User talk:Amwelladmin

Bloomberg news rattled away on a monitor above susan's head, CNBC to her right, CNN to her left and BBC rolling news in the centre. Frankton Armitage data arrived. Susan went to the window. Beyond her air-conditioned cocoon, fog was beginning to descend and the sodium streetlights were casting an asthmatic haze.

In the shadows another orange point of light glowed.

Synchrony: all four monitors displayed the same scene, the same footage, taken from the same angle: so much for alternative perspectives. A bridge, thick in fog. Gas lights disappeared into the gloom. An ambulance and a squadcar, police line, an empty rope.

Susan moved a little closer.

Anchor voices babbled. CNN carried a traffic update.

"Blackfriars Bridge was closed today following reports of a body hanging beneath its supporting structure. Reportsconfirmed the figure of a man swinging in a wide arc beneath the bridge at 5am. By the time emergency services arrived there was no sign of the man or any rope. Traffic is getting back to normal after police closed the bridge for most of the day as a result of what looks to have been some kind of student prank "

The monitors cut to CCTV footage. The brown sludge of the Thames merged into the dirty murk of dawn under the bridge. Indeterminate, hazy but clearly emerging from the fog, a shadow, bleeding into the frame, coagulating, darkening and resolving into a defined outline, swinging forward into the frame, hanging for a brief moment, and falling back into the indistinct grey. There it came again, like a moon waxing into the screen, and susan thought she could make out an old man's face, jaw set, eyes shut, ashen skin, in an expiring grimace. That's one gruesome student prank.

Susan called up the security grid around blaçkfriars, but all network enabled cameras were locked down, offline and prism access disabled: the police were clearly on the job.

Susan flipped back to the data analytics. The precrime algorithms were well underway. All the data feeds were in. Unusually early tonight.

The phone rang up from reception. It was Ardelia.

- You have a visitor. With a present.

A visitor?

- Well, he's gone now. Funny looking chap. In a hat.

Hat?

- A hat. But he left you a present.

Present?

Ardelia sounded impatient.

- a present. It's at the desk. Come collect it. My taxi's here. Gotta go.

Susan sat for a moment. Subroutines whirled; algorithms flew.

One caught.

Aha: Brian. My handbag. Right. Susan scuttled down the back stairs to reception. The duty guard, whom she'd greeted daily for five years, fussed about needing to see credentials which, she patiently explained, were inside the parcel she was expecting.

After a standoff the guard relented. He handed the package over, dubious. In fairness, it didn't look much like a handbag.

A crisp A4 onionskin envelope with her name handwritten on it. Inside was a thin sheaf of papers, all handwritten.

Because of the high stakes, I have no choice but to submit this script anonymously and in strict confidence. I will contact you to follow up. You will not be able to find me.

- We'll see about that, thought Susan.

This dossier should provide sufficient evidence to support a full enquiry into the trading activities at wickliffe hampton asset management, and into the actions of its principal, julian wickliffe.

My submission is simple: Wickliffe is either insider trading on a massive, unprecedented scale, or he is committing a monstrous fraud on his investors, and may even be running a ponzi scheme.

Here is why.

Susan read on. The handwriting continued: measured, neat, a millimetre above the line. The material was meticulously laid out.

My credentials

Wickliffe Hampton SEC filings - strategy and investment approach - assets under management - implied hurdle rates

Market intelligence

The split strike option strategy - Overview - Historical returns - Historical Volatility

Benchmark returns - competing strategies - broad based equity indices - HFR competitor indices

Correlation

WHAM's historical returns are good but they have never been outrageously good - his Sharpe ratio is comfortably within industry norms, so as to create little fuss. The split strike option strategy is unglamorous and is not widely used as an alpha generating strategy the industry - there are few experts, which is why it is not well understood - for the very good reason that it is volatile and directional: when the market rallies a manager can make a good profit. But in a bearish market it is almost impossible to make money. It is a good hedge for a bullish view. In volatile markets it will be all over the place. WHaM's strategy was metronomically consistent, even over the last few years where the equity markets have been. Bouncing up and down like a yoyo.

You can tell things about people well before they open their mouths: some is metadfata, some are psychological tells, bodylanguage clues and dress hints which the subconscious intercepts, processes and informs

the conscious in a matter of moments. You have drawn conclusions about your fellow passengers before you have raised your newspaperitting