Naked Option [Hardcover]

Joe Kolman, Naked Option (Harriman House, 2007)

I don't know how it is I came to start reading this odd subgenre known as the corporate thriller. (Okay, I do-- it's all Joe Finder's fault. But I digress.) I know as much about corporate culture as I do about quantum physics, and to be honest, I find quantum physics a lot more interesting. So why is it that the corporate thrillers I read end up capturing my imagination? It's more impressive when the book in question really delves into the world it's floating atop, instead of simply using it as the backdrop for a conventional thriller plot. That's the case with Joe Kolman's Naked Option, which goes into all kinds of detail on, well, everything, from stock trading to Jewish marriage customs-- and somehow it's all utterly engrossing.Yes, I'm as confused by that statement as you are, but I guarantee you-- if you pick up Naked Option, you'll find it just as riveting as I did. I mean, come on, it's a corporate thriller blurbed by Alison Lurie. How can you go wrong?

David Ackerman is not having a good month. He lost his bank $112 million in the wake of September 11, and subsequently lost his job (and his Series 7 license). His girlfriend has moved across the country to take a job as a film critic. Not a good time to be Dave Ackerman, that's for sure. But a corporate lawyer looking for a sharp options trader gives him a break and an auditing job, trying to find out how someone on the trading floor is scamming money from the bank. He doesn't know it's happening for sure, but he strongly suspects, and Dave and his new partner, Susanna Cassuto, are the bloodhounds he sets on the trail. Can we say 'rebound relationship", kiddies? We certainly can! But there's something different about Susanna. And something very different about this scammer. Especially when, just when Dave and Susanna are on the brink of catching him, he turns up dead...

Kolman has a knack for explaining stuff and making the explanations work. I don't know how that happens, but it does. The amount that I know about stock options is nil, pretty much, but I know what one is, and the basics of trading them. So I'm not a complete amateur. And yet Kolman's explanations of the process didn't seem as if he were talking down to the reader, which is impressive. Even more impressive is that the explanatory sections of the book, which are often a pace-killer in the extreme, don't slow things down here at all. Part of the reason for this is, likely, that the book is slower-paced in general than your average thriller-- Kolman's wall street is not the adrenaline-fueled world of a Joe Finder novel. There's a mystery to be solved, that mystery gets more complex, and the book's pace matches Dave Ackerman's-- he's got no idea what he's doing in this world, save trying to make a paycheck and falling in love with Susanna Cassuto, and the book's pace matches Dave's-- hesitant and fumbling one minute, decisive (and headstrong) the next. That may sound like a criticism, It isn't meant as one. It's quite a performance on Kolman's part, and I find it impressive.

The one thing that bugged me is what I perceived as the book's attitude towards gay characters. Now, I rush to say I'm 99% sure that Kolman's take here is that the characters who dismiss the murder as a "gay crime" are buffoons, or at least well-meant folks who have their brains in the wrong place, and that Dave's sexual confusion as he gets farther into the case is meant to help us identify with him somewhat (at least, those of us who've been in that same confused state). Overall, I think the book is meant to be sympathetic, in some general sense, to its gay characters. Certainly, two of the most likable guys we meet in the book are gay. But there's still a kind of undercurrent that made me less than comfortable a time or two. And again I say, that may well have been meant-- we're supposed to be offended at the bullheaded police detective, whose aggressive dismissal of the case as a gay crime borders on the homophobic. But it just rubbed me the wrong way sporadically. Your mileage may (and I'm sure it will) vary.

That said, though, I sailed through this one in two days. It is readable, compelling, very well-plotted, and very good stuff. Recommended. ****

Set in the New York City financial district following 9/11, this is the best story about Wall Street since Lawrence Sanders "Timothy's Game." Dave Ackerman, a skilled options trader, gets into trouble plunging into the market with naked options doing derivative trading. He now needs new employment and finds himself teamed with Susanna Cassuto auditing the activities of derivative traders on the trading flood of an investment bank.

Events take a sudden turn as a man under investigation turns up dead. The bank wants to close out its involvement, but Susanna is a woman on a mission, and Dave is drawn into the case to assist Susanna. Susanna is the dominant person in this relationship.

Along the way, you will learn a lot about derivative trading - Dave's specialty; and you will learn about the possible financial irregularities that can occur. There is also some discussion of Orthodox Jewish traditions as Dave pursues Susanna.

The novel has some discussion about attitudes towards gays. A trading floor is like a men's locker room. A man could never come out of the closet, and will even disguise his real interests to be "one of the boys." The novel has some language and sexual content (both heterosexual and homosexual). I would give the novel an AO rating for adult only.

I'm generally not one for Wall Street (or any other street) financial thrillers, but I do like fiction that provides a glimpse at new worlds, o thought I'd give this one 10-15 pages to hook me. Rather to my surprise, it did pull me in and I found myself generally entertained throughout. Instead of relying on the standard greed-driven plotline, former financial journalist Kolman delivers a more character-driven crime story set in the world of options trading.

The protagonist is Dave Ackerman, a whiz trader who, in the days following 9/11, has a lapse in self-control over his ego that leads him into a classic "traders dilemma." This is the kind of situation where a trade has gone so poorly that you're probably going to be fired, and the only possibility of recovering is to bet even more money to try and recover. Of course, if that doesn't work, the losses can destroy not just a single career, but an entire firm. (In real life, the most famous example of this is Nick Leeson's $1.4 billion demolition of Barings in 1995.) Dave's problem doesn't approach that level, but it is bad enough to cost him his job and trader's licence.

Bereft of options (ha ha), he takes a job as a kind of financial investigator for another firm. They are convinced that there i something funny going on with their options traders, but need his expertise to figure it out. Dave is teamed with a comely young woman not long out of B-school to try and do some financial detective work. This is all surprisingly engrossing, and the technicalities of it all are quite well explained. What's somewhat less engrossing is the obligatory attraction between the two, and their halting relationship. To his credit, Kolman does a refreshing job of portraying the sexual side of this as very awkward and confusing, however the book could have done without the obligatory romantic subplot.

Meanwhile, a dead body or two pop up, and Dave's financial investigation may be related to the corpses. A distinctive element in all this is the treatment of homophobia within the all-male world of traders, which shifts from cultural commentary to key plot element as the story goes on. Ultimately, however, the financial shenanigans prove to be a good deal more interesting than the possible murders. On the whole, the book is nicely written and clever enough to satisfy readers looking for a a Wall Street-set thriller, but isn't going to end up on any best-of-the-year lists.