My name is Kent Bray. AMA about Gary Stevenson’s time at Citi. I mentored him, recommended him for his first trading book, and eventually fell out with him. I am JB in his book.
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Hey Kent. Rod here. I actually admire his self-promotion in a way. Its worked a treat so fair play to him(much as his wealth tax view irritates me) But as we both know as ex-colleagues/traders at Citi for years he was hardly the best trader (by a mile). The franchise there is huge, you can sit and take no proprietary risk all day and make $100k a day on spreads alone. So hes one in a hundred frankly. You and I made far more but that was the job we were paid to do. Keep clients super-happy, manage risk. Not rocket-science.
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Gary has learned the art of having a simple and appealing message and repeating it over and over again
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Has he always been so fundamentally dishonest?
I don’t doubt the guy’s intelligence, but he is a pathological liar. Has he always been like that?
No he has not always been dishonest and misleading. I saw a clip recently with Piers Morgan where he said “I was a trader for a a long time”. Truth is he was at Citi for 6 years. 2 as a trainee, 2 as a trader, 2 sitting on the end of the desk not contributing as he was in dispute with the bank. So I could argue he actually only traded for 2 years.
In the same interview he said that he was paid “millions of pounds a year”. Not true. 6 years. I am guessing £50k, £75k, he said he got paid about $400k in year 3, $2.5 mil in year 4 and then probably £100k for years 5 and 6.
He is very misleading as to his trading achievements at Citi. Number 1 trader globally at Citi in 2011 ? 0 chance. In fact he told me. When his book came out we had some chat as I challenged his claims. He admitted it was only FX. “Someone told him”.
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I never believed in short-man syndrome until I saw Gary
How tall is he IRL? I would bet my house he’s 5’7 tops
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Hello Kent. You may not be able to evaluate this and maybe it is not fair to ask, but do you think Gary is motivated by a quest for fairness or by something else? If so, what? He has a point - it’s unfair to tax incomes when wealth is untaxed. However, he also seems rancorous and self-important
Of course wealth is taxed. Inheritance tax. CGT. Stamp duty tax. Business rates.
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I quite like some of Gary’s ideas (wealth taxes are a much lesser evil than income taxes, for a variety of reasons) but I’ve never understood why he is so… Angry. Like what’s his problem?
I don’t think even the radicals of pre-revolution Russia were this constantly agitated. Gary isn’t going to last two years with the level of rage he has in him… Was he always like this?
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Much of the wealth in this country is the result of (untaxed) price rises on primary residences. Gary never seems to mention this
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Gary is a populist, he would never attack anyone that forms a majority of the population (homeowners) no matter how “logically” they should be in his crosshairs
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What does Gary eat for lunch?
He seems like a Pret guy
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I see he has a “documentary” on tonight on Channel 4-for those in the UK. “How to get filthy rich”. Hmmm.
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Just another grifter like that guy on VICE who assured viewers that everyone in finance was a cocaine-addicted psychopath:
Thanks for sharing. I wonder if Gazza wears a mask in tonight’s programme 
Would be better than having to look at his permanent-constipation face
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The only way to consume Gary content is to listen to him on a podcast
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