Product Description

Pressure, pace, error: ROGUE TRADER grippingly tells the inside story of how the greatest gamble ever made rocked the City of London to its foundations. Crackling with tension, in a narrative as crisp as any thriller, Nick Leeson's autobiographical account reveals how he 'lost' GBP800 millions as General Manager of Baring Futures Singapore through foolhardy speculations on behalf of his employer, Barings Brothers - the world's first merchant bank. As Leeson's audacity escalated, so did his losses while London continued to pour money down the drain. ROGUE TRADER is a dazzlingly revealing story of a man shaped by events that proved beyond his control.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21746 in Books
• Published on: 1997-06-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 378 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
When Nick Leeson was arrested in 1995 for bringing Barings Bank to its proverbial knees, it initially seemed as if he had single handedly crushed this most well-established and well-respected financial institution, and indeed it was he alone who found himself in a Singapore jail serving time for deceiving the auditors of Barings in a way "likely to cause harm to their reputation" and to cheating SIMEX (Singapore International Money Exchange). In Rogue Trader Leeson tells his own story with more than a hint of the bitterness--and, at times, suspended belief--of an ordinary Joe from Watford made scapegoat by a cast of characters who may not have been guilty by design, but certainly appear to be guilty of simply not adhering to the basic procedures which would have picked up any discrepancies long before any real damage was done. Hard to feel sorry for such wheeler- dealers, perhaps, and certainly hard to feel sorry for Leeson, but he manages to successfully tell an incredible story which moves at breakneck speed from his appointment as General Manager for Barings in Singapore to his fast and furious downfall, which began as a simple cover-up of a mistake by an inexperienced member of staff and ended in multi-million pound fraud, with earth-shattering repercussions across the financial markets of the world. Anyone who ever wondered how one man could do so much damage will find the explanation between the pages of Rogue Trader, but more than that they will also find a hugely compelling, tense and decidedly hair- raising story that defies imagination to the point where, if it had been written as fiction no one would ever believe it. --Susan Harrison

Review
'Hair-raising...as revealing a document about contemporary Britain as all 2,000 pages of the Scott Report' - OBSERVER 'The story of Leeson and his bride has it all: filthy lucre, brazen abuse of power, and boy-meets-girl romance' - SUNDAY TIMES 'Simultaneously entertaining and appalling' - FINANCIAL TIEMS

FINANCIAL TIMES
* "Simultaneously entertaining and appalling"

Customer Reviews

Outstanding Stuff!
Nick Leesons interpretation of the events that lead to Baring's demise is gripping and funny.
His description of his rise from a back office settlement clerk is remarkable if only for the simple fact that it happened in the first place.
He takes you on a intense and exciting ride from the start of the book. It's obvious that he made mistakes and the consequences lead to many people being unemployed. But, doesn't the fact that it was allowed to happen make you think on a wider scale? Were old Merchant Banks chasing the 'quick buck' without much knowledge? Would it have happened in another bank? Then ask if it was a mixture of Nick Leesons greed and Barings terrible infrastructure.

Terrible mistakes, written in a excitingly brilliant way.

I definitely recommend this book.

Compulsive account of how Leeson brought down Barings Bank
There's always something compelling about reading someone's account of getting themselves deeper and deeper into mortal trouble. Then add the racy dark humour that is peppered throughout the book as Nick Leeson looks back on his futile attempts to rectify his increasingly desperate trading situation, whilst those around him are oblivious to the impending disaster. The narrative cleverly reveals just enough detail to vividly depict the general atmosphere of things without being bogged down in flowery descriptions, helping to maintain a good pace.

This is a classic story of a classic dilemma - what to do if you (or someone you are responsible for) makes a serious mistake. Do you face the immediate consequences and come clean with those affected by the mistake, or do you work around it and try and remedy the mistake before anyone finds out, whilst risking making things even worse? Whatever the morals of the decisions Nick made in response to such a dilemma, one just can't help but empathise and be swept up in his predicament.

The fact that it all happened for real makes this book so much more gripping than some trashy corporate thriller. You are likely to finish it within days, if not in a single sitting as I did. And read it again only a few months later.

Definitely an eye opener
I was stuck in an airport lounge with a delayed flight and a teeny bookshop, so I picked up this, thinking "aha! smug city twat has a miserable time! I'll enjoy this!" In fact, the honesty and sheer guilt of the book completely turned me around. When the SFO won't let him do his sentence in England to save EMBARRASSMENT, it's even tragic- particularly, too, the homages to his wife, who of course subsequently divorced him.

It's like being seven again and doing something bad and waiting for your father to come home- except he felt that way for *two years*. This book reads like a car crash- gripping, horrifying and difficult to keep your eyes away from. Recommended.