Binge Trading is an attempt to combine a shocking exposé of the life of a trader with a degree of understanding for the plight of the trader.

Each trader in the book is portrayed as a victim to greed and the compulsive attraction of the markets coupled with the clichéd addiction to the lifestyle to which traders succumb.

Seth Freedman's own experience of the addiction of trading and the destruction of perspective is the focus of the first section of the book. The description of Freedman's time spent as a trader is a compelling one of greed, hierarchy and ambition. Yet it is an account that exposes no unexpected tale of excess, instead serving to reinforce the existing stereotype of the plentiful vices that accompany trading.

The themes of the first section continue throughout the second half of the book which explores trading, its role in the City and its role in the financial crisis with accounts and observations of professionals in the industry.

Through traders like disgraced Société General's Jerome Kerviel, Freedman asserts the potential for escalation and precipitation of crisis. Other characters in this insular world of the trader are established, together with their desire for self-justification and defence of the industry.

Although providing an account of many such defences made by the traders themselves, Binge Trading is not an exoneration of traders. It excuses neither the lifestyle nor the role traders played in encouraging the financial crisis.

However, Freedman's focus not only on individuals but also on the cultural conditions that have proved conducive to the trading mentality, merits significant attention.

Binge Trading - The Real Inside Story of Cash Cocaine and Corruption in the City by Seth Freedman, Penguin (paperback, 2010), £8.99