The Fix

Chapter 5 Buy the Cash Boys a Curry!

Hayes closed his eyes, took a breath and let the sound of the trading floor wash over him. It was October 2006 and he was fuming. He'd touched down in Japan more than two months ago, but a complication with his visa had prohibited him from placing a single trade. For weeks he'd felt like a substitute warming up the bench during a big game. Now that he'd finally been let loose he was already on the losing side of a huge bet on the direction of short-term interest rates.¹ Yen Libor was refusing to budge, and he was getting angrier. He loved his job, but when things weren't going his way he hated it just as much.

Hayes's desk was one of hundreds set out in a matrix on the fifth floor of UBS's Tokyo headquarters in a pair of identical white skyscrapers facing each other across a busy square. Curving like a shield in front of him were screens that beamed into his eyeballs the universe of prices, newsfeeds and trading interfaces he needed to stay on top of the ever-shifting markets. Below them was a squawk box covered in buttons that instantly connected him to his brokers and contacts in the market. Every few seconds a voice would come on the line offering him “10 yards of 2 year” or “lib tib at 34”. Everything was set up to maximize speed and minimize effort. He had two keyboards, flanked by a pair of lucky panda toys. That morning he'd walked through his lucky turnstile. Hayes had lucky underwear, a lucky t-shirt and lucky pants.² None of it ...