Under the counter

London callingOnce again it's that time of year when I get to welcome the global derivatives community to my back yard as hundreds of wide-eyed innocents descent on London's international derivatives week, in part of course hosted by FOW. I will be around and about all week, catching up with old friends, avoiding old enemies and helping to distribute the highly-desired Grindlay Clarke pin badges from the FOW stand at the Barbican exhibition (I say highly-desired with a certain sense of irony since they apparently sent 500 to the show in Frankfurt, of which 489 returned with FOW staff and one was later mailed to my home address with a sternly written letter informing me to keep my hands off a certain gentleman's daughter). The distribution of said badges made me ponder, over a bag of dry roasted nuts and a couple of swift halves, the possibility of some additional...