Risk experts: How volatility can expose rogue traders

The revelation of rogue trading at UBS follows a period of market volatility. That is nothing new, say risk managers.

Recent volatility in financial markets may have helped bring the losses allegedly racked up by a rogue trader at UBS to light, risk managers speculate. The Swiss bank announced yesterday that a trader in its investment bank in London had lost approximately $2bn through unauthorised trading. The employee at the centre of the scandal has been named in the media as Kweku Adoboli, a trader on the bank's delta one desk. "This often happens when you have periods of high volatility and traders cannot cover their positions," said Carsten Steinhoff, head of operational risk at Norddeutsche Lan...