Riding the Bull:: My Year in the Madness at Merrill Lynch [Hardcover]

Paul Stiles (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 27, 1998

A Wall Street neophyte describes his odyssey from a small-town upbringing to the world of high-stakes investment, detailing his terrifying year with financial giant Merrill Lynch and the complex financial deals, intrigues, profit madness, and back-stabbing approach to business. 25,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

After five years at the National Security Agency, Paul Stiles, age 29, finds himself disillusioned with government service and wondering if there isn't a better way to make a life. A few months later, Stiles finds himself working as a trader for the world's largest security firm, Merrill Lynch.

In the year that follows, Stiles sees the Mexican peso, the Orange County disaster, and the intense and brutal politics that dominates Merrill Lynch. Riding the Bull is a fast-paced, well-written personal account that traces Stiles's short-lived career on Wall Street--from his first job interview to the day he was fired. During his short tenure as a bond trader, Stiles watches his life, marriage, and sense of well-being slowly crumble. If you ever thought that trading bonds might be a good way to make a living, Riding the Bull may convince you otherwise. You'll also get a good overview of how the bond market works and why.

From Booklist

In many ways, Stiles parallels and echoes Michael Lewis, whose Liar's Poker (1989) is a hilarious and cautionary account of bond trading at Salomon Brothers. As a bond trader at Merrill Lynch, Stiles made $1 million for the firm in four months. But, also like Lewis, he quickly became disillusioned. Stiles, too, uses humor to lay bare the workings of Wall Street, but his tale turns moralistic after he realizes there is not a "values match" between him and the company (and the industry) he works for. His story begins with his grudging treatment at the hands of fellow traders who are "responsible" for training him, and it ends with humiliating negotiations over severance benefits. Assigned to international emerging markets, Stiles learns to measure the impact of such events as the assassination of a promising Mexican presidential hopeful in dollars and pesos. David Rouse

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 323 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business; 1st edition (January 27, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812927893
• ISBN-13: 978-0812927894
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,560,092 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars heart felt and frightening, actually, March 4, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (San Francisco, Calif.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Riding the Bull:: My Year in the Madness at Merrill Lynch (Hardcover)

... The author was not naive as some reviews have said, but too principled and idealistic for the shenanigans of Merrill Lynch bond trading. It's true he had taken on the heady challenge, but what he met was beyond his wildest imaginings. His expectations of even a little job training were never met. One senses how truly lost he was in this deceitful and morally ambiguous environment. What the hell was expected? What was the game? On the one hand, you can learn a lot about daily life on the bond trading floor. On the other hand, having been in the corporate life myself, I recognized some similar behavior and wished I could have read this book prior to those experiences. I was more lost than Mr. Stiles and just as infuriated. Anyone planning to go to the corporate wars will be forewarned by reading this book. Let it be a lesson to those who think corporate tigers could run the world better than politicians. For awhile, Stiles played the game and made $1 million for the company and may have enjoyed the heady success of that time, but overall it wasn't worth it. I liked the format. Just when I'd had enough of technical market information and bad behavior, Stiles shifts to more personal things--finding an affordable, livable place within commuting distance of Wall Street; a visit to the city by his parents and a heart-to-heart talk with his father; a desperate altercation with his equally stressed career wife; and walking The Beast, their Jack Russell terrier. Read this book and have your eyes opened to what really goes on where greed is king. Stiles was there when the Mexican peso was devalued. He reveals the inside scoop on the Orange County debacle. This is good stuff. And well-written, too

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Was he naive? You decide., April 16, 1998

By 

John Grabowski (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Riding the Bull:: My Year in the Madness at Merrill Lynch (Hardcover)

Here's a man who decides suddenly he wants a career on The Street. In high finance. He freely admits at the time he decided he wanted to be a bond trader he didn't even know what a bond was, let alone how to trade one. Kind of like deciding you want to be an auto mechanic when you've never seen a car, or a concert pianist when you've never touched a C. But worse, he never researched the industry. Okay, he called one college chum he knew on the inside. Hardly research. Had he looked deeper than the piles of green he perceived on the horizon, he might not have been surprised later to learn that stockbrokers and bond traders don't spend their off-time thinking about philosophy, art, theater, history and most of all, ethics. What did he expect on the trading floor, discourses on Shakespeare and Proust amidst the hectic buying and selling. The one worthwhile part of the book is his sobering discussion of how trading swindles and corporate blackmail go unreported on the nightly news, because most everyone things--probably rightly so!--that the average person is "too dumb" to understand what's going on. Give people the Mexican Peso crash or the Orange County scandal and their eyes glaze over, but show videotape of Monica Lewinsky hugging the president and interest perks up. So long as the average person behaves this way, people like the characters Stiles paints in his book will continue to rob us blind. Bread and circuses is not much of a stretch. Otherwise this is a long read, and in the forward he mentions it was TWICE as long in its original draft. I can only shudder to think what that version read like. The ending is very soppy and cloying in its own way--I really find it a stretch that those conversations took place on his living room couch, complete with side-remarks to their too-cute doggie. It felt like one of the whinier episodes of "Thirtysomething," only in "Thirtysomething" the dialogue was better (believe it or not). In short, save your money. And let Stiles earn an honest living.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My experience is very similar to those of Stiles, July 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Riding the Bull:: My Year in the Madness at Merrill Lynch (Hardcover)

I recommend this book to anyone who is thinking of becoming a trader. My experience with Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong are very similar to those of the author's, and with all the other associates I talked to, it seems that it is more a common practise than a mismanagement to neglect newly recruited analysts and associates, especially those who do not have contacts high up in the firm. I am pleased to find out I am not the only one who is working for a top investment bank and deeply depressed, broke and hated every minute of it, and finally someone write a book about it.