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 That said, it is an act of self-harm for which the watching world should feel tremendously grateful. Not only a sizzling read, arriving just in time for Bank executives as they head for a fortnight to the sun loungers of Mykonos and Ibiza, but a beautifully clear explanation of the [[equity prime brokerage]] business in particular and global markets broking in general, and a coruscating indictment of the way large organisations of all kinds operate.
 :—JC, July 2019}}
+===Intro===
 This is a proper horror story, make no mistake: Stephen King has not a patch on this.
-There’s so much I’ve even made a little table of contents.
+''Everyone'' involved in the business of [[prime services]], and global markets broking generally, should read {{plainlink|https://www.credit-suisse.com/about-us/en/reports-research/archegos-info-kit.html|the Credit Suisse Report}}. And while the goings on it recounts were class-leadingly chaotic — it is hard to believe that the same organisation could have made ''so'' many basic errors, in such scale, for so long, so consistently, missing so many opportunities to cotton on, without catching even ''one'' lucky break as the [[apocalypse]] unfolded around it — the ''makings'' of all these [[joint and several liability|joint and several]] blunders is imprinted in the structure of ''every'' multinational organisation.
-===Table of contents===
-*[[Archegos#Intro|Intro]]
-*[[Archegos#Concerns about Archegos|Concerns about Archegos]]
-*[[Archegos#Mis-margining|Mis-margining]]
-*[[Archegos#The greatest fool theory|The greatest fool theory]]
-*[[Archegos#Had weapons. Didn’t use them.|Had weapons. Didn’t use them.]]
-*[[Archegos#Formal versus informal systems|Formal versus informal systems]]
-*[[Archegos#The broker that didn’t bark in the night-time|The broker that didn’t bark in the night-time]]
-*[[Archegos#Juniorisation of the meatware|Juniorisation of the meatware]]
-*[[Archegos#How organisations work|How organisations work]]
-*[[Archegos#Red flags|Red flags]]
-===Intro===
-''Everyone'' involved in the business of [[prime services]], and global markets broking generally, should read {{plainlink|https://www.credit-suisse.com/about-us/en/reports-research/archegos-info-kit.html|the Credit Suisse Report}}.
-And while the goings on it recounts were class-leadingly chaotic — it is hard to believe that the same organisation could have made ''so'' many basic errors, in such scale, for so long, so consistently, missing so many opportunities to cotton on, without catching even ''one'' lucky break as the [[apocalypse]] unfolded around it — the ''makings'' of all these [[joint and several liability|joint and several]] blunders is imprinted in the structure of ''every'' multinational organisation.
+After all, this broker was not alone in taking a hammering. It just took the ''worst'' hammering, and has been the most candid about how.
-After all, this broker was not alone in taking a hammering. It just took the ''worst'' hammering, and has been the most candid about how.
+__TOC__
-This was not an institution that was out of its depth in a market it did not understand. Most of its missteps have a curiously sociological, ''human'' cast to them. Some speak of bad management: poor organisation, unclear responsibilities, fiefdoms and [[silo]]s, under-communication of what mattered, over-communication of what did not; others speak just to ordinary mortal frailty: the thrall of [[Christian name|rank and status]], the fear of speaking up, making management reports and [[dashboard]]s accommodate the risk, rather than making the risk accommodated the models; [[buttocratic oath|backside-covering as a primary goal]], inexplicable insouciance in the face of steadily escalating risk and, when it comes to it, outright [[Mediocre you|mediocrity]] in senior personnel.
+Credit Suisse is not an institution that was out of its depth in a market it did not understand. Most of its missteps have a curiously sociological, ''human'' cast to them. Some speak of bad management: poor organisation, unclear responsibilities, fiefdoms and [[silo]]s, under-communication of what mattered, over-communication of what did not; others speak just to ordinary mortal frailty: the thrall of [[Christian name|rank and status]], the fear of speaking up, making management reports and [[dashboard]]s accommodate the risk, rather than making the risk accommodated the models; [[buttocratic oath|backside-covering as a primary goal]], inexplicable insouciance in the face of steadily escalating risk and, when it comes to it, outright [[Mediocre you|mediocrity]] in senior personnel.
 The end game sums up how dire the whole sorry business was: In March, 2021, the broker gingerly ''asked'' Archegos to consider a new proposal under which it would recharacterise $1.35 billion of the $2.4 billion in [[excess margin|excess]] [[variation margin]] ''it currently held for Archegos'' as [[initial margin]]: ''asked'', that is, when it was contractually entitled to ''demand'' that, and more, on 3 days’ notice. And, while ''thinking about it'', Archegos systematically demanded CS ''disburse the entire $2.4 billion''.