ABOUT THE BOOK
Fifty years ago, global markets didn’t move at the speed of information.
They moved at the speed of people - and secrets.
A small, elite group of commodity traders operated in a world few understood, controlling the flow of food through a system that was largely invisible to the public - and even to governments.
Then came the summer of 1972.
In that summer, a devastating drought crippled Soviet Union grain production.
A nation faced a growing, unspoken crisis.
And one man was given an impossible task:
Buy more grain than anyone in history… without driving up the price.
Mikhail Fisenko, a seasoned Soviet trader, entered the heart of the American market to do exactly that—quietly navigating a world dominated by powerful global firms, elite traders, and the unseen forces of supply and demand.
What followed was a high-stakes game of timing, misdirection, and calculated risk.
From Moscow to Minneapolis, Geneva to Chicago, the deal unfolded in fragments—each move carefully designed to conceal the full scale of what was happening – from traders and governments.
Until it couldn’t be hidden anymore.
By the time the market understood, it was already over.
Prices surged.
The system adjusted.
And global food economics changed—permanently.
Based on true events, Limit Up pulls back the curtain on the hidden world of commodity trading—where information is power, timing is everything, and a single deal can reshape the world.
Add to the dynamic, a mysterious “deepthroat” character who played a complicated role as the deals transpired.
This is the story behind the trade the world never saw coming—
but still feels today.
Central to the story is the vibrancy of the Chicago Board of Trade.
The “Board” is the foundation of deals and risk transfer.
It reacts to the influence of supply and demand, and government intervention.
It provides market transparency.
It is the heart of the industry and the specialists who live in that world.
Limit Up brings all of these characters and locations together in a sweeping overview of a fascinating industry at one of the most volatile and critical times in history. It pulls back the curtain on a mysterious industry, its players and the unique features and value of commodity exchanges.
ABOUT THE COVER
By Chris Pavlik, designer
This was a fascinating and challenging effort given the specificity, nuance, depth, and gravity of the subject matter to be depicted. Specifically, development of a cover illustration for a novel whose plot revolves around the desperation of a 70s-era Russian bureaucrat faced with the almost impossible task of rectifying a climate-driven agricultural catastrophe to salvage his nation’s pride and sustain the welfare of its populace by way of a massive purchase of grain in the midst of the Cold War with the United States. Fortunately, I was given access to the first three chapters of the story which immediately solidified an initial notion as to the required aesthetic. Here, the story’s disheveled protagonist stands in a bleak, colour-starved landscape devoid of vitality as he stares into the distance at the imposing edifice of the Kremlin where empathy and patience are nowhere to be found. Indeed, one need not see his face to infer its daunted expression. The foreboding/forbidding atmosphere of the work is accentuated further still by the looming dust devil on the horizon and the ticker tape threading through his legs like a paper boa constrictor. The theme of the piece is capped by the tension of a physical boundary that burdens the main character with the choice between barren mud and a desiccated crop as a metaphor of his futile predicament. That is, there is no easy way around the crisis before him, and so, he must tread through it towards an uncharted end.
