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One of the by-phenomena of Internet access is day trading. Just about everyone knows, or knows someone who knows, a day trader. A day trader, when you cut through all the malarkey, sits chained to his desktop while he moves around great amounts of money electronically, buying and selling shares of stock with money they may or may not have at any given moment. There are indescribable amounts of money that can be made and lost in day trading.
One of my favorite stories of all time concerns an incredibly successful day trader who suddenly began bleeding red ink like a sieve. One loss led to another and it soon appeared as if he was going to lose everything, including the opulent lifestyle that his previous successes had afforded him. He had dinner with his lover that night, told her about his succession of losses and asked her if she would still love him if he lost everything. She looked deeply into his eyes, leaned across the table, kissed him on the ear and whispered, "I would still love you. And I would miss you."
However, Frey's THE DAY TRADER concerns a guy whose lady wants to leave him before he earns his fortune. The guy is Augustus McKnight, whose dead-end job is merely a symptom of his dead-end life. His lady is his wife Melanie. McKnight, who dabbles in the stock market, makes a calculated online investment that nets him a financial windfall. Before he can tell Melanie, however, she tells him that she wants out of the marriage. A day later, she is found murdered and McKnight finds himself the beneficiary of another windfall --- he is the beneficiary of a one million dollar life insurance policy that Melanie had insisted he purchase only a few months previous. McKnight, in spite of his grief, is able to recognize that he now has the freedom to fulfill a dream. He quits his job and becomes a day trader. Frey does an excellent job of describing the ins and outs of this occupation, as well as explaining some of the ins and outs of stock market transactions. His explanation of selling "short" is as cogent and understandable as any I've ever read and he concisely explains, in a sentence or two, why that stockbroker to whom you are paying a monthly fee often has no better idea of what is going to happen day to day than a dart-throwing chimpanzee.
All is not entirely rosy for McKnight, however. He is suspected in his wife's murder and slowly but surely comes to understand that Melanie had been living a double life. Additionally, Vincent Carlucci, his best friend since high school, seems supportive of his new career, even steering new clients to him. Carlucci, however, has motives of his own and not all of them are beneficial to McKnight. McKnight soon finds himself embroiled in trouble on several fronts and unable to trust anyone. Frey does an excellent job of keeping McKnight and the reader guessing, practically until the end of the book.
Frey continues to lend a light touch to what in lesser hands could be a ponderous topic by mining the world of high finance as a vehicle for suspenseful novels. At the same time, his ability to explain the ins and outs of the financial world, while keeping his descriptions simple and interesting, is worth the price of admission alone. THE DAY TRADER is yet another example of why any work of Frey's is worth a long, careful look.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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