Free to Trade Read Free

Claire again. 'This doesn't look good, I'm afraid. We are now bidding 98.50. There are sellers of bonds everywhere. This bond is only going to go down. Do you want to do anything?'
    Ninety-eight fifty! My losses were now half a million dollars. A voice inside me screamed, 'Sell!' Fortunately I managed to answer in a quiet, hoarse voice, 'No, nothing right now, thank you.'
    I called Bloomfield Weiss. Cash answered.
    'What's going wrong with this deal? I thought you had placed most of it?' I asked, just winning the struggle to keep my voice below a shout.
    'Relax, Paul. We sold the three hundred million into Japan. We sold you a hundred million. We sold an American fifty million. And we just bought about fifty million from the other dealers. That makes five hundred million. There are no other bonds around.'
    I could have screamed at him. I could have shouted foul abuse at the telephone. But I didn't. I just murmured goodbye.
    I felt cheated, betrayed. Worst of all I felt stupid. Anyone can read a market wrong. Only a fool would trust a hundred million dollars to Cash Callaghan. He hadn't even admitted his lie when the collapse of the bonds had shown it up for what it was. I tried to call Hamilton in Tokyo, but couldn't reach him. I left Karen to keep trying whilst I tried to work out the best way to limit the damage of this mess.
    During all this I had been totally absorbed in the world at the other end of the telephone. For the first time I looked up to see Debbie watching me. She had been following everything. The smile that always seemed a second away from her lips was nowhere to be seen. Her face was concerned.
    'What was that you said about jumping out of a window?' I said, struggling to keep my voice steady.
    She forced a brief smile and then the worried look reappeared.
    'Any ideas?' I asked.
    Debbie frowned for a moment. It was wrong of me to ask her. There was no magic solution to this problem, and I couldn't shift the burden of responsibility for such an enormous cock-up on to her. But as she paused, I found myself daring to hope that she would point out a simple solution that I had overlooked.
    'You could sell,' she said.
    I could sell. And lose half a million dollars. And maybe my job. Or I could do nothing and risk losing more.
    I developed a sudden craving for a cup of coffee to help me think, or at least to occupy my hands with something. I stood up and walked over to the corner of the trading room where a machine dispensed 'real' filtered coffee. It tasted worse than instant, but was strong on caffeine. I pressed a button and pulled a lever. Nothing. I banged the machine with the side of my hand. Still nothing. I kicked the base of the machine hard, and deriving some satisfaction from the small dent that appeared, stalked back to my desk.
    Think! If Cash had lied, which seemed most likely, then there would be a lot of unsold bonds for sale, and the price would not move up for a while. But at a price of 98.5 the bonds now yielded 9.49 per cent, which was more than any other eurobond of similar quality. In time they would trade back up in price. If Cash had lied, I shouldn't sell, but should hang on. With patience I should be able to recoup my losses and maybe even make a profit.
    What if Cash had not lied? What if all the other dealers were wrong? What if Bloomfield Weiss really had sold $300 million of the issue into Japan? Then, once the other dealers had realised their mistake, they would be forced to cover their shorts, in other words buy back the bonds they had sold short earlier. The price would scream upwards. There would be a fortune to be made for anyone brave enough to buy more bonds now.
    The more I thought about it, the more possible it seemed that Cash was telling the truth. I didn't trust him, but I did trust Hamilton. If Hamilton believed the Japanese would buy an attractive new issue, there was a strong probability that they had. How could I tell who was right?
    I had an idea. It was an enormous