Dr Alexis Stenfors

Dr Alexis Stenfors is an economist and author of ‘Barometer of Fear: An Insider's Account of Rogue Trading and the Greatest Banking Scandal in History'. Before returning to academia in 2009, Alexis spent 15 years as a foreign exchange and interest rate derivatives trader at HSBC, Citi, Crédit Agricole and Merrill Lynch. His trading career ended with a ‘mismarking' scandal that would eventually result in him being described in the media as one of the ‘world's most infamous rogue traders'. He received a prohibition order by the FSA in March 2010, and the Irish Financial Regulator subsequently fined Merrill Lynch €2.75m for, amongst other things, failing to supervise and manage his risk limits effectively. The FCA revoked Alexis' prohibition order in May 2015. Alexis Stenfors started his doctoral research on LIBOR in 2009, almost three years before the LIBOR manipulation scandal broke, and completed his thesis ‘Determining the LIBOR: A Study of Power and Deception' in 2013. Alexis' recent research includes anti-competitive behaviour in foreign exchange markets, liquidity issues on electronic trading platforms and unethical trading practices among human and algorithmic traders. He is currently Reader in Economics and Finance at the University of Portsmouth and has held research and teaching positions at SOAS University of London, University of Leeds, Washington University in St. Louis, Meiji University (Tokyo) and Peking University HSBC Business School (Oxford). He holds a Civilekonom degree and an MSc in Financial Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics, a CEMS Master, as well as a PhD in Economics from SOAS University of London. Alexis Stenfors is also a public speaker and consults on issues related to financial market risk, culture, compliance, behaviour and OTC market surveillance. He has served as an expert advisor on legal cases involving financial benchmarks, cash and derivatives markets in both Europe and North America.