You realized all this late Friday. Was it too late to take action in the markets? Yes, and it was a very tense weekend because I realized that the dollar might open sharply lower. I waited for
the Far East markets to open Sunday night.
Do you do a lot of your trading outside of U.S. hours? Yes. First, I have monitors everywhere I go—in my home, in my country home. Second, I have a staff on duty
twenty-four hours a day.
Is your staff instructed to alert you immediately in case something big happens? Absolutely. First of all, we have call levels in every currency. If a currency breaks out of a range that we have
previously identified, my staff is under instructions to call.
How often do you get calls in the middle of the night? I have an assistant trader, and the joke is that he is allowed to wake me up at home twice a year. But it really
isn't necessary very often. Whenever the markets are busy, I know what is going on all the time. My home is fully
equipped with trading monitors and direct lines. Also, my assistant's job is to be up and get the calls. He probably
gets called three or four times a night.
Are you saying that you delegate the nighttime decision making? We create a scenario for every currency at least once a week. We define the ranges we expect for each
currency and what we will do if it breaks out of these ranges.
So your assistant knows that if currency X gets to 135— He should buy it or sell it. Those decisions have been made beforehand. But they are under instruction to call
me if the Prime Minister resigns, or if there is a major unexpected currency revaluation, or something else happens to
invalidate the recent scenario.
Are there times you end up trading at night? Yes, a lot.
You obviously can't trade round the clock. How do you structure your time to balance your work
