The Futures by Emily Lambert book signing

Emily Lambert will be at After-Words books on January 13, 2011 from 5:30-7:30 pm signing copies of her book and interviewing Bill Henner, a trader who was featured in her work The Futures: The Rise of the Speculator and the Origins of the World’s Biggest Markets.

Over the past century, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange flourished and transformed the way the world does business, and some might argue that these advances helped create the worst financial crisis of our lifetime. With The Futures, Lambert shows how the unique culture and limits of the Mercantile Exchange can serve as a useful blueprint for how exchanges ought to work—and perhaps a tonic for our current financial ills.

In the book, Lambert tells the story of how the men (and a few women) of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange struck it rich on butter and eggs, pork bellies and soybeans—and created a formidable competitor to the New York Stock Exchange. The result is an unexpectedly funny, fascinating account of the flesh-and-blood personalities behind this institution, not to mention the inspired business deals they made on their way to either fabulous wealth or utter penury (depending on how well they played the market).

Kirkus Reviews raves, “[Lambert] devotes loving attention to a parade of outrageous risk-takers… Although she provides lucid explanations of how the market works and how the various money-making strategies collide, the charm of her fast-paced, informal history comes from the book’s animating insight: ‘Finance is like biology: Everything is intertwined.’…A full-blooded introduction to an arcane world.”

Emily Lambert is senior writer for Forbes magazine, where she covers finance and trading. She has also written for the New York Post. She lives in Chicago.

Bill Henner is a third generation Chicago futures trader. He has spent over 25 years on the trading floors of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade. Bill has traded foreign currencies, metals, interest rates, and equity index futures over the course of his career. You can hear him every day at 8:05 am CST with his "View from Chicago" report in the Value Zone Trading Room. www.valuezonetrading.com

Please join us for wine and beer on Thursday, January 13, 2011 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.  The author will be signing following her interview with Bill Henner.