Will the Japanese quake throw up another Nick Leeson ?

Nicholas (Nick) Leeson was a derivatives trader in the Singapore branch of Barings Bank. After earning enormous profits for his bank (mainly through unauthorised trades), he found to his dismay that his luck was running out and that his trades (unauthorised, as usual) were becoming excessively out of the money and incurring huge losses for the bank. He did his best to hide the losses and started taking positions with the view that Japanese stocks would move up in value.

Misfortunes don't come singly. A huge earthquake struck Kobe, Japan on 17th January, 1995. The equity market in Japan crashed and Nick Leeson's attempts to recoup losses collapsed. Nick Leeson, the rogue trader, was caught napping and his notoriety became legendary. The Kobe earthquake was the turning point that caused Barings' extinction.

The present crisis in Japan is a double whammy. The Sendai disaster is a deadly combination of massive earthquake (8.9 on the Richter) and tricky tsunami. Damage to men and materials is horrendous. Has any rogue trader somewhere in the flat world taken a position that might prove fatal to some well-known financial institution ? One hopes not. But derivatives, or more particularly derivative traders, are so devious that it is impossible to rule out any unpleasant surprise.