Rouge Traders - BO/MO to FO

I've only half-hazardly looked into the history of rouge trading, but it seems that in every instance at a major bank the culprit is always someone who started from either a BO or MO position.

Do you guys think that this is a fault within a system or a system fault? Do past BO/MO feel that they need to prove themselves more, hence take more risk? Are they unfairly scapegoated? Or are these events simply coincidences?

FYI. I dont wanna bash on MO/BO, nor do I care about their ability to move into FO. I simply want to know if social structure is set up in such a way that encourages these individuals into recklessness.

6 Comments
 

Its a mix of all of what you listed. Also I think some are scapegoated in connection to racking too much personal losses. Its easy to push all of the blame on the "less qualified".

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 

Its very easy when you know who the compliance people are and what their routines are like. It seems that even at the larger shops, those departments (and specifically those tasks) are understaffed, it'd be easy to slip one by them.

 

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