The Jolly Contrarian:About
![](/images/thumb/0/0b/Penry.jpg/200px-Penry.jpg)
Well, after ten years running this site my spouse told me I should at least own up to who I am, but bugger that. It’s no real secret and anyone with a basic yen for online surveillance will be able to work it out, but you may know me as mild-mannered Penry. Until recently I was second in charge of checking that the firm’s name was spelled correctly on the football team at Wickliffe Hampton Securities Inc., London Branch, but I eventually summoned the guts to leave that behind and now I’m in a legal department of one. It’s fun.
But what I do have is 30 years’ experience as a commercial lawyer, in New Zealand (for a bit) and in the UK (for the rest). I’ve worked at law firms big and small, and three kinds of investment bank: American, British and Swiss, and now I work at a scrappy little start up. As you may deduce I have specialised, over the years, in structured products, repackagings, credit, fund derivatives, fund solutions, commodities, ISDA negotiations, cash equities, equity derivatives, synthetic equity derivatives, prime brokerage, securities financing, and emissions derivatives. Some of what I’ve found out makes up the useful bits of this site.
I like to ski and play guitar, but not at the same time. Also, cricket.
The Jolly Contrarian started out life in 2012, as “AmwellClear”, as a fun way way of remembering the difference between Loss, Market Quotations, Close Out Amounts and Unpaid Amounts and just kept growing.
SEO folk: before you write to offer tips on how to differentiate the JC from its competition, remember: when you write satire about derivatives THERE IS NO GODDAMN COMPETITION.