The name of the man who sold those Japanese options was Nick Leeson.

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In 1995, the London finance house of Barings collapsed after huge losses run up in Singapore by trader Nick Leeson.

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Nick Leeson, the trader who sank Barings, was not just in charge of trading, he kept his own books too.

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Nick Leeson told everyone he was doing pure arbitrage: in his case between futures contracts on the Nikkei (the Japanese stock market index) and the Nikkei itself.

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What if Nick Leeson worked for a top global bank?

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But whereas it may be easy to identify a rotten banana, it is harder to be sure which trainee will be the next Nick Leeson and which the potential George Soros.

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The trader himself, Nick Leeson, was a soft-hearted sap who started on the road to perdition to cover up a blunder by a junior colleague, and appeared to think he was dealing in cappuccino options.

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