What’s it like to lose £350m? A rogue trader confesses

By investing in precarious deals and covering up his losses, Alexis Stenfors cost one of the world's biggest banks a fortune. Andrew Anthony asks why doesn't he feel more remorse

In 2009, shortly after the global markets had suffered their worst crisis for 90 years, Alexis Stenfors was working as a currency trader for Merrill Lynch in London. With 15 years' experience, he was good at his job and he prided himself on his ability to read the markets. His view was that the whole financial system was going to go "belly up". That was what he was betting on.

And boy did he bet. He took increasingly extreme positions and when they failed to return dividends, he covered up losses in his trading books that he estimated to be around $100m (78m). Then he went on holiday to India. Stenfors didn't realise it at the time, but it was the end of his career as a trader, and the beginning of his notoriety as a rogue trader. Merrill Lynch later announced that his actions had resulted in the loss of $456m (356m).

Why did I do it? I am not sure if I have come any closer to a definitive answer

I didn't think about the system as a whole. You never say: 'Hang on, what happens if the whole things explodes?'

I wouldn't go back to trading simply to make money. I know what I would become