Bill Walker, author of the popular Skywalker hiking series on the Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails has received a strong critical review for his new novel, Chicago Pits (2018). The review was from the respected Midwest Book Review which is selective about books it reviews for independent authors. The book is written in the vein of The Bonfire of the Vanities, the Wall Street satire authored by the late Tom Wolfe. Critique: A saga of a...

“Was it really like that? I can’t believe such large financial transactions are conducted like that,” people keep asking me. They are referring to the daily savagery I write about in Chicago Pits (2018)? My answer-and I was a floor broker for many years– is “Not always. But when the chips were down, all too often it was exactly like that. And that is why they now trade electronically. The customer was the stooge...

Bill Walker, author of the popular Skywalker hiking series, is offering a free upload on Amazon Kindle, Saturday, Feb. 24th of Chicago Pits (2018). It is the first comprehensive novel of the Chicago commodity futures and options business, which was the largest industry in Chicago.   Walker previously wrote Skywalker–Close Encounters on the Appalachian Trail and Skywalker–Highs and Lows on the Pacific Crest...

Bill Walker, author of the popular Skywalker hiking books, will be offering a free upload on Amazon Kindle and other handheld devices of his new novel, Chicago Pits. Walker was a futures broker on the trading floor of the Chicago Board of Trade and London International Financial Futures Exchange (LIFFE) before he embarked on his long-distance hiking career.  

tinyurl.com/ycesd7tw  #ChicagoPits Chicago Pits (2018) is the first comprehensive novel on the famed–and infamous–Chicago commodities business. Growing up, I periodically saw pictures of people packed in on a trading floor yelling and screaming and waving their hands as they traded corn, wheat, cattle, etc. Personally, I traded U.S. Treasury Bond Futures at the Chicago Board of Trade and German Bund Futures at the London...

Financial professionals like to act like the average American is financially illiterate. While they might not be experts, people are increasingly aware of the stock market. Between 401(k) plans, retirement plans, profit-sharing, etc., along with speculators, over half of Americans have exposure to the stock market. The Bonfire of the Vanities was perhaps the most renowned book of the 1980’s; it told a tawdry tale of corruption on Wall...