...Behind the headline-grabbing stories of rogue traders losing billions, the more mundane, day-to-day world of high finance is as wild and unregulated today as it ever has been. Brown envelopes stuffed with £50 notes change hands every lunchtime in bars across the City; drugs wreak havoc with traders' judgments as they stake fortunes of their firms' money on the markets; and greed trumps all else in the stampede to get rich or die trying.
"When in Rome, build a fucking aqueduct." Those words, bellowed at me by my biggest client as he lay sprawled in the bar, proved to be the most telling advice I ever got in the City. Everybody's doing it, why shouldn't we? There's no point pretending - no one is in this game to make the world a better place. It's all about the money. From the bottom up, the only thing that matters is feathering your own nest, regardless of who gets shafted along the way or how compromised your morals become in the process.
I played the game for the best part of a decade and saw first-hand what lies beneath the veneer of London's financial district. For all the stock exchange is presented as a transparent, trustworthy great British institution, the truth is that everywhere corruption drips like honey. For all the talk of FSA controls, those working there know they can get away with abuses with barely a slap on the wrist - and so they do, day after day, year after year...
A fascinating (and worrying) account by a former London Trader in the Guardian.
Quant Careers Blog
Finance Focus
