Our Trading Desk Just Won The Lottery

'Yes it's true. A syndicate of traders (with a sprinkle of has-been sales pros like yours truly) actually won something on the lottery last week.

We now have a handsome £200 riding on the EuroMillions, and with some £120m for the winner, we are even now dividing up the spoils and deciding how far £10m each will go. I most certainly would throw a few hundred quid into the Sports and Social Fund for the Cheese and Wine Tasting night. This is the most popular event in my bank's social calendar - although it's not so much wine tasting as a wine gulping (with cheese for ballast).

But I digress. I take part in our lottery syndicate not so much because I want to win the darned thing (and quit the industry), but because I'm scared sh.tless of being left out in the event of a win. I couldn't bear the idea of my colleagues dangling their feet in the turquoise blue waters of some Caribbean island, and calling me on their cell phones to poke fun. 

Strangely, however, I don't really want to win a life-changing lottery. I like my job. I like market people. I like my work mates. They like me (I think) And I enjoy doing my little bit to keep the wheels of capitalism moving. Would I give up the day job if I won £10m ? Of course I would. No more struggling over a basis point for me. But I'd do it with a heavy heart. As the chappy in local newsagent this morning: '£120m is too much money. Make you unhappy. A man's gotta work'. Back to the Bloomberg for me...

Before I sign off, I'd just like to mention a couple of other things. Hear about the poll CNN ran on its website Wednesday ? 65% of respondents said that they didn't trust the US banking system. And guess who sponsored the poll - Bank of America!

Finally, the US Government Accountability Office issued a report earlier this week that said that investigative attorneys over at US regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission spend up to 40% of their time working on internal memos! No wonder there's so much market abuse out there!!'.