Nick Leeson Speaks!

NICK LEESON: Let me tell you about losing billions – by the original rogue trader

When markets are going your way, the feeling is brilliant – more intoxicating than champagne, more exhilarating than sex.

A successful trade makes you feel invincible.

But when things start to go wrong, you hide your losses and blithely try to carry on in the hope that you can recoup them.

You can’t tell your colleagues that you’ve lost money – the macho ethics of the trading desk do not tolerate admissions of failure. You certainly can’t tell your wife that your high-end life is at an end.

It is as if you are slipping into a personal abyss as the panic begin to eat at you.

The only way back is to bet more, risk more – and lose more until there is no hope of return.

Emphasis added by me.

So much for the markets being about investment.

It’s been turned into a global casino.

And the rest of us are the losers.

Earlier today: Nick Leeson Shrugged

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