Gary Stevenson's ex-Citi colleagues say his debate was "sad"

Gary Stevenson, the former Citi Short Term Interest Rate (STIRT) trader, is a sensation. His YouTube channel, Gary's Economics has 1.1m subscribers. His book 'The Trading Game' was a Sunday Times bestseller. People recognize him in the street.  

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As of last week, though, Gary's star has ascended even further following his appearance in a debate with entrepreneur Daniel Priestly on the even more popular Diary of a CEO YouTube channel. The debate has 2.8m views and counting. 

It's two and a half hours long. If you don't have 150 minutes to spare, the takeaway is that Gary reiterates how rich he is now, reiterates that he was the most profitable trader at Citi in 2011, aged 24, despite many ex-colleagues disputing this, and says that, "I'm a very very good economist my predictions will be right."

Gary's predictions are that the middle classes in the UK will become increasingly impoverished as wealth accumulates in the hands of a small group of rich multimillionaires like him, whose children will not need to work. He says "desperate poverty" is coming for everyone else, and that a tax on anyone with more than $10m in assets is necessary to redistribute wealth.

Some of Stevenson's former Citi colleagues would likely agree with his take. Akshay Singal, who now runs Citi's STIRT desk and is thought to be close to Stevenson, is in favour of a wealth tax. 

Others, however, remain wary of Stevenson's increasing fame.

"Gary didn't come across very well," says another ex-employee of the Citi STIRT desk who's watched the debate. "His arguments weren't very reasoned and there was a big egotistical element in there. I also thought he would have dropped the 'best trader in the world' stuff by now." 

Writing on social media, Kent Bray, another former colleague who features in Gary's book, said Gary's argument in the debate was "sad" because it implies that if you're young and don't have rich parents you'll find it impossible to accumulate wealth. "Gary is a very intelligent guy," says Bray, "....he raises issues that are real and need discussion. Change in the UK is absolutely necessary on all fronts - the NHS, the rise of crime, increased poverty, wealth disparity, how we educate our kids, the inability for young people to buy a house, entrepreneurs leaving the country etc." 

But Bray said Gary is his own worst enemy because of his "condescending, demeaning and patronising manner." Bray, who is now a counsellor, says Gary behaved similarly at Citi when he felt out of his depth: "Child ego state kicked in."

Posting his own reflections on the debate, Priestly said Gary's argument rested on the claim, “I’m always right betting on the economy,” and that he seemed to be arguing for radical equality beyond a wealth tax. "He implies all jobs should pay equally, suggesting a poet should earn the same income as someone working in finance. According to him, life choices aren't good or bad; it's simply unfair that income disparities exist." Gary was lost for a retort when Priestly pointed out that if it's impossible to build wealth without rich parents, then Gary himself wouldn't have accumulated his own millions. 

Criticism is unlikely to make much difference to Gary's 1m+ followers, who praise him for being "bang on" and like the "boy next door." 

Gary's ex-Citi colleagues remain wary of his fame, though. - And not just because Stevenson implies that they should be taxed more heavily. 

Several of them point to an episode in Gary's book where he describes paying for his postman father's Sky Sports subscription with his first bonus and then cancelling it again when he left home. "People on the desk said that he should pay for the subscription for his dad," says one. "But he was of the attitude that his parents had never done anything for him..." 

"Gary definitely wasn’t a naturally selfless person!," the ex-colleague adds. "The idea that he wanted to do good in the world, never shone out in his trading days." 

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