Flash Crash

A Trading Savant, a Global Manhunt, and the Most Mysterious Market Crash in History

By: Liam Vaughan

Narrated by: Liam Vaughan

"[An] extraordinary tale"—Wall Street Journal
"Compelling [and] engaging"—Financial Times
"Magnificently detailed yet pacy...Think Trading Places meets Wall Street"—Sunday Times (UK)

The riveting 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 what was then 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 neighborhood 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 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 a man at the center of them both.

Original, thrilling, and well written.

The author does not parse out details that could be too niche, and instead takes time to explain technical details.

Great Story Told in an Unassuming Way...

As good as Vaughan's written words are, his spoken words are even better! Was a pleasure to listen to. A very interesting story and one that needs to be told.

Absolutely fantastic - Definitely a must-read

This has to rank at the highest echelon, definitely among most enjoyable audiobooks I have heard - and I have almost 1,000 books in my Audible library. At the same time, it is also very thought-provoking and impactful. It is an absolutely outstanding work of non-fiction, written as an extremely accessible and interesting account of the trader who ostensibly caused the Flash crash of May 2010. It is very difficult to stop listening to this audiobook once one starts. As a Professor of Finance with extensive work in market microstructure, I can say that the author displays an excellent understanding of the trading and regulatory framework underlying the activities of the trader, and has done a fabulous job of presenting technicalities very accessibly and at the same time, meaningfully. I also thoroughly enjoyed the author himself reading the book. I am so happy I got this as soon as it came out. Kudos to Liam Vaughan. A movie is also reported to be forthcoming.

Awesome story

loved this tale. Hope to see more from this author. So interesting to hear about how one man was able to take on HFT firms by himself. Also disturbing is how the U.S government is willing to sacrifice small players like Nav to satisfy public need for blood in the wake of the flash crash. Great book couldn't turn it off.

Good read

Flashboys is better, but still an entertaining story of how financial markets works, and how a single individual can have a tremendous impact.