The Day Traders: The Untold Story of the Extreme Investors and How They Changed Wall Street Forever

The gold rush that is revolutionizing Wall Street and the markets--the story of day trading as it's never been told In The Day Traders, Gregory Millman goes behind the scenes to reveal the truth about a modern gold rush that has people from all walks of life playing the market online, in real time, just like Wall Street's biggest pros. This is the story of the extreme investing scene, where the upside dazzles and the threat of financial injury is dire. And whether the day-trading phenomenon lasts a hundred years or ends tomorrow, the markets we know as "Wall Street" will never be the same. Millman chronicles how that happened and why, who wins and who loses. Here are just a few of the players you will meet: The "King of the Bandits," the first upstart to beat the Wall Street establishment at its own game The techno-rebels who launched a revolution in the markets and put the New York Stock Ex-change and Nasdaq on the run The shady courtroom antagonists whose im-broglio of lawsuits and investigations have pried the lid off day trading's best-kept secrets--including allegations of fraud, money laundering, corporate espionage, racketeering, and more This is a story of people testing themselves against almost impossible odds. "Trading is incredibly intense," says one psychologist. "It can suck you in. At the end of the day you feel good or bad about yourself as a person based on whether you've made or lost money." One young doctor won so much playing the markets in med school that he left medicine for the life of a trader, only to spiral down into compulsive gambling, barely escaping the worst. Step inside a day-trading course with Millman and take an objective look at the methods and lessons of the game. Meet other would-be traders: a mother-and-daughter team, a Thai immigrant, a former small-business owner seeking a new career after disability ended his first, a onetime mining engineer trying to regain his self-esteem after being laid off for several years. All of them are eager to join the virtual gold rush and try their luck at a high-stakes game whose first rule is: Forget everything you ever knew about investing. Millman shows why the game gets harder even as it gets bigger, and shows how technology is turning day trading into an international phenomenon, opening new markets and breaking old rules. Some have found a way to make millions even on losing trades--like the failed Texas trader who lost big online but won bigger in court by suing the investor who lent him money to cover margin calls. The Day Traders also includes "The Extreme Investor's Manual"--a handy how-to look at day trading that includes the principles of successful trading as well as a guide to taking your broker to court if things go awry, as they frequently do in this high-stakes world.

Gregory J. Millman has written for many publications, including Fortune, Forbes, Worth, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washing-ton Post. His previous book, The Vandal's Crown: How Rebel Currency Traders Overthrew the World's Cen-tral Banks, was a Business Week bestseller and has been translated into nine languages.