“A rip-roaring yarn of baseball, poker, and Wall Street told with humor and humanity.”
—Geoffrey Garrett, Dean, The Wharton School
“I bet you won’t be able to put down this book. By turns hilarious, insightful, and touching, Fine has written a coming-of-age story for the ages.”
—Peter Lattman, Vice Chairman, The Atlantic
Drawing from his own experiences in the turbulent ‘70s and ‘80s, hedge fund pioneer Jerrold Fine blends a heartfelt story of a young man fiercely intent on achieving independence with a fascinating insider’s look at the perks and pitfalls of a high-stakes life in the world of financial markets in his debut novel MAKE ME EVEN AND I’LL NEVER GAMBLE AGAIN (RosettaBooks; August 2018).
Rogers Stout has the gambler’s gifts—a titanic brain, an uncanny ability to read people, and a risk-taker’s daring. As an apathetic high school student who loves baseball but lacks a 90-mph fastball, he knows that the game does not begin until the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand. But his life needs direction.
Everything changes the summer he is invited into the boisterous environment of an investment bank’s trading room, and to a gambling hall dive where he immediately wins big at poker, capturing the attention of his co-workers with his card-playing skills. Intrigued by trading markets, Rogers’s intellectual curiosity takes him to Wharton and then Wall Street, where he faces challenges as an outsider who thinks and acts differently from the white-shoe establishment. With his intuition and prowess, he’s ready to rewrite the rules and tackle markets with a flair that leaves his employers flabbergasted. Rogers leans heavily on his gut instincts and the unusual cadre of friendships he cultivates, but learns the hard way to be alert to the perils that await him. As Rogers plays his career hand, life plays another. Should he follow the temptress Elsbeth and her ravishing beauty, or Charlotte, his high-spirited first love?
Jerrold Fine is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and has served multiple terms on its Undergraduate Executive Board and Board of Overseers. He has been a founding managing partner of a hedge fund since he was twenty-four years old. He continues to run his family’s investments while he works diligently on his next novel. He lives in Connecticut with his artist wife and a ridiculously spoiled Portuguese water dog.
An intriguing look at human aspiration and the interplay of honor, greed, fear, and individuality, MAKE ME EVEN AND I’LL NEVER GAMBLE AGAIN reveals a time when a new generation upended the status quo on Wall Street and forever changed investing