Customer Reviews

The Day Trader

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Day Trading may someday define the late 1990's. The boom, the bust, the empowerment of the individual. Unfortunately, Frey squanders his opportunity to help us make sense of it. If the title, THE DAY TRADER, attracts you (like it did me), do not be misled. The scope of the book is very small-minded. I was hoping to better understand the fullness of this huge phenomenon (through the power of fiction). So I expected good fictional characterizations and a more even-handed plot than Frey provided. His characters never really convince you and there's a plot that seems just too darn cooked up. I wanted a good fictionalized view of this phenomenon and I sure didn't find it here.

Day Trading was certainly one the most dynamic infatuations of possibly America's greatest decade. So when Frey chose to call his latest, The Day Trader, I was hoping he might capture the deeper meanings of such an interesting phenomenon. Unfortunately, I think Frey squandered a terrific opportunity. Instead of characterizing this naturally dramatic period fairly, he opted for plot devices and broad character portrayals. After it's over, you don't feel any clarity or much of anything, it's a few hundred pages of typical mystery that any subject normally provides. When fiction works well, it provides insight, gusto, and obvious enjoyment. I just didn't get it here.

`The Day Trader'is Stephen Frey's latest foray into the financial thriller. Not his best but still quite enjoyable.

When Augustus McKnight gets lucky on one of his stocks and makes a significant profit he thinks it'll make things all better for him and his wife. Wrong. Before he gets a chance to say anything she tells him she's leaving him and wants a divorce-it seems there is a greener pasture with her boss. The next day she is found murdered. He will be the beneficiary of a one million dollar life insurance policy taken out six months earlier. So he quits his regular job and decides to become a full time day trader. Needless to say there is a detective on his case as well as an insurance investigator. Now for some reason this seems very surprising to the, obviously very naïve, Augustus.

With some neat twists and turns, Frey has written an entertaining novel. The biggest flaw in this book (fairly significant) is the protagonist. Through most of the novel I could not have cared less about Augustus. As mentioned by other reviews, and to put it plainly, he was just too dumb to care about.
I kept waiting for him to get smart but the book ended before I got there.
Though the novel tells you a little about trading, it mostly deals with the murder mystery.

Clearly, when I buy a book for an airplane read, I don't expect much. Just enough to keep me occupied and make the time pass. "The Day Trader" does not even pass this test. The main character switches back and forth from village idiot to financial genius, discovers a violent side in himself that does hardly match 11 years of staying on the same job. Inconsistencies and non-sensicals are abound. Has anyone tried in 2000 to "gain experience in the stock market" with a 1000$ on the balance sheet? Yet, this is what Mr. Frey makes Augustus say to his truly fictional boss. I believe, corporate America has found better ways of making money than blackmailing employees. Augustus makes two trades (one on inside information) yet the book is called "The Day Trader". It appears to me that Frey tried to throw everything in one pot and hoped it would turn out right: the frenzy of the stock market in and around the year 2000, a murder, an unfaithful wife, a greedy lawyer, child abuse and sex. Well, what came out is something that appears to be a cheap attempt to cash in on previous better works of Mr. Frey. While I understand that we are talking about fiction a story should be at least imaginable. Main characters should be developed or back tracked, side characters should complement the plot or offer an alternative solution of the mystery so the reader is kept guessing.
While the book is sad, it is even more frustrating to read the raving reviews of the "professional" book reviewers that decorate the book. They are as deceiving and fraudulent as the stock tips the financial powerhouses gave not too long ago. A conflict of interest is apparent. Who keeps the book reviewers honest? Does anybody know?

When I first purchased this book, I was looking forward to the same quality of story and detail that I had come to enjoy in Frey's previous books. Sadly, this book did not live up to those ideals in that there seemed to be an element missing from this work that was in previous works. On the whole, it's a decent quick read, but not quite the level that should have been expected from Frey. Some of the nagging points I found in this book dealt with specific Washington, DC area elements that should have been better researched in order to have been portrayed in a context that one would expect the characters to know. The old dictum of writing what you know stands true, and there are times where one questions the level of research that went into certain elements of this story because I was questioning them in light of my knowledge of the area. I reserve judgement for future works when I have read them, but if you are new to Frey, pick up one of his earlier books as a first read.

The best part about this book happens in the last few pages. I guess that is how a book should be,
but the text leading up to the ending should be better than this novel was. I have enjoyed most of
Stephen Frey's books, but this one was a let down. I was ready to give this a 2 star rating, until
the last few pages. It should not have been a surprise to me, but it was, probably because I lost a
lot of interest in the book and was not paying close enough attention. It Frey's previous books
the financial part was an important part of the story, but in this one the main character could have
worked as a janitor at a high school and the story could have basically been the same.

This book is not quite as bad as some of the other reviewers have indicated. It's readable and moves right along. A great book if you have time to kill. Unfortunately, it's also silly and shallow. Augustus McKnight is just about to quit his "day job" and became a "Day Trader" when his wife announces she is leaving him. The next day she is found murdered. Augustus' life is rapidly spiralling down hill. Assorted "friends" and "co-workers" seem united in trying to do him in. Nobody is who they seem to be. Augustus becomes an amateur sleuth, trying to solve the case of his wife's murder in which he is rapidly becoming the chief suspect. The plot is complicated and contrived, the characters are not believable, nor do you care what happens to them. And the main character, the protagonist (who is also the narrator, who also gives tedious lectures about the mechanics of selling short, for example) is--how shall I say it?--a jerk. This is not a financial thriller at all, really, although Augustus is supposedly "day trading." It is just a second-rate whodunit. But as I say, it reads quickly, and is kind of fun.

This was definitely the poorest of Frey's books. I was really looking forward to reading it, but was disappointed. I hope his future books have more deapth to them. The characters are really shallow and you really don't care what happens to them. Agustus, the main character, is such a weakling that you begin to feel he deserves what he gets.

I certainly hope Frey takes his time and produces a decent product next time. The Day Trader is junk. If the plot had less imagination and the characters less development, it would be a children's book.
The text is at a 3rd grade level. The financial component to previous books has been intriguing. This attempt is on the level of balancing your checkbook.
The only thing good about this book is nothing.
Sorry Frey, you lost a reader.

This book was much Slower than Frey's other books. My major problem with this book was that it was Frey's only book that was in the First Person. The writing just didn't seem right, his third person books are all much better. BTW Frey needs to do a little bit better of a job doing research, When they go to the Baseball game the team plays the "California Angels" the team hasn't been California for some time now, second the home team is always in the third base side, not the first base side. It is stuff like that that makes this book off.