Flight 19

Myths and legends of the market The JC’s guide to the foundational mythology of the markets.™ →Go uptown The doomed Linklaters squadron shortly before embarking on the fateful drafting run. Index: Click ᐅ to expand: Mythology Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

Flight 19 was the designation of a group of five Linklaters FPML Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared on June 30, 2011, after losing contact with reality during a routine redrafting of the 2002 ISDA Equity Derivatives Definitions. It is believed the crew were attempting triangulating the definitions of various exotic Options, and the area of the financial markets in which they came to grief has been known, ever since, as the “Bermuda Option Triangle”. Neither the lawyers nor the nascent definitions booklet — the fabled 2011 ISDA Equity Derivatives Definitions — nor indeed the Linklaters SFT Mariner flying boat sent out on a rescue mission to comb the area for survivors, have been heard from since.

In the meantime a conspiracy industry has grown up around Flight 19, the fabled Atlantis agreement of 2008, the 2013 Standard CSA, and other ill-fated modernising initiatives of the evangelising men and women of ISDA’s crack drafting squad™, including most recently the 2022 ISDA Securities Financing Transactions Definitions.

In the meantime, no-one mention smart contracts, at least not while the latest quixotic mission of the Worshipful Company of Derivatives Salespeople unfolds before our disbelieving eyes. Blockchain ahoy!!

See also

• 2008 ISDA Master Agreement
• 2022 ISDA Securities Financing Transactions Definitions
• 2011 ISDA Equity Derivatives Definitions
• Hindenburg