Monday, February 09, 2015

Atlas Mugged

Denmark's Saxo Bank is chasing clients for foreign exchange trading losses incurred when the Swiss Franc Euro peg was suddenly ended, with the bulk of the losses occurring when the bank repriced trades after clients thought were covered by stop-loss orders. Great incidental detail noted by the Wall Street Journal --

Saxo promotes a vision of individual responsibility free from government intrusion. The firm hands out copies of “Atlas Shrugged,” Ayn Rand ’s hymn to individualism and capitalism, to employees and clients. It offers a free copy of the Danish translation of the novel to anyone who fills out a form on its website. But Saxo’s move to reprice trades runs contrary to some its own marketing materials. On its website, it promises “dedicated liquidity” and “no slippage” to users of its foreign-exchange trading platform. 

Of course, some of the clients probably bought into that sales pitch.