Interesting Facts

According to Bloomberg, the computer trading error that cost Knight Capital, the US market maker $440m (£282m) (see IF 9th Auguts 2012) can be blamed on disused software. (On August 1, the dormant system was accidentally reactivated when a new program was installed. As a result stock trades were multiplied by 1,000, causing wild swings in the share prices of almost 150 companies. So, now we know. The big question is, what are we going to do about it?)

Testosterone could be partly responsible for crises in city trading. (Cambridge University researchers discovered that testosterone levels were linked to the profit that male City of London traders made. The downside is that they can then become over-confident, and take bigger and bigger risks leading to huge losses. They recommend recruiting more women, but I would have thought that wouldn't help the testosterone levels of the remaining men at all. Just remember though, when a City trader makes a big profit or loss, they were just feeling a bit hormonal.)