Jeremy Isaacs started as a blue-button at Smith New Court (later acquired by Merrill Lynch in 1995), working on the London Stock Exchange as a trainee trader at one of the biggest stock jobbers. He was in at the start of equity options in the early 1980s.
“No one had very detailed experience in trading options, and at a very young age I was better at it than most people, simply, I think, because I was quite numerate.” Also, he stayed sober. These were the days of open outcry.
“You had these quite fabulous characters,” Isaacs recalls. “They would periodically go on three-hour lunches and drink huge amounts. I would wait for them to come back from lunch and make a fortune off them.