OzTennis

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4512962.stm

The gist of this is that a share trader in a Japanese bank sold 610,000 shares for 1 Yen each instead of 1 share at 610,000 Yen. The BBC TV news reported this as a £128 million ($296 mill) loss due to the error. :scared:

OzTennis

menace

610,000 Yen, that is about the same as a pack of chips, no?

OzTennis

Yeah, 47p, but one was meant to be traded at £2,893 but he (has to be a male broker doesn't it) sold 610,000 of them for 47p. I guess the message in this is for countries like Japan and Italy with a currency that has hundreds of thousands to the dollar and pound that errors like this are bound to happen.

OzTennis

jas_uk

Italy?! Not any more! Altho yeah it was 1000lira -> 30p a few years ago. My mate managed to collect a thouand L1000 notes over a year though (purely by taking them out of his wallet whenever he was given them as change) .. looked quite impressive!

Vegemite Kids

Anyone know the name of this share trader ? I have an order for him

Vegemite Kids

LOL, when I was working in Turkey the exchange rate was 72000 Turkish Lira to the pound. Its the only time in my life that I was a multi multi multi millionnaire I was earning nearly 200 million a month pity it was t/Lira ah well - such is life

ABCDiamond

How much would you be earning now, at todays rate:

Saturday, December 10, 2005
1 British Pound = 2,365,505 Turkish Lira

http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic

OzTennis

Nick Leeson is his name and he comes b(e)aring(s) gifts.

OzTennis

seang

Now commercial director for an Irish football club!!!!!!

OzTennis

Yep. Have you heard the one about the Irish football club which has a man who brought down a bank as its commercial director?

The interesting thing is that Leeson had 'prior form' before Barings employed him but they didn't check him out. It is cited as an example of the checks which employers should carry out before employing someone.

OzTennis

seang

just dont let him near the cheque book

OzTennis

Galway eh! We're going over to near there (Westport) for a week at Easter and will be in Galway at some stage.

Useless fact # 87 - the Gal prefix in place names comes from the Gaelic for salt eg Galway, Galloway (where we live); similarly the 'wich' ending in English place names - the 3 'wiches' are the salt towns of Cheshire etc. Galway's beach is called Salthill from memory too.

My how these threads meander.

OzTennis

seang

Wonder if there is a connection with the latin Sal for salt

seang

And to raise your useless fact. The word salary comes from the latin Sal for salt as in roman times people could be paid in salt as it was a rare and precious commodity

OzTennis

Yep, and yep to salary. Salt was the first traded commodity - used for preserving food over winter. Hence the frequent gal's, wich's, sal's etc located on the coast. Let's hear it for salt - one of the few things we can't do without to survive but is not good in excess and can kill us if we have too much!

OzTennis