You know you’re walking in a minefield if you have a trading position that’s nearly five times the total economic output of Cambodia… or 1.5 times the market capitalisation of the big global bank you’re working for. And it’s even more risky if the bank you’re working for has no idea what you’re doing. Jerome Kerviel was a junior level derivatives trader earning US$66,000 per year at Societe Generale (SocGen), one of Europe’s largest banks. We probably wouldn’t be talking about him now – except that as of January 9, 2008, he had amassed a stock index futures position of US$73 billion. The way he did so ended up ... (full story)