Nick Leeson ebay items

Nick Leeson teamed up w/an autograph dealer in the UK to offer various signed items listed currently on ebay with some, perhaps all, proceeds going to charity (can't tell clearly from listing).  I couldn't resist buying the above photo where he signed it "Who's Next?" knowing that there is an endless parade of individuals and entities who take on too much risk and are due for their own blow ups.

 Other phrases he signed items with are:
"NEVER AGAIN, THERES ONLY ONE ROGUE TRADER, ONE HELL OF A JOURNEY, WHO'S NEXT, NOBODY WILL FOLLOW THAT, and a very small amount of HOW LONG WILL YOU BE STAYING SIR? SIX AND HALF YEARS! which relates to Nick Leesons sentence!"

Here's a link to a print being offered
Nick Leeson Limited Edition signed autograph print Rogue Trader With Quotes

And also some signed court room sketches which are even a bit fringe for a history buff like myself
Nick Leeson Rogue Trader Signed Autograph Sketches From His Trial

I've remained extremely intrigued w/Leeson's story since I read of it in a TIME magazine during my freshman year of high school at a Kansas coffeeshop and hope to meet him for a pint someday.  (Nick if you're reading, email me!)  It's an unpopular opinion but I've got quite a lot of respect how he has confronted what happened, served his time in prison, beat cancer brought on by the stress of his situation and in general gotten on in life as best as possible.  What happened at Barings was clearly brought upon by his decisions but I can understand some of the circumstances which overwhelm in the markets although clearly nothing remotely on that scale. 

Probably mentioned this previously but I've got a couple Barings SIMEX jackets which were worn by his clerk YVE and his lead filling broker DIN.  

Printer proofs

Printer proofs for the book arrived from China and this is, I believe, the second to last step before final production as it showcases the layout as it'll be printed.  From my understanding once we approve these then we'll get a final set of proofs in a couple weeks which will represent the finished product.

Still no firm date on when it'll be available in print but for those who don't wish to wait, we've made an electronic version available via Apple's itunes bookstore which can only be viewed on the Apple ibooks app (best seen on the ipad).  Since the electronic version was uploaded, we've made some minor changes to the print version but in general the history is the same which is what matters. 

Trading Pit Hand Signals book on Itunes

Jonathan Toews rings the CME bell

Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews 'opened' the CME today w/a bell ringing ceremony where he also brought the Stanley Cup along to the trading floor. The most important reason he came to the CME though was to seek out more hockey advice from the exchange's Chairman, LOL.

A half-hour into our conversation, Terry Duffy’s phone buzzes. It’s Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews. The Hawks are down to Detroit, three games to one, and Duffy has some ideas for how Toews can shake free of Red Wings winger Henrik Zetterberg.
“Drop him early,” he says. “Put him on his back.”

- Chicago Grid article June 18, 2013

Blue Hawaii

A lot of trading pit hand signals have origins which were lost to history and ever since I learned the signal for Blue (Year 4) at the CME, I always wondered of it's origin as no one else seemed to know either. 

photo credit wikipedia


Yesterday in Maui I returned the shaka sign to someone and it finally hit me that the same signal is used at the CME for Blue because of the Elvis movie Blue Hawaii.  AMIRITE????  Now if I could only figure out why all the spreads I have on are moving against me. 

photo credit wikipedia

The Queen visits LIFFE trading floor

In early 1992, HRH Queen Elizabeth II visited the LIFFE trading floor and the video of her visit was recently uploaded onto youtube by Chris Dougan (who apparently traded on the LIFFE floor).  It's listed as a four part series but only parts 2, 3 & 4 are uploaded thus far.  In the video the Queen was presented with her personal trading badge "E2R" made of solid silver. 







For further reading on the Queen's visit and LIFFE in general, I'd again suggest to read Day One Trader by John Sussex who recounts of his career on LIFFE including the day of the above video.