After the other Asian stock markets cooled down in 1994, Leeson concentrated
his trading on Japanese stock index futures and Japanese government
bond futures. He bet that Japanese stocks and interest rates would rise
at precisely the time Japanese market was sinking. Share prices and interest
rates plummeted. Instead of selling to neutralize his position, Leeson
viewed every dip in the Nikkei average as a buying opportunity. As a result,
his losses piled up in the 88888 Account. To recoup his losses, he began the
fatal strategy of doubling, which requires a trader to double his bets each
time he loses. Doubling is a do-or-die strategy that called for Leeson to multiply
the size of his bets in the 88888 Account so that any slight recovery in
Japanese stocks would bring him back to even.