Some twenty-two years ago I returned to the city-state of Singapore for the second time en-route to Australia as a business traveller. One of my 'watering holes' in Singapore was Harry's Bar at Boat Quay, which became quite famous overnight
in the global media due to one of its regular customers sudden notoriety. The individual concerned was Nick Leeson, the 'rogue trader' in financial derivatives whose actions precipitated the dramatic collapse in 1995 of what was the UK's oldest merchant bank (Barings).

Working as a financial markets trader Leeson had effectively 'bet the bank' with a series of trades taking massive positions on the assumptions that the Japanese stock market indices would make a major recovery. Leeson fled Singapore and a global media circus ensued as he tried to evade the authorities. He was eventually found and subsequently jailed for his criminal actions.

There was as I recall a great deal of logic in his assumption on the direction of the Nikkei index but financial markets do not always follow a logical path as Leeson and the shareholders of Barings unfortunately discovered.