The Marketmaker - Softcover

Ridpath, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140271775 ISBN 13: 9780140271775

Publisher: Penguin, 1999

Synopsis

Tough City brokers Dekker Ward created, and dominate, the turbulent market in Latin American bonds. Ricardo Ross is their most successful trader: they call him the Marketmaker. You're either with him or you've made an enemy for life. Disgruntledacademic Nick Elliot is Dekker's greenest trader, content to ride his luck as the new boy on the stand. Until strange things start happening to Dekker's employees. One top trader is fired, another dies in a bungled robbery. Nick falls for his colleague Isabel. Then she is kidnapped. Just what sort of business is he involved in? And has he left it too late to run away?

About this title

From the Author:

Why I wrote this book
When I worked in the city, I always wanted to trade the emerging markets, that is the bonds off developing countries like Mexico, Brazil or Russia. They wouldn't let me. The markets were too risky, they said. But they couldn't stop me writing about them, and when I was searching for a topic for a third novel, emerging markets seemed a natural choice.

They didn't disappoint me. The markets are full of colourful characters, enormous egos, and great stories.

The research was interesting. I decided to focus on Brazil. I knew little about the country, but had always been fascinated by it. It is a complex place, full of opposites. The people are relaxed, happy-go-lucky, friendly. Yet they can aslo be violent, depraved and callous. The financial system seems like a joyful shambles, but the Brazilian investment bankers I met are some of the most driven and intelligent I have come across. And yes, I did have to spend some time lying on a beach in Rio watching the women go by in order to complete my research properly.

Nick, the hero of the book, is an academic. He was inspired by my friends outside the City who see all the wealth made by their contemporaries, and wonder whether they couldn't do as well themselves. Perhaps they can. But intelligence isn't the problem, ruthlessness, aggression, or more euphemistically, "hunger" is. There are four characters in my book who all have different reasons for wanting to work in the City. They are all faces with the same question: "How far will they go?" It is their answers to this question which drives the plot.

If you would like to find out more about me or my books, please visit my website.

Synopsis:

Disgruntled academic Nick Elliott has reluctantly taken work with city brokers Dekker Ward. Strange things start happening to Dekker's employees, including Nick's colleague, Isabel, which is when Nick decides to take on a fixer who is unaccustomed to people standing in his way.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0140271775
• ISBN 13: 9780140271775
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432