If drunk drivers are told to hand over their keys, then traders who have been drinking should hand over their keyboards, the experience of a former oil futures broker suggests.Britain's Financial Services Authority has revealed that the broker, Steven Noe
If drunk drivers are told to hand over their keys, then traders who have been drinking should hand over their keyboards, the experience of a former oil futures broker suggests.
Britain’s Financial Services Authority has revealed that the broker, Steven Noel Perkins, managed to cause a spike in the price of oil when he made a series of unauthorised trades while drunk.
The regulator has banned him from working in the financial services industry for five years and slapped him with a £72,000 fine for market abuse.
Upon returning from a boozy golf weekend with colleagues Mr Perkins sat down in front of his laptop at his London home and placed more than US$520 million worth of bets on Brent crude oil futures.
His unauthorised trades helped push the price of oil up by about US$1.65 a barrel in just over two hours in the middle of the night, according to the report.
To make matters worse he initially tried to cover up his indiscretion and told his employer PVM Oil Futures that a relative was ill and he wouldn’t be at work that day.
He then lied about the trades and said he had made them on behalf of a client.
“Mr. Perkins’s explanation for his trading on 29 and 30 June is that he was drunk,” the FSA said.
“He claims to have limited recollection of events on Monday and claims to have been in an alcohol-induced blackout at the time he traded.”
