Book Review: Leg The Spread by Cari Lynn

I just finished reading a book about trading called 'Leg The Spread'. It is a decent read as the author, Cari Lynn, was a writer before she moved into the trading world. The book is partly about trading at the Merc in Chicago and partly about the females that trade there.

As I say, it is a decent read and I can recommend it to you.

In the book, she describes how all new traders and clerks must go through training and an examination before they can become active.

During this training, she is told that 80 percent of traders last less than a year - possibly because of the stress. Further, 90 percent of new traders lose all their capital within the first year AND over 90 percent of all commodity traders ultimately fail.

Pretty shocking stuff huh?

When you get the direct mail letters in the post trying to sell high priced newsletters, they don't tend to mention that do they?

I can recall some years ago reading about horse racing gamblers in the UK. UK gamblers are known as 'punters'. Apparently, bookmaking industry statistics show that 93 percent of all punters are losers over the long term. And on that basis, the racing and bookmaking industries survive.

Really, we all knew that not everybody wins, but did you know thenumbers were that severe?

But, of course, that means that 7 percent of punters and a similar percentage of commodity traders do survive. Those that do must know or do something very different.

Not only that, they almost certainly make a lot of money. Afterall, much of trading is a zero sum game . For one person to be up, another must be down a similar amount. (I realise that it isn't actually a zero sum game because there are costs to trade - but I'm sure you understand what I mean.)

This, I'm sure, is what keeps the world wanting to trade and gamble. The vast sums available to the winners in these great games.

In the world of trading, understanding what is going on, why andwhen to trade is vital. This requires either technical knowledgeand analysis, or help - or a combination of the two.

Ms Lynn does describe some techniques of the trader, but this is more a book of anecdotes and interviews. For sure, she makes the trading pit come alive and I would suggest that it sounds terrifying to all but the most agressive of capitalists.

Ultimately, she decided that this mayhem was not for her and joined the legions of traders that 'failed'. However, a career as an author isn't exactly a failure.

For me, the insight into the world that new recruits receive was the most interesting aspect. After all, we have all read books - or at least their jackets! - describing the super-successful and their fast cars, drug habits and high-octane lifestyles. Those anecdotes are - in this book - simply the Chicago versions of the theme.

This is a fun read, interesting and has some insights into the unusual mindsets of pro-traders.

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