Ben Mezrich is best known for his book Bringing Down The House that was made into the movie 21 in 2008. He has written several other books about outstanding people who have made it big including Ugly Americans that tells the story of John Malcom an Ivy League football player who ends up going to Osaka, Japan to work as a trader for Kidder Peabody.
Malcolm learns about trading and the different Asian markets. He has some hard times as different higher ups get in trouble for different things (such as unauthorized trading) so that Malcolm changes jobs and companies a few times in a short period.
Malcolm ends up working for her original teacher/mentor, Dean Carney, who has set up a hedge fund. He allows Malcolm a little more freedom to try things that he sees that could be big. This pays off and Malcolm as the Nikkei market restructures Malcolm earns his company 500 million dollars in one day. Of which he gets to take 10%. In his early 20s, Malcolm is a multi-millionaire. I’m not a very economically savvy person who’s familiar with trading, but I still enjoyed this book and the magnitude of what he was able to do.
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