Nancy Goldstone - a name from the distant past

Years ago, when I was first getting starting in financial markets, I was (as one might expect) a avid reader of books on trading. Once I was asked to provide a "my top ten" list to a financial magazine of books and rather surprised the editor by selecting as one of them, Nancy Goldstone's Trading Up. This recountered her several years as a currency option trader for a US bank in the early / mid 1980s. At this time I worked for one of the large City accountancy firms and was involved in many audits of these "new fangled" products. One of the things that impressed me about the Goldstone book were the many accounts of systems troubles and some of her creative solutions to the problems thrown up by them. As an auditor, I can well remember the time spent in dealing rooms with traders who not only had no real time pricing of their positions during the trading day, but actually took several hours to calculate their positions' values at the close of trading. It was an extraordinary time!

So imagine my surprise when it turns out that one of the books I recently bought about book collecting turns out to be by Nancy Goldstone (and her partnet Lawrence). It is called Used and Rare and recounts their early days as collectors of modern first editions. It has been an ok read so far - not likely to be as influential on me as Trading Up, but then, how could it be?

But there is one sad aspect about this book for me. Once there was a time when both Linda and I were keen book buyers and serious readers. Sadly that is no longer the case and I find it sad to read about the excitement of the two Goldstones as they travel around coming across new finds. Once that would have been Linda and me - now it is just me who retains this excitement.