1.transacting futures and options orders for clients or for other firms within the Barings organization, and
2. Riskless arbitraging of price differences between Nikkei futures traded on the SIMEX and Japan's Osaka exchange.
Perhaps it was the inherent lack of risk in such trading that prompted people to not be concerned about Leeson wearing multiple hats.
Leeson took unauthorized speculative positions primarily in futures linked to the Nikkei 225 and Japanese government bonds (JGB) as well as options on the Nikkei. He hid his trading in an unused BSS error account, number 88888. Exactly why Leeson was speculating is unclear. He claims that he originally used the 88888 account to hide some embarrassing losses resulting from mistakes made by his traders. However, Leeson started actively trading in the 88888 account almost as soon as he arrived in Singapore. The sheer volume