A Million a Minute: Inside World of Securities Trading -- The Men, the Women, the Money that Makes the Markets Work

By Hillary Davis

Book Overview

"An impressive, accessible, up-to-date, and sometimes exhilarating study of the free-market warriors who make up the international trading community."
-- Financial Times

A Million A Million is the inside story of the mysterious and wildly influential world of trading. In our interconnected global markets, traders have become the frontline, free-market warriors closest to the money, closest to the action. Their reactions to world events can topple governments and cause currencies to rise or plummet. They affect the prices we pay for the food we eat, the gasoline we use, the gold in our jewelry, the steel in our cars, even our homes and our mortgages.

Hillary Davis, a former portfolio manager, shows us who these people are, what motivates them, and how they came to be so powerful. And of course she provides compelling insights into the work they do and how they do it.

Based in part on firsthand interviews with superstars in New York and London, A Million A Million gives readers a special opportunity to learn from the candid observations of Leo Melamed, Michael Bloomberg, Muriel Siebert, Bob Mnuchin, David Shaw, Stanley Shopkorn, Eric Sheinbergm Bill Johnston, Gary Lapayover, and many others.

A Million A Million also offers readers a context for understanding today's markets, with a fascinating account of the rise of trading, the evolution of the markets, and the challenges of today's complex, lightning-fast trading environment, as well as a provocative vision of a virtual-reality trading future.

Throughout this revelatory book, you will meet the criminals and the geniuses, the celebrity traders and the newbies, the women traders who "crashed the party," the visionaries, and the larger-than-life personalities. In all, you'll find an exciting portrait of a unique culture that profoundly affects our world.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0887309410
• ISBN13: 9780887309410
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: Harper Business
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.0" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating read

My biggest complaint with most books like this is that they are boring to read because they go on and on with long explanations that lose the point somewhere along the way.I loved this book and was pleasantly surprised. There was no time to get bored. The author moved easily from topic to topic. Her observations were not run of the mill, but were sharp and fascinating.The characters came to life.The book's approach is more like an economic look at the world of trading and its implications rather than a recipe book for how to trade. But as the author said, you can't learn to trade from a 'how to trade book' anyway.If you could, people wouldn't get paid so much to do it.I'd recommend this book very highly.

Excellent

Finally! A serious, in depth, intellectual business/finance book written by a woman! Bravo! I really liked this book. It gets into everything - the history of trading, how people's minds work, it delves into derivatives, currency trading, internet trading - in short, it was a fascinating read. I'll be looking for her next book.

Entertaining tale of the people behind the ticker

A refreshing insight of the people who make it in the high stess, high reward world of Futures and Securities trading. Hillary Davis writes in an entertaining, easy to follow style that makes you want to talk some more with Melamed, Seibert, Bloomberg et al. These folks sound like the kind you'd like to sit around a bar with as they regale you with their triumphs and failures. For a change we learn that all traders aren't the evil masters of the universe commonly represented by the media. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

a human face on huge global machine

Would these traders come to your fantasy dinner party-- Leo Melamed, Michael Bloomberg, Muriel Seibert, Bob Mnuchin, David Shaw, Stanley Shopkorn, Eric Sheinberg, Bill Johnston, Gary Lapayover? For less than the price of dinner for one, Hillary Davis' book provides an entree of tasty personalities all working in a whiz-bang setting that's never bland. This fun book is full of war stories, patient explanations of trading markets and technology, and what it's like to be a global trader. The author puts a human face on market activity that sometimes seems anonymous to the outsider.

A lively and readable study of the world of traders

This is the best book on the world of high finance since "Liar's Poker".It is a lively and readable study of the history of trading and includes some wonderful insights into where electronic trading is taking us.I bought the UK version when it was first published last year and still pick it up frequently to reread sections.Hillary Davis' love of the markets and her understanding of complex trading issues are very evident.Highly recommended for those who think they know all about the world of high finance and those who want to start learning.