Charlie D.

Charlie D is a wonderful biography that I could not stop reading. It helps put things into perspective. Investing and making money is one thing, but you have to live life as well otherwise you won't be able to appreciate your work and money. This book will give some motivation and help your psychological frame of mind, but will not directly help your stock picking and trading like the other books.

I think the this book has been totally misunderstood by most people, because while it is about trading, it is not a trading book like Borcillino's book or "pit bull." It is a beautiful story about a man who overcame great odds...it just so happens to take place on the trading floor, which makes for great drama for finance and non-finance types alike

That as a culture we are preoccupied with the misdeeds of men and women of power is a fact. While standing in wait of the printer, our conversation frequently makes reference to the latest scandal broadcast on the evening news. The more salacious the details, the more likely we are to attend to the story. Americans love a reprobate. Particularly if who's piqued our curiosity seems not to have an effect on our lives. This troubles me for various reasons, not the least of which is our seeming inability to celebrate and laud the men and women whose actions are above and beyond reproach. Virtue is not newsworthy; so goes conventional wisdom. William Falloon's book, Charlie D., The Story of the Legendary Bond Trader, defies conventional wisdom. Out of the blue haze of cigar smoke, Mr. Falloon asks a simple question: Who is the best trader in the bond futures pit? Of the financial experts gathered for the 8th Annual Risk Management Convention, none was more skeptical by the answer he received than Mr. Falloon himself. A seasoned financial writer, the name Charles DiFrancesca was one he had not heard before. Thus begins the discovery of legendary bond trader, Charlie D. As much a biography of the seemingly innocuous and publicity-loathing trader, the book is also Falloon's own story of affirmation. Working in an industry surrounded by rumors of constant corruption and greed as Falloon does, he delves into the life of the man who single handedly raised the Chicago trading floor to the heights of its current success. Falloon paints Charlie D.'s portrait in broad strokes. For Charlie D., not unlike so many of his contemporaries raised in the American midwest, was an ordinary man. -An ordinary man on the surface, but with an extraordinary genius for making money, as well as an extraordinary sense of himself and his place in the world. The psychology of Charlie D.'s success is that of courage and respect for others. Ever mindful of the negative image of his chosen profession (and not without justification when we recall the number of FBI probes into misdealings on The Street during the 80's), Falloon deftly traces the trader's success back to his having decided that ethical dealings will forever and always characterize his business undertakings. Through anecdotes from former colleagues and friends and depictions of his daily life, Falloon shows Charlie D as somebody who has no need to work the system to prosper. Instead, Charlie D. relies on the tenacity of a competitive spirit cultivated on the grid iron when he was a boy, and later as a collegiate athlete. Throughout the book, Charlie D. is seen as a man who exemplifies fair play and honesty in his dealings with colleague and competitor alike. Generous to a fault, Charlie D.'s philanthropy is documented with understatement. Perhaps the most interesting story, to which Falloon devotes an entire chapter, concerns Charlie D.'s having given $50 to a newstand clerk, with which the clerk bought a winnin

For ANY trader...this book is a total winner. In an age electronic finance, where "trading" is so far removed from the "relational" nature of the act itself, I thought this book was a DELISH exploration of the culture of floor trading (a dying art) and a cool nod to the roller-coaster high stakes game of finance that is played on the floors of Chicago's futures exchanges. Quick read version: check out the "god doesn't trade bonds" chapter.. you won't find a better description of "market making"