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Friday 05 June 2020 4:30 am

The City View: The Hound of Hounslow and the Flash Crash of 2010

By: Christian May

Editor-in-Chief

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In this episode Christian is joined by journalist Liam Vaughan, author of Flash Crash – a gripping account of how Navander Singh Sarao ran a trading system from his bedroom in his parents’ house in West London that contributed to the infamous 2010 flash crash where $1tn dollars was suddenly wiped from the value of global markets. 

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Liam tells the story of Sarao, a video game and football obsessive who developed a remarkable ability to read financial markets.

From humble day-trader to scourge of Wall Street, Sarao made a fortune before coming to the attention of US regulators and, ultimately, the FBI. 

What motivated Sarao? It wasn’t money, since despite earning tens of millions of pounds he never splashed out and never left his parents’ modest home.

Liam says that the objective was just to win. For Sarao, global financial markets were just another video game, and the game had to be completed.

The book is a thrilling and fascinating account not just of Sarao’s exploits, but of the vulnerabilities baked into modern financial markets. 

Also in this episode, Christian looks at the criticism directed at HSBC and Standard Chartered after they publicly backed China’s Hong Kong crackdown; the winners and losers in the latest FTSE reshuffle; and the large businesses tapping into the Bank of England’s Coronavirus loan scheme. 

In association with ETX Capital

ETX Capital is one of the UK’s leading spread betting and CFD trading providers, offering services to retail, institutional, professional and high net worth customers via an award-winning trading platform. With over 50 years of experience in the financial markets, customers and service are always put first at ETX, and the company prides itself in offering a tailor-made trading experience to every customer. The multi-device TraderPro platform delivers a fully customisable, award-winning trading technology with customisable charts, instant execution and over 5,000 markets to trade.

Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 76% of retail investor accounts lose money when spread betting or trading CFDs with ETX. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets or CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority with Financial Services register number 124721.ETX Capital provides an execution-only service and therefore any market analysis, opinion, commentary or other information provided during this webinar is for educational purposes only and is not intended to be a personal recommendation or construed as advice. ETX Capital and the presenter are not financial or investment advisors and do not recommend any instrument of any kind.  Any instruments that are mentioned throughout are cited only for illustrative and educational purposes.

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