Where is the Money Management?

"If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster" - Hollywood actor Clint Eastwood on stock trading strategies.

Local businessman Oei Hong Leong - dubbed the "man with the Midas touch" - lost a whopping $1 billion on foreign exchange and US Treasury bond transaction last year. He is now suing Citigroup's private banking arm for negligence and misrepresentation.

I respected this man tremendously for his savy investments as well as his generous gifts to charity. I am sadden to learn of this huge losses. He disclosed that he had earmarked $1 billion last year to worthy charitable causes.

It will be a interesting court case even though I doubt he is able to claim much damages. As a trader, we need to know our own positions and exposure, I paid a price for that in November last year. Obviously Mr Oei has taken very huge positions, over exposing himself to the huge swing in the currency and treasury market.

Where is the risk and money management? It seems that Mr Oei is handling his investments personally and without doubt he has performed very well in the past. I hope that he can recover from this setback.