Flash Crash
A Trading Savant, a Global Manhunt and the Most Mysterious Market Crash in History
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4.5 • 15 Ratings
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- $27.99
Publisher Description
’Not just a readable, pacey account of an extraordinary individual and his quixotic quest … but also a troubling exposé of the fragility of our entire financial system … I loved it’
Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland
For fans of Bad Blood and The Big Short, the story of how one reclusive trading prodigy manipulated Wall Street and amassed millions from his childhood bedroom – then short-circuited the global market.
A real-life financial thriller, Flash Crash gives panoramic insight into our economic landscape – its weaknesses, its crooks and its exploitable loopholes – and uncovers the remarkable, behind-the-scenes narrative of a mystifying market crash, a globe-spanning investigation into international fraud, and the man – Navinder Singh Sarao – at the centre of it all.
Depending on whom you ask, Sarao was a scourge, a symbol of a financial system run horribly amok, or a folk hero: an outsider who took on the tyranny of Wall Street and the high-frequency traders.
Reviews
Longlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2020
‘The U.K.'s pre-eminent chronicler of financial crime’ New Yorker
‘This is not just a readable, pacey account of an extraordinary individual … but also a troubling exposé of the fragility of our entire financial system … I loved it’
Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland
‘The definitive account of one of the most mysterious events in the recent history of financial markets …Tells the irresistible personal tale of the unlikely character—finance whiz, social misfit, brazen cheater, folk hero, fraud victim—who finds himself at the centre of a vast global scandal’
David Enrich
‘A fascinating journey through the heart of the financial markets and the battle between man and machine’
Bradley Hope
‘An elegant and fast-paced narrative … Through meticulous reporting and a gripping story, Vaughan has filled in many of the missing pieces. You won’t be able to put it down.’
William D. Cohan
‘A cautionary tale of the fragilities baked into the financial system … An engaging history lesson on the evolution of modern trading … And it is a pacy account that swings from humour to horror of a vulnerable man who is out of his depth … Compelling’
Financial Times
‘An extremely well-researched and clearly written book’
Spectator
‘Extraordinary … vivid detail … The real bandits are still out there, cloaked in political cover and respectability yet rigging the markets at scale’
Wall Street Journal
‘So compelling … He brings out the moral subtleties. It isn’t a simple story of good versus evil … Tells the story beautifully’
Daily Mail, Book of the Week
‘A magnificently detailed yet pacy narrative. Think Trading Places meets Wall Street … Vaughan achieves something even more remarkable. He makes you sympathise … Meticulous reporting’
Sunday Times
About the author
Liam Vaughan is an award-winning investigative journalist and author with Bloomberg and Businessweek magazine.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In May 2010, financial markets around the world mysteriously crashed, losing a trillion dollars of value in minutes before suddenly rebounding. But what did a London trader who had made $70 million from his bedroom have to do with it? Investigative journalist Liam Vaughan tells the true story of brilliant trader Navinder Singh Sarao, from his early education, through to his triggering of the “Flash Crash” and the colossal repercussions that followed. It’s fast paced and, importantly, Vaughan doesn’t dumb anything down, explaining technical jargon in a way that’s easy to understand and outlining complex processes with clarity. Whether you’re interested in the stock market or not, this real-life financial thriller is hard to put down.
Customer Reviews
great try storey
kept me thinking what’s next. Governments, Always after the little man and only slapping the hand of big business
Navman
Author
British. Senior London reporter with 'Bloomberg'. Part of a team of reporters who uncovered a global conspiracy to manipulate the $5 trillion a day foreign exchange market, sparking investigations on three continents that have resulted in $10 billion in fines for banks including JP Morgan, Citigroup, Barclays and UBS. His first book, 'The Fix' (2017), was about the Libor scandal (look it up).
Summary
On May 6, 2010, financial markets around the world tumbled simultaneously and without warning. A trillion dollars was lost (notionally) in five minutes. The share price of some large companies e.g. Accenture dropped to a fraction of a cent while other e.g. Apple rose to >$100,00. Twenty minutes later, everything was back to normal. The Flash Crash, as it quickly became known, left experts perplexed, which seems to happen all the time in economics if you ask me, but this was unprecedented. High level enquiries were set up (they always result in clear answers, don't they?), politicians on both sides of the Atlantic demanded answers, blah, blah, blah.
Navinder Singh Sarao, a savant kid was holed up in his upstairs bedroom of his Sikh immigrant parents' house in Hounslow, trading futures on the international markets (the book explains what that means) and making a motzah, while railing against HFT or high frequency electronic trading (Mr V explains that too), which was taking off in a big way. Michael Lewis, who wrote 'The Big Short,' published 'Flash Boys' and stirred up a hornet's nest among financial regulators.
While our boy Nav liked to make money, lots of money, he wasn't interested in spending it (He wore sweats and trainers and rode a moped or a pushbike), but when you've got a lazy 70 million or so pounds, you need to hide it from the taxman. He falls in with some get rich quick merchants who rip him off something fierce.
The Feds in the US are making no progress in the cause for the flash crash when a random dude in Chicago stumbles on some aberrations no one else recognised in Nav's trades and dobs him in. Nav can't make bail because what offshore assets he has that aren't frozen have been siphoned off by shysters, especially a South American confidence trickster who lives in Zurich. (If you were trying to write a novel, you couldn't come up with a plot line like this.) Nav helps the Feds understand the intricacies of day trading so they can try to regulate it better (good luck with that) and they go easy on him as a result.
Bottom line
Ripping yarn well told, the equal of anything Michael Lewis has produced, although it gets mighty technical at times. Already under development for the big screen. (I wonder whether Margot Robbie and Selena Gomez will get to do explanatory cameos again)