To read this book by Michael Lewis (1989) was a long time coming. It is about Wall Street in the ‘80s, primarily Salomon Brothers where he worked as a bonds salesman for a few years. The story really demonstrates that the antecedent for a lot of the recent reckless behavior can be traced to that era – from the growth of a mortgage bond market, to arguably unscrupulous behavior with clients’ money, to a culture driven by wealth and conspicuous consumption, to the careless use of leverage in trading.
I enjoyed his description of the trading floor, as I could never give a good answer before to the question of what people in sales & trading at the big banks do. You also get an insight into the key players at that firm, like John Gutfreund and Lewis Ranieri (who is often viewed as the architect of the mortgage bond market, whether intended or not).
The title of the book refers to a gambling game that traders would often partake in, making use of serial numbers on dollar bills (think of something similar to the card game “Bullshit”). The mentality, reasoning and behavior to succeed in that game often translated to success as a trader. And it also serves as a measure of the greed and ego that has always driven Wall Street.
