It was the 1980s. Traders were young and greed was good. Nick Leeson, a working class lad from Watford, the son of a plasterer, was chuffed to land a job in the purportedly-glamorous world of the City of London in 1982.It was a relatively low-grade job, but he quickly made a name for himself. He worked his way up, becoming a whiz-kid in the hardworking atmosphere of the far eastern currency markets.
Soon, he was Barings Bank’s star Singapore trader, bringing substantial profits from the Singapore International Monetary Exchange. By 1993, a year after his arrival in Asia, Leeson had made more than £10m – about 10% of Barings’s total profit for that year.In his autobiography Rogue Trader, Leeson said the ethos at Barings was simple: “We were all driven to make profits, profits, and more profits … I was the rising star.”He and his wife Lisa enjoyed a life of luxury that the money brought.
He earned a bonus of £130,000 on his salary of £50,000

Nicholas Leesson ,the trader who brought down the Barings Bank in Februrary ,1995 ,is a made to order example of the business of not facing up to a loss ad getting out.He’s also a perfect example of the dangers of adding to a losing postioin in hopes of digging your way out.The Barings Bank was the bank that lent the United States the money to make the Louisiana Purchase.When Nicholas Lesson finished his trading for the bank ,Barings was sold for the equivalent of $ 1.40. (more…)