Bankers Bet on Number of Arrests, Deaths and Injuries at G20
Bankers Bet on Number of Arrests, Deaths and Injuries at G20
As the protests and marches against the G20 and bankers were turning violent, many traders were making money by placing bets on number of Arrests, Deaths and Injuries.
Betting sites in Britain were busier than normal Yesterday. The first reason was the soccer match between Ukraine and England, while many others were betting on number of Arrests, Deaths and Injuries at the G-20 summit. Even the death of a protester helped the traders to make money.
Traders were betting 7/2 that more than 150 arrests are made, it was 6/1 for 101 to 125 apprehensions and the list goes on like that. Guardian reports many traders who had placed bets for higher number of arrests were complaining of police inaction. Many traders and bankers had taken a holiday yesterday as they were scared of being targeted by the protesters.
Darren Haines, spokesman for Paddy Power, a betting site said:
Whilst most of the country probably agrees with the protesters no one will want to see them overstep the mark and it will only take a few of the foolish ones to get carried away for the numbers to start totting up.
Meanwhile, many traders were betting on the odds of French President Nicolas Sarkozy will walk out of the summit. One betting site is offering 6/4 that Sarkozy quits the G20 conference if France fails to secure the tighter global financial regulations it is looking for.
The bankers' view of G20: an arresting bet for traders
At Coq D'Argent, the restaurant atop the distinctive salmon coloured building at Number One Poultry, adjacent to Bank underground station, the bankers appeared slightly drunk on the excitement of the protests down below; basking in the sunshine, ordering wine and necking oysters.
Two traders based in an office opposite RBS on Bishopsgate said they had walked across the City "to have a nice lunch and chill out". Sipping coffee after three courses and a few Marlboro Lights, they were angry that the police didn't seem to be making any arrests: "Its kicking off over in Bishopsgate", they said. "The demonstrators are goading the police and hitting them with sticks, but they are just letting them. They aren't arresting anyone."
And these two wanted to see the long arm of the law carting a few protesters away - because they had a financial interest in arrests. "I'll make money if they arrest more than 140", he said. Traders, he explained were putting spread bets on the number of arrests - with the quoted spread on Bloomberg at 130-140. They were also paying out on deaths and if more than 20 demonstrators are injured by horse charges.
The riots, they said, were only a minor inconvenience: "We've been in this morning, made a lot of money and now are chilling out".
A waiter said the restaurant was busier than usual. One diner, Tim Robertson from the financial PR firm Cardew, admitted he had travelled in from Trafalgar Square to have lunch there in the hope of getting a glimpse of what was going on, although the restaurant had disappointingly closed the part of the terrace that would have given a birds eye view. You couldn't quite forget what was happening though, the constant drone of helicopters competing with the increasingly noisy bankers.
There were very few suits on show, but also very few convincing attempts to dress down. A Barbour and deck shoes is unlikely to fool anyone, even worn with a pair of neatly pressed jeans.
One corporate financier, dressed in a blue pin-stripe suit and red tie, with his hair slicked back in the style of Gordon Gecko, said he had dressed up "in an act of defiance". Had he gotten any abuse? "Surprisingly not," he said. "Everybody will agree with some of the things that they are protesting against but they way they go about it is a little misguided."
Quite a number of people at his bank had stayed home and others dressed casually he said "but I don't see why I should be intimidated. At the end of the day I have a job to do and you have to be professional about it."
Some protest groups had produced a map of the Square Mile, with targets including the major banks marked out and many workers had been told to stay home or base themselves in other offices. Some such as AXA in Old Broad Street, had closed their offices entirely for the day. But just a couple of blocks away from the Bank of England, the streets were deserted.
At Killik & Co, a small branch of the stock-broking firm on the corner of nearby Gresham Street, close to banks such as Nomura, Dresdner Kleinwort and Lloyds TSB, the small staff had all turned up for work and dressed in suits for a usual day at the office. The rest of the building was empty though and nearby shops boarded up. "As far as I am concerned, the markets are open and our clients need us," said James Gatehouse, a former army officer who runs the branch.
But it was far quieter than a normal day, despite the disturbances taking place near by, suggesting that the sheer weight of numbers that some expected simply hadn't turned up.
"It is a ghost town here," said Gatehouse, looking out of the window and noting that plastic bags and abandoned copies of the Financial Times were drifting down the road like so much tumbleweed. "Apparently a lot of people have dressed down in the City today so that they can go straight to Harlequins versus Worcester at Twickenham tonight."
