My Side of the Street

 

by Jason DeSena Trennert

I’m always up for a good book with an insider’s look at the world of finance and hijinks on Wall Street. The tri-named author of this book, who I’ll call Jase because that’s what he goes by and because his name is so long, seems to have been an insider for something like thirty years, lately as the owner of his own research firm. He has plenty of interesting stories, unusual anecdotes, and some unheard tales from inside the world of finance. Unfortunately, many of his stories fall a little flat, and none of them deliver on the promise of this book’s enticing subtitle. I expected a “warts and all” look at how Jase and his moral bearing, ethical, everyday friends and colleagues bested the “wolves, quants, and flash boys” in battles in the trenches of high finance, but after the subtitle, there is nary a mention of any of those things, much less any high pitched, multi-million dollar investment battles. It’s just Jase going about his business being a good fiduciary representative.

All that’s well and good but I expected a lot more. At least Jase is a skilled writer. He’s clear, succinct, and highly readable, at times humorous, at times philosophical, at times poignant. His stories and anecdotes for the most part are worth telling and reading. I don’t know that his 9/11 story added much to the book (it certainly didn’t add to the diaspora of stories surrounding that infamous day), but it’s nice that he has a personal take on these things and it certainly makes us feel for him more as we get to know him better. Still, with no thread to tie the stories together, the whole book just muddles through. Some of the stories seem to be thrown in at the last minute because Jase remembered something and wanted to share it with the reader. Maybe this isn’t a bad reason to include something interesting, but I would have preferred a more well-constructed approach.

All that said, I really enjoyed this book. I would have preferred some more fireworks and war stories, but I still felt that I got something out of it for the effort of reading the whole thing. Maybe Jase can get together with another Wall Street insider like Joshua Brown, author of Backstage Wall Street. Beefier, more broad-ranging stories would make a best seller for sure, which this, unfortunately is not. Still I give it three and a half dollar marks.