Flash Crash

'The UK's pre-eminent chronicler of financial crime' New Yorker

For fans of Bad Blood and Flash Boys, the story of a trading prodigy who amassed $70 million from his childhood bedroom-until the US government accused him of helping trigger an unprecedented market collapse.

On May 6, 2010, financial markets around the world tumbled simultaneously and without warning. In the span of five minutes, a trillion dollars of valuation was lost. The Flash Crash, as it became known, represented the fastest drop in market history. When share values rebounded less than half an hour later, experts around the globe were left perplexed. What had they just witnessed?

Navinder Singh Sarao hardly seemed like a man who would shake the world's financial markets to their core. Raised in a working-class neighbourhood in West London, Nav was a preternaturally gifted trader who played the markets like a computer game. By the age of thirty, he had left behind London's "trading arcades," working instead out of his childhood home. For years the money poured in. But when lightning-fast electronic traders infiltrated markets and started eating into his profits, Nav built a system of his own to fight back. It worked-until 2015, when the FBI arrived at his door. Depending on whom you ask, Sarao was a scourge, a symbol of a financial system run horribly amok, or a folk hero-an outsider who took on the tyranny of Wall Street and the high-frequency traders.

A real-life financial thriller, Flash Crash uncovers the remarkable, behind-the-scenes narrative of a mystifying market crash, a globe-spanning investigation into international fraud, and the man at the centre of them both.

“Longlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2020 'The U.K.'s pre-eminent chronicler of financial crime' New Yorker 'This is not just a readable, pacey account of an extraordinary individual ... but also a troubling expos”

'The U.K.'s pre-eminent chronicler of financial crime' New Yorker

'The definitive account of one of the most mysterious events in the recent history of financial markets...Flash Crash tells the irresistible personal tale of the unlikely character-finance whiz, social misfit, brazen cheater, folk hero, fraud victim-who finds himself at the centre of a vast global scandal' David Enrich, author of Dark Towers and The Spider Network

'A fascinating journey through the heart of the financial markets and the battle between man and machine in the search for trading profits' Bradley Hope, co-author of Billion Dollar Whale

'An elegant and fast-paced narrative ... Through meticulous reporting and a gripping story, Vaughan has filled in many of the missing pieces. You won't be able to put it down.' William D. Cohan, the New York Times bestselling author of The Price of Silence, Money and Power, House of Cards and The Last Tycoons

'Liam Vaughan's fast-paced, richly detailed financial thriller tells the real story of how it happened, who was at the center of it, and what it all means. You'll want to read it in one sitting.' Bethany McLean, co-author of The Smartest Guys in the Room

'A fascinating journey through the heart of the financial markets and the battle between man and machine in the search for trading profits.' Bradley Hope, co-author of Billion Dollar Whale

'Flash Crash tells the dramatic tale of how a solitary trader managed to help bring global markets to their knees, but it also sheds much-needed light on the forces-and unlikely characters-that move today's markets... Eye-opening.' Gregory Zuckerman, author of The Man Who Solved the Market

'A lively, engrossing tale that reveals just how corrupt, absurd, and vulnerable our financial system really is.' Sheelah Kolhatkar, author of Black Edge

Liam Vaughan is an award-winning investigative journalist and author with Bloomberg and Businessweek magazine.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.