Fiasco: The Inside Story of a Wall Street Trader

Frank Partnoy spent the mid-1990s selling complex derivatives at a major investment bank, and this memoir describes that world from the inside. He recounts how exotic products were designed and marketed, how salespeople talked among themselves, and how clients who did not fully understand the risks could be badly hurt. Written soon after he left, the book is a blunt, unsettling account of a culture built on selling complexity.