Soc Gen Trader Wasn't A "Lone Gunman"

Posted by John Carney, May 23, 2008, 1:59pm

We've said it before: the tag "rogue trader" just gets attached to traders who lose money. When they are making money, they are superstars. Now the news is that Societe Generale trader Jerome Kerviel probably did not act alone.

Reuters is reporting that Kerviel may have had "internal help when he built up massive share market bets that led to a record trading loss, a report published by the French bank said on Friday."

The report says SocGen was ridden with weak supervision and poor control systems. But you already knew that.

SocGen trader may have had help: internal report [Reuters]

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Comments

Posted by FUNdamental, May 23, 2008 2:12PM

Jimmy Cayne doesn't see what the big deal is

Posted by Anal_yst, May 23, 2008 2:17PM

Why aren't his bosses or the lone execution trader who was tasked with unwinding his book labeled the rogue traders? As one of the previous posts pointed out (with accompanying chart) it looked like Kerviel was actually in the black, and the massive loss only occurred on the sh!tful unwind

Posted by guest, May 23, 2008 2:23PM

I don't lose money, I print it.

Posted by guest, May 23, 2008 2:55PM

Kerviel is like an airplane with a partner.

Posted by guest, May 23, 2008 4:51PM

Kerviel doesn't lose partners, he airplanes them.

Posted by guest, May 23, 2008 6:10PM

I'm not your airplane, partner.

Posted by guest, May 23, 2008 7:32PM

duh

Posted by guest, May 23, 2008 7:41PM

Come on, anyone who's worked in a bank knows they are riddled with incompetent management who maintain their position through B.S. rather than by providing any business value. And some even come to believe their own crap. Its how the entire system works.

Take a gamble, make some money -- you're a star; here's an enourmous bonus and a hot PA.

Lose a crap-load of money -- take an extended break while the dust settles and come back when times are good. Leave the pain to the support staff plebs.

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