As the protests and marches against the G20 and bankers were turning violent, many traders were making money by placing bets on number of Arrests, Deaths and Injuries.
Betting sites in Britain were busier than normal Yesterday. The first reason was the soccer match between Ukraine and England, while many others were betting on number of Arrests, Deaths and Injuries at the G-20 summit. Even the death of a protester helped the traders to make money.
Traders were betting 7/2 that more than 150 arrests are made, it was 6/1 for 101 to 125 apprehensions and the list goes on like that. Guardian reports many traders who had placed bets for higher number of arrests were complaining of police inaction. Many traders and bankers had taken a holiday yesterday as they were scared of being targeted by the protesters.
Darren Haines, spokesman for Paddy Power, a betting site said:
Whilst most of the country probably agrees with the protesters no one will want to see them overstep the mark and it will only take a few of the foolish ones to get carried away for the numbers to start totting up.
Meanwhile, many traders were betting on the odds of French President Nicolas Sarkozy will walk out of the summit. One betting site is offering 6/4 that Sarkozy quits the G20 conference if France fails to secure the tighter global financial regulations it is looking for.
The bankers' view of G20: an arresting bet for traders
At Coq D'Argent, the restaurant atop the distinctive salmon coloured building at Number One Poultry, adjacent to Bank underground station, the bankers appeared slightly drunk on the excitement of the protests down below; basking in the sunshine, ordering wine and necking oysters.
Two traders based in an office opposite RBS on Bishopsgate said they had walked across the City "to have a nice lunch and chill out". Sipping coffee after three courses and a few Marlboro Lights, they were angry that the police didn't seem to be making any arrests: "Its kicking off over in Bishopsgate", they said. "The demonstrators are goading the police and hitting them with sticks, but they are just letting them. They aren't arresting anyone."
And these two wanted to see the long arm of the law carting a few protesters away - because they had a financial interest in arrests. "I'll make money if they arrest more than 140", he said. Traders, he explained were putting spread bets on the number of arrests - with the quoted spread on Bloomberg at 130-140. They were also paying out on deaths and if more than 20 demonstrators are injured by horse charges.
The riots, they said, were only a minor inconvenience: "We've been in this morning, made a lot of money and now are chilling out".
A waiter said the restaurant was busier than usual. One diner, Tim Robertson from the financial PR firm Cardew, admitted he had travelled in from Trafalgar Square to have lunch there in the hope of getting a glimpse of what was going on, although the restaurant had disappointingly closed the part of the terrace that would have given a birds eye view. You couldn't quite forget what was happening though, the constant drone of helicopters competing with the increasingly noisy bankers.
There were very few suits on show, but also very few convincing attempts to dress down. A Barbour and deck shoes is unlikely to fool anyone, even worn with a pair of neatly pressed jeans.
One corporate financier, dressed in a blue pin-stripe suit and red tie, with his hair slicked back in the style of Gordon Gecko, said he had dressed up "in an act of defiance". Had he gotten any abuse? "Surprisingly not," he said. "Everybody will agree with some of the things that they are protesting against but they way they go about it is a little misguided."
Quite a number of people at his bank had stayed home and others dressed casually he said "but I don't see why I should be intimidated. At the end of the day I have a job to do and you have to be professional about it."
Some protest groups had produced a map of the Square Mile, with targets including the major banks marked out and many workers had been told to stay home or base themselves in other offices. Some such as AXA in Old Broad Street, had closed their offices entirely for the day. But just a couple of blocks away from the Bank of England, the streets were deserted.
At Killik & Co, a small branch of the stock-broking firm on the corner of nearby Gresham Street, close to banks such as Nomura, Dresdner Kleinwort and Lloyds TSB, the small staff had all turned up for work and dressed in suits for a usual day at the office. The rest of the building was empty though and nearby shops boarded up. "As far as I am concerned, the markets are open and our clients need us," said James Gatehouse, a former army officer who runs the branch.
But it was far quieter than a normal day, despite the disturbances taking place near by, suggesting that the sheer weight of numbers that some expected simply hadn't turned up.
"It is a ghost town here," said Gatehouse, looking out of the window and noting that plastic bags and abandoned copies of the Financial Times were drifting down the road like so much tumbleweed. "Apparently a lot of people have dressed down in the City today so that they can go straight to Harlequins versus Worcester at Twickenham tonight."