The Traders

An inside look at the high-stakes trading floors of major financial exchanges and the men and women who hold the chips

Sonny Kleinfield spent months with individual traders on five of America’s biggest financial exchanges. The investors he followed are the ultimate gamblers, trading only for themselves, not for clients, and sometimes going “all in” on stocks, options, and, ultimately, their own futures. These mavericks display a unique intensity and a savage brand of competitiveness. Acclaimed reporter Kleinfield gets inside their minds and worlds, showing what drives them to a stressful, high-stakes profession.

From the trading floors of the New York Stock Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Commodity Exchange Center, and American Stock Exchange, Kleinfield delivers a riveting portrait of a dying breed of go-for-broke entrepreneurs. Readers feel the frenzied excitement of the brokers and traders, and gain access to a risky, adrenaline-charged world where fortunes come and go in a single moment.