With the global economy hanging by its fingertips, Chambers’ first thriller centres on a cockney trader who can read the stock market with uncanny accuracy, even if he’s not quite sure how he does it. Against the background of terrorist attacks in London, mysterious billionaire trader Max Davas senses the destruction that is about to happen – which could see gold and oil worth absolutely nothing.

The question is whether the East End boy wonder can unlock what becomes known as the Armageddon Trade on 11-9-11.

Full of insight into how the trading floors actually work (no surprise from a City journalist of repute,), it never lets up for a moment. Fresh as today’s headlines, it reminds the world just how close it could be to financial meltdown.

Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail

For anyone with pretensions of literary grandeur – or even just dignity – The Armageddon Trade looks at first sight like something to steer clear of, especially in public. The book’s cover sports a military helicopter flying into an erupting volcano – hardly promising.

But covers can deceive. Chambers is a financial guru – CEO of ADVFN, a stocks and shares website, and a revered markets commentator. It’s clear from reading even a few lines of this book that he also has a creative flair that has been bursting to get out for years, and with this, his first novel, it’s finally on the loose.

The action begins with a day in the life of Kenco, a genius trader at a Docklands bank who began as a teaboy there before being discovered for his talent in predicting the future of markets. Then there’s Max Davas, king of trading, who makes billions dealing US treasuries. But now his system is telling him something’s wrong, that in a year’s time, all assets will be worth zero dollars – including gold, oil, and Microsoft. In fact, the dollar won’t be trading at all. Kenco is also worried – his predictions show catastrophe is around the corner. But is it set in stone? Do predictions signal reality? Can the world be saved in the nick of time?

Written at a smart clip, and humorously observant, Chambers clearly knows what he’s talking about in the real world that he can translate it effortlessly into fiction. This is about as good as a post credit crunch financial thriller could get – it plays on our darkest fears and creates new ones, and is impossible to put down. Essential Tube reading.

Zoe Strimpel, City A.M.