Diamonds and Cubes

Sometimes the stock market moves in unexpected ways. When the Fed publishes a statement that shatters stock vaues all over the world, many of the good traders at Market Makers in San Diego are financially decimated. Nick Anthony, the owner of the firm steps up and launches a scheme to recover losses through insider trading, but has to move carefully when he discovers that his counter-parties are on Interpol's radar.

Only a day trader can understand the adrenaline rush that comes from jumping in and out of the market all day long, watching instantaneous stock prices stream across the computer screen, taking a position and minutes later dumping it. They live a life of high-octane excitement, shaving an eighth of a point here, six cents there, and hoping to finish the day ahead of where they started. Nick Anthony is the owner of a firm in San Diego called Market Makers, where he rents out work stations to a bunch of these trading junkies. When Fed intervention brings the markets to a screeching halt, pummeling the value of world stocks and throwing the economy into a deep recession, several of Nick’s best people are hurt badly and may face bankruptcy. Nick not only agonizes for damage he sees done to these good people, but he decides to do something about it. All of a sudden the idea of trading on inside information, which is strictly illegal, begins to have a great deal of appeal. From the office of Market Makers the conspiracy is hatched. This uniquely trained and educated group, armed with varying degrees in law, finance, and Information Technology, along with years of experience in the securities markets, sets about to build a worldwide network of corporations and trading accounts to make their activities in the securities markets untraceable. The plan takes a serious detour when the group fronts a transaction for a character in whom the FBI has an interest. Nick does a juggling act between running Market Makers, being a devoted father in a split marriage, and promoting his love interest with the beautiful Sarah Palmer. In Diamonds and Cubes the action takes place on the trading floor, across the globe, on-line, and the bedroom.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Patrick Mansell was born in 1946 in New London, Connecticut, the son of a career Naval officer. He attended schools in Hawaii, Virginia, California and New York before graduating from the University of Miami in 1968 with a degree in Business Administration. He also has taken post graduate studies in the field of Marine Archaeology. During and after college Mr. Mansell was a member of the United States Marine Corps Reserve. For more than thirty years he earned a living in the real estate finance field, but his all-time passion has always been boating and writing. For more than half a century he has fished the waters of the northeast, and Florida Gulf Stream, and other parts of the world including the Caribbean, Central America and Hawaii. He makes several trips each year to his favorite fishing grounds, the Bahamas Islands. Mr. Mansell is the author of the Bimini Twist Adventure series of books, which includes Bimini Twist, Abaco Gold, Exuma Tide, Wave Dancer, and Kona Kai. He has also written and published two other adventure novels outside the Bimini Twist series entitled The Fathers Club and Diamonds and Cubes. Mr. Mansell complied, edited, and published a collection of stories from some of the world’s most recognized charter captains entitled Living Legends of Big Game Fishing, the Men and Their Stories. His professional, non-fiction works include many short stories and articles, and the full-length books Mortgage Banking and Residential Real Estate Finance, by the Masters of the Industry and Understanding Residential Real Estate Finance. As one of South Florida’s recognized authors he has lectured extensively on the subject of creative writing and publishing. Mr. Mansell lives in Boca Raton, Florida.