Societe Generale’s Jerome Kerviel – Alleged Rogue Trader on File in Paris
Remember Jérôme Kerviel? He was the French rogue trader who (allegedly) cost Société Générale $6 billion in trading losses. His trial is now underway in Paris, France.
From some recent media coverage… “Former Société Générale chief Daniel Bouton, who resigned amid intense criticism just over a year ago, branded Kerviel “a terrorist” at the time. But Kerviel quickly became a romantic underdog – a clever anti-hero seen to be caught in the massive cogs of finance, who was only trying to do his job. T-shirts around Paris read, “I am Jerome’s girlfriend,” and he wrote a tell-all book, published last month.”
His book is called L’engrenage, Mémoires d’un trader . Kerviel even had a graphic novel comic book made about his escapades (Le Journal De Jérôme Kerviel).
Here is a video about Kerviel back in court:
Here is an interview from French television (in French) with Kerviel:
But I think these British puppets might describe the whole rogue trader situation the best:
Or perhaps this sums it up more succinctly:
Hedge Fund Operational Due Diligence: An Absolute Best Practice or Floating Standard?
Corgentum Consulting has released a new research piece which discusses the pros and cons of applying absolute best practice and floating standards towards hedge fund operational due diligence.
This paper outlines, the benefits to investors of developing and maintaining competency of global operational risk trends. While an absolute best practice standard facilitates uniformity in comparing operational risk information, this methodology can suffer from rigidity.
A floating standard can better accommodate the particularities of hedge funds operating in different regions but runs the risk of being overly flexible.
Hedge Fund Operatinal Due Diligence: An Absolute or Floating Standard? can be found in the Research section of the www.corgentum.com website, or via direct link here .
Amaranth and Hedge Fund Regulation: A Historical Perspective
A video from June 2007 which provides a nice perspective on the fall of Amaranth Advisors, Long Term Capital Management, the growth of hedge funds from underfunded pensions, the role of quants, and hedge fund regulation. Includes interviews with former SEC Chairman (turned Columbia Law School Professor) Harvey Goldschmid, Nassim Taleb (of Fooled by Randomness and Black Swan fame). It is even more interesting to watch this in light of impending financial regulatory reforms:
