Liar's Poker

Why it is worth your time

Liar's Poker is Michael Lewis's 1989 memoir of his 3 years as a bond salesman at Salomon Brothers, then the dominant trading house on Wall Street. Lewis joined straight out of the London School of Economics, and the book records the training program, the mortgage-bond desk under Lewie Ranieri and the trading-floor culture under John Gutfreund. It was his first book. Chamath has called it probably his favorite book and lists it with 2 others as reading for new graduates. The fit is clear. He began his own career as a derivatives trader at a Canadian bank, and the book's view of incentives, risk and bluffing lines up with his interest in poker. It suits anyone entering finance or curious about the 1980s bond market. The caveat is that it was published in 1989. Salomon Brothers no longer exists, and the products and pay scales are nearly 40 years old.