"Gary Stevenson was loved and nurtured at Citigroup. His comments are hurtful"

efinancialcareers.com:

I worked with Gary Stevenson, the ex-Citigroup trader, YouTube anti-inequality campaigner and author who now claims he was the best trader in the world and who spends his time campaigning for a wealth tax. Like many of Gary's other former colleagues, I don't recognise the world he portrays in his book 

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Gary was very much loved at Citigroup. He describes us collectively as «dysfunctional maths geniuses, overfed public schoolboys and borderline psychopaths,» but that's disingenuous. I was there and that's not how it was. 

Gary joined Citi when he was only 21. He was very charismatic and had an amazing story. He was a kid who was intelligent, bright-eyed, who worked hard and was very likeable. A lot of us felt very fatherly towards him.  We knew he'd had a challenging upbringing, and we mentored him. He was always referred to as a «good kid.». 

Over time, though, Gary changed. He's complex and complicated and has a chip on his shoulder about private school educated people, even though not all of us on the desk were like that. The money changed Gary. When he first got a big bonus, he was surprised, but a year or so later I can remember him going around and saying, «If I don't get $1m at the end of this year, I am f*cking out of this place.»

Gary was a good trader but he wasn't the best. Nor was he one of the biggest traders in the world. He was a guy sitting on a making big decisions, but we all were. To be the biggest and best trader in the world, you'd have to be looking across equities, commodities, credit. Gary might have been the biggest trader at Citi in London for a while, but that's about it. To be the best trader you need to make consistent money over long periods