trader: A Liffe Story
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Lilian Warner (verified owner) –
Fascinating read
Marisol Shaffer (verified owner) –
John Sussex tale of a trader is real.
Ezequiel McCormick (verified owner) –
Excellent book. Highly recommend this book for financial professionals new and old.
Wes Swanson (verified owner) –
I knew many of the characters in this book. It’s well written, accurate, amusing and a credit to John and the Sussex team. It brought back many happy memories.
Baker Pollard (verified owner) –
Nothing ground breakingly new, I’ve read similar stuff, but a great story to read, and I loved reading it. The last book I read took me 18 months over 4 holidays, because I’m not really into reading books, but this one was done in a weekend, I couldn’t put it down. Will recommend it to anyone in the City, and also friends outside.
Helen Hartman (verified owner) –
I used to work in the City of London and many of my old friends used to work on the LIFFE Floor. This book took me back to my City days. It is well written by John Sussex with honestly and passion. I even recognised some of the names of traders in the book, which I found quite amusing. If think this book would have more appeal to those who have worked in this industry and understand the way the markets work or those that have been associated with anyone on the LIFFE Floor. Loved this book. Could not put it down. I was actually quite upset when I finished it.
Jaxton Cole (verified owner) –
I loved it because it is very rare that a book on trading will make you feel nostalgic and teach you about the markets at the same time. Think I need to have a wonder round the City just to reflect on old times after picking this up, I read it in 2 days!
John’s career is the one I never had, but without the death of open-outcry and the transition to screen-based trading, self-taught buggers like me would have never had a chance…
IF YOU’RE OUT THERE JOHN, PLEASE PUT TOGETHER A MARKET WIZARDS FOR THE UK….I KEEP ASKING AND NO ONE DOES! That bloke who wrote the STIR book isn’t interested..
Sincerely
A Futures Trader
Macie Ballard (verified owner) –
Good read!
Dexter Rollins (verified owner) –
Man need to know the story to understand the future – a good book for everyone in the mderne finans world
Araceli Hale (verified owner) –
I enjoyed reading Day One Trader very much. I worked at the Chicago Board Of Trade and The Mercantile Exchange in the late 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s until my husband (mentioned in the book) went to trade at the LIFFE. He passed away in 2000 shortly after he stopped working at the exchange and we returned to the states. Ours sons were only 2 and 5 at the time so I purchased a copy for both of them to read to have an understanding of what their father did for a living. For me it was like a trip down memory lane with all the familiar names.It gives a good overview of what it was like to work and trade on the exchange floors.
Kenzo Dalton (verified owner) –
Although this is a book about the old London trading pits, since this is Amazon.com, most of you reading will be Yanks and more familiar with CME or CBOT pits in Chicago..
Awesome book describing both the general day to day life in futures pits, although main focus is on the London LIFFE, it mentions the Singapore SIMEX (where Nick Neeson blew up Barings bank overnight, UK’s oldest bank) and also mentions Chicago pits
Ultimately both US pits and UK trading pits shared the same fate, as electronic trading took over. The war stories and day-to-day life on pits in different continents were very similar.. and anyone familiar with Chicago pits will immediately find many parallels to London.
The author started on the LIFFE floor on day one they opened in 1982 (hence the title) and he was there till the very end 98/2000. He details the changes that took place and mentions the unique characters and comical moments of working in this environment, where business meetings were held in local pubs (bars), and quick witted traders had footballer-celebrity-lifestyles.
I am an ‘electronic’ trader, I have several friends who were pit traders in London though I was myself too young and the pits had closed by the time I started trading, I felt like I missed out on an amazing era.. now I can only read about it!
Personally for me, as a new breed of trader, I felt I’d been filled in with an important history lesson about my line of business and also lessons on how our world can suddenly change.
Overall: Great book. Entertaining Definitely worth a read.. and nicely written.