Leg the Spread: Adventures Inside the Trillion-Dollar Boys' Club of Commodities Trading

“A Plimptonesque revel, one of the most entertaining business books to come around in a long while.”
—KIRKUS REVIEWS (STARRED)

“As Leg the Spread makes clear, anyone who wants to encounter capitalism red in tooth and claw should visit the Merc’s trading floor. If there’s ever a street rumble between commodities brokers and stock brokers, bet on the commodities brokers. They don’t call it “the Pit” for nothing.” —FORBES

“Leg the Spread is a kind book about a cruel world. If you’re a woman, Cari Lynn’s salty memoir will hearten you, though it might not sway you to enter the futures trading field. If you’re a man, it will embarrass you; most of the men here are pigs. If you’re greedy, it might empower you regardless of your gender because the money can be unbelievable.” —THE BOSTON GLOBE
“I needed to accept that this wasn’t going to be a straightforward, starting-a-new-job scenario where people would come to me to introduce themselves and wish me luck. This was a place where, if you screwed up, someone could come at you with a raised fist. This was a place where you had to project enough confidence that you didn’t get taken advantage of, but not enough that you came off as knowing anything more than anybody else. This was a place where you couldn’t care who was touching you, who was screaming at you, or who just knocked you over,” writes Cari Lynn of her first days working at “the Merc”—The Chicago Mercantile Exchange, birthplace and home of commodities trading and the ultimate men’s club. In her eye-popping, adrenaline-fueled memoir, Lynn offers an insider look at the hair-raising, high-pressured world of the Merc—a place where you can make or lose millions in a matter of minutes—and what it’s like to be one of the few women who go head-to-head with the boys and try to play the game.

Commodities—or Futures—trading is all about minimizing risk and maximizing your wallet. Buying something gives you one leg, selling something gives you another, and if you’ve got two legs to stand on, that’s your spread. Anyone can make money by “legging the spread,” but if you’re a woman, you need something else: the presence, savvy, and stomach to run with the bulls and prove your moxie daily in one of the most cutthroat financial arenas around.