Play Money

Loved PLAY MONEY from start to finish. It moves as fast as the trading floor where Pedersen finds herself at the tender age of 18. Newly arrived in the Big Apple she takes life in the fast lanes mostly in stride, along with the crazy antics of her cohorts. These people and situations were made for a sitcom and I can't believe that one hasn't been made of it yet. You'll learn a little about the stock exchange and options trading but not so much that the stories ever get bogged down. A fun read for anyone who has ever been in the biz (I was a currency trader in the 90s) but also if your just looking to cheer along a determined young person trying to pull herself up by the proverbial bootstraps.

This is not a financial book, though it tells you just enough to enjoy and understand what's going on. It's much more like LIAR'S POKER in that you get all the funny anecdotes about traders and the fear and greed that drives them. Pedersen is the perfect person to tell the tale, newly arrive on the stock exchange from upstate New York at age 18. My Uncle works on the trading floor of the NYSE and since the advent of cell phones and better computers it's certainly a new era. Pedersen's book is wonderful as a historical account of how it was before all that. And her personal story of moving to the big city from a small town, without much money and only a high school diploma from a public school, and setting out to achieve the American Dream is entertaining as well. And also, I would think, an inspiration to all ambitious young people (seeing as she wasn't even a good math student!). I particularly enjoyed all the bets and contests the guys would start -- as if making and losing millions of dollars every few minutes wasn't enough excitement!

I am working my way backward through the Pedersen oeuvre, having just read LAST CALL, BEGINNER'S LUCK, and GOING AWAY PARTY. I thought this was going to be another novel, but SURPRISE, it is an account of Pedersen's adventures going to Wall Street back in 1983, the start of boom times. She was only 18 and coming from a small town in upstate New York, a self-admitted hick, unable to find the stock exchange on her third day of work because it was raining and the flag wasn't flying. The supervisor had never heard THAT excuse before. Anyway, Pedersen is as light-hearted and charming in her nonfiction as in the novels. She doesn't come off as being a child whiz kid, though I imagine you must be pretty smart to do what she did, but credits her phenomenal success more to being in the right place at the right time, getting up early, and loving the work, action, excitement. Her coworkers are unbelievable and highly entertaining in their practical jokes and bizarre priorities. For someone who has lived in Indiana her entire life (me), it was fun to read about leaving home for a big city right after high school graduation, something probably many of us dreamed of doing, but for whatever reason didn't. This book reminded me why American is such a great country -- not so much because a teenage girl of divorced working class parents from a former steel town can strike it rich in just a few years, but because the young woman was able to make the opportunity for herself, no matter what happened after that. Though I'm glad she took her money and ran, and am looking forward to the next novel, HEART'S DESIRE. HOWEVER, if she wants to write another nonfiction book, I'd be happy to go along for the ride. Pedersen has the great comic/storytelling gift of making getting up in the morning into something funny and interesting. I read an essay she wrote about growing up with her mother (a nurse) on the Internet and it is laugh-out-loud funny.

A little business, a little autobiography, a lot of humor. I bought this book after thoroughly enjoying Pedersen's BEGINNER'S LUCK and wanting something more while anxiously awaiting the sequel. It's not fiction, but the true account of how Pedersen moved from upstate New York at the age of 18 and started to work on the trading floor of the stock exchange and become a millionaire in her early 20s. You don't have to be interested in high finance to enjoy the ride when the country gal meets the big city, including a hilarious recounting of her supervisor's reaction when she got lost on the way to work the first week and all the practical jokes the traders play. The characters that she meets are real, mostly whacky, and like something out of a movie. It's easy to see where Pedersen got her interest in colorful personalities for future writing. And now I understand how she knows so much about gambling! Also, if you missed the 80's, it's a refresher on the "greed is good" mentality. Overall, a fun and fast read. And probably inspirational for any young person who wants to succeed.