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A former City broker tells all to the London Guardian newspaper’s Joris Luyendijk Thursday, focusing on his life as a coke-snorting, gambling addicted broker who claims “It was the natural environment to unleash my inner beast”.
Seth Freedman insists, however, that he never traded while on coke.
"This idea that people trade on coke is nonsense," he emphasises. "You can't trade on coke, you become far too nervous and your confidence just goes". But after-hours was a different story. You get a sense of the addict's isolation when Freedman talks about gambling as a means of "artificially inducing a feeling that other people have naturally".
Freedman also questioned the notion that some gamblers love to lose.
"I know that feeling. Beating yourself up after losing money in the market. What it comes from, I think, is the gratifying idea of 'at least I took part'. And more strongly, 'at least I am strong enough to take this'. This then leads to the idea 'I am also strong enough to come back from this loss', meaning you double down and often increase your losses even further."
Freedman's time working in the City inspired a novel called Dead Cat Bounce and the nonfiction account "Binge trading – the real inside story of cash, cocaine and corruption in the city". You can read more of Luyendijk's interview with Freedman here.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
