Salty Gibbon
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Already seen it and read the book.
However I do not yet have the T-shirt.
The movie is a low budget thing but quite amusing. The book is a better "option".
However I do not yet have the T-shirt.
The movie is a low budget thing but quite amusing. The book is a better "option".
Bigbusiness
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The book was quite good but you only get Leeson's side of the story. It is amazing that he kept his secret for so long and went to extraordinary lengths to conceal what he was doing from his work colleagues, his friends and his family. He should have been stopped earlier but I still don't have much sympathy for him.
Salty Gibbon
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I have no sympathy for Leeson and even less sympathy for the block-headed dolts who called themselves senior management and internal auditors at Barings. What a bunch of weak willed and weak minded cretins !!
Bigbusiness said:
Thing is there are 'mini Leesons' out there amoung us every day, who won't make the front page of the Times or have to answer to the the courts and FSA but will be getting their nuts crushed by their Missus and have to face their kids and explain where all the money went. That's the hidden and sad side of this game we all need to guard against..
Salty Gibbon
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That's why we have such a thing as a stop loss order.
Salty Gibbon
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I do try Ardhill, believe me.
Salty Gibbon
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Seriously though Ardhill, I have worked in both internal and external audit and I have also held senior financial management positions in industry.
On top of that I have worked as a financial risk manager in a manufacturing industry - where I might add I was encouraged to speculate ( by the Board Chairman no less ) in order to derive non-core income to assist the financial position of a cash-strapped company.
Lunacy really.
So I can see the Leeson case from all angles and the only persons that I have any sympathy for in the whole sorry saga are the Singapore Airlines stewardesses who were treated to a full on view of Leeson's a**h**e when he mooned at them in that Singapore bar.
On top of that I have worked as a financial risk manager in a manufacturing industry - where I might add I was encouraged to speculate ( by the Board Chairman no less ) in order to derive non-core income to assist the financial position of a cash-strapped company.
Lunacy really.
So I can see the Leeson case from all angles and the only persons that I have any sympathy for in the whole sorry saga are the Singapore Airlines stewardesses who were treated to a full on view of Leeson's a**h**e when he mooned at them in that Singapore bar.
I don' t have the same sort of background as you, but as a businessman I wouldn't have those so called managers about me for very long either. I would have fired them long ago and got someone in who knew what a manager was supposed to to.
I do have some sympathy for Nick, he was one man who had too much responsibility and had the emotional strains that we all need to face in the market. It is just when you deal in the sort of money that he did, then you do need people to answer to and to keep you in check. Sure he did wrong big time, but he is human and was alone.
Again in business I know that people make mistakes and do other things plain wrong. So, I try and put checks in place, an important error can't go far wrong without being picked up by someone before it goes badly wrong. No one person has control of important issues such as finance, order management, cash handling etc.
It's a bit like a stop loss. Even if you don't normally use a 'real' one (only mental), it is sometimes a good idea to put a 'catastrophic' fixed Stop Loss in place in case you have a heart attack with the excitement or something else. This sort of stop, though far away from where you actually intend to stop out, will get you out of the trade before emptying your account in the event of an unseen catastrophe.
Those managers didn't even know how to trade or read a set of accounts, how did they expect to manage a trader and his team?
I do have some sympathy for Nick, he was one man who had too much responsibility and had the emotional strains that we all need to face in the market. It is just when you deal in the sort of money that he did, then you do need people to answer to and to keep you in check. Sure he did wrong big time, but he is human and was alone.
Again in business I know that people make mistakes and do other things plain wrong. So, I try and put checks in place, an important error can't go far wrong without being picked up by someone before it goes badly wrong. No one person has control of important issues such as finance, order management, cash handling etc.
It's a bit like a stop loss. Even if you don't normally use a 'real' one (only mental), it is sometimes a good idea to put a 'catastrophic' fixed Stop Loss in place in case you have a heart attack with the excitement or something else. This sort of stop, though far away from where you actually intend to stop out, will get you out of the trade before emptying your account in the event of an unseen catastrophe.
Those managers didn't even know how to trade or read a set of accounts, how did they expect to manage a trader and his team?
Salty Gibbon
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Nice idea
We are forgetting one minute item here and that is when Nick Leeson initialised the position he took it was to cover the backside of one of his saff who was chosen by the management in the first place because of the budget he was given in the first place, although afterwards there was no reason why he shouldn't have gone short and closed his position.
Lets not forget he also committed fraud! Okay he initially began by covering for one of his employee's but what he did was illegal and he was accordingly punished! Im wouldn't be surprised if he is a very wealthy man, the book, film and I bet he does appeariences and after dinner speaches too. While many investors in barings lost everything due to his incompetence and cowardice!
Good book though!
Good book though!
From what I seem to remember, Nick Lesson, was specifically told that he will not be allowed to profit from his 'deeds' by writing a book about his experience. The same government allowed head of Equitable Life to take a compensation payment of £6M for busting Equitable and said it is not fair to send an old man to jail.
The government released Ernest Saunders? from jail on grounds of ill health on account of Alzheimer's's disease. The very next week Mr Saunders was by a good stroke of luck cured from the incurable disease. He has known to give after dinner speeches at a price.
I dare say had Leeson some 'blue' connections that he may well have been treated differently by the authorities.
The government released Ernest Saunders? from jail on grounds of ill health on account of Alzheimer's's disease. The very next week Mr Saunders was by a good stroke of luck cured from the incurable disease. He has known to give after dinner speeches at a price.
I dare say had Leeson some 'blue' connections that he may well have been treated differently by the authorities.
Salty Gibbon
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Yes, it might have helped had his old man been a High Court Judge.
Salty Gibbon
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Overall I reckon he got a proper sentence for his crimes and he served it.
Sorry, chaps I forgot he got sent back to Singapore. Jim Slater and his mate never got extradited to Singapore, as Mr Slater said, ' I do not stand a cat in hell's chance in Singapore'. I dare say had it been somebody like Mr Slater, Mr Saunders or Chairman of Equitable Life, they may not well have been extradited to Singapore but if they were really unlucky they may have served a token sentence in an open prison.
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