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On May 6 2010, when the US stock markets plunged 600 points and rebounded within 20 panic-stricken minutes — an event that became known as the “flash crash” — an independent trader from west London received a warning about his behaviour from the US’s largest futures exchange.
2010年5月6日，美国股市突然暴跌600点，然后在一片恐慌的大约20分钟后反弹——这件事后来被称为“闪电崩盘”(flash crash)，当时伦敦西区的一名独立交易员因其交易行为，受到了美国最大期货交易所的警告。
It was the third warning the Chicago Mercantile Exchange had sent to Navinder Singh Sarao, the 36-year-old British-born trader, and his broker, for placing and then quickly cancelling orders — a practice known as “spoofing”. Orders were “expected to be entered in good faith for the purpose of executing bona fide transactions”, the CME told him.
这已是芝加哥商品交易所(CME)第三次警告英国出生的36岁交易员纳温德•辛格•萨劳(Navinder Singh Sarao)及其经纪商了，起因是下单并迅速撤销订单的行为——这种操作被称为“诱骗”(spoofing)。“市场预期，交易指令是为了执行真实的交易而在诚信基础上发出的，”芝加哥商品交易所告诉他。
If this worried him at all, however, Mr Sarao could at least console himself with the fact that, by the time the market closed, he had made $879,018. And two weeks later, he would brag to his broker that he had told the CME to “kiss my ass”.
然而，如果说这让萨劳感到担心的话，那么他至少可以感到安慰的是，当日市场收盘时，他斩获了87.9018万美元。两周后，他向自己的经纪商夸口称，他已告诉芝加哥商品交易所“亲我屁股”。
This week Mr Sarao has found himself inside a London courtroom facing criminal and civil charges from the US Department of Justice and Commodity Futures Trading Commission for allegedly contributing to the panic that day and embarking on a pattern of behaviour that is said to have netted him nearly $40m in four years.
上周，萨劳出现在伦敦一家法庭上，面对美国司法部(DoJ)和美国商品期货交易委员会(CFTC)提出的刑事与民事指控，罪名是他涉嫌在那天加剧了恐慌，并持续投入一种行为模式——据称该模式让他在4年里赚到了近4000万美元。
On Wednesday Mr Sarao, dressed in tracksuit trousers and a canary yellow sweatshirt, was given conditional bail of £5.05m as he prepared to fight efforts by US authorities to extradite him to Illinois to be tried for wire fraud, commodities fraud, commodities manipulation and spoofing. He faces as much as 25 years in prison if found guilty.
上周三，身着运动裤和淡黄运动衫的萨劳以505万英镑获得有条件保释。他准备反对美国当局引渡他到伊利诺伊州受审的努力；他在美国面对的指控包括电信欺诈、大宗商品欺诈、商品市场操纵以及诱骗操作。如果被判有罪，他面临长达25年的刑期。
Mr Sarao was hardly a masters of the universe type, nor did he fit the mould of the “flash” traders who use ultra-fast internet connections and sophisticated software to gain a millisecond advantage. Instead, he traded on a customised version of an off-the-shelf software program from his modest home in Hounslow, a drab London suburb. So far he is the only person accused in connection with the flash crash.
萨劳很难说得上是那种宇宙主宰型人物，也不符合“闪电”交易员的特征——那些人以超高速互联网连接和先进软件获得一毫秒的优势。相反，他用一款现成软件程序的定制版进行操盘，地点就在死气沉沉的伦敦豪恩斯洛区(Hounslow)不起眼的家里（见右图）。到目前为止，他是因闪电崩盘而面对刑事指控的唯一人士。
His arrest has revived criticism of the market oversight by the CME and other regulators — and prompted some to ask whether Mr Sarao has been made a scapegoat while the role of larger players has gone unpunished. And despite untold hours spent by US regulators investigating one of the most mysterious episodes in market history, authorities only brought this case after a whistleblower provided hundreds of hours of analysis of the trades, a lawyer for the whistleblower said.
萨劳被逮捕已使芝加哥商品交易所和其他监管机构的市场监管再度受到批评，并促使一些人质疑，在大型操盘手的作用未受惩罚之际，萨劳是不是被当做了替罪羊？此外，据一名举报者的律师透露，尽管美国监管机构花了大量时间调查市场历史上最神秘的事件之一，但当局只是在他的当事人提供了对相关交易的数百小时分析之后，才向法庭提起此案。
To critics, the idea that a lone trader could help wreak so much havoc demonstrates that the fragmented US system of regulatory oversight is unsuited to a financial market that is so closely connected by computerised trading.
在批评者看来，一个单干的交易员就可能造成如此大的混乱，这表明美国各自为政的监管制度不适合被电脑化交易紧密连接的金融市场。
“The fact that it took five years to catch [arrest] this guy is a symptom of a broken enforcement system,” says James Angel, a professor at Georgetown University.
“用了5年才抓住（逮捕）这个家伙，这个事实表明执法系统已失灵了，”乔治敦大学(Georgetown University)教授詹姆斯•安吉尔(James Angel)说。
Mr Sarao came of age just as the markets shifted to electronic trading. With the CME’s launch in 1997 of the “e-mini S&P”, a compact futures contract based on the S&P 500, investors had a smooth way of betting on the direction of the cash equity market. They could also use the contract to insulate their portfolios from losses.
萨劳磨练操盘技能的时候，正赶上市场转向电子交易。随着芝加哥商品交易所在1997年推出“e-mini S&P”——一款基于标普500(S&P 500)股指的小型期货合约，投资者有了押注股市走向的顺畅途径。他们也可以使用这一合约使自己的投资组合免于亏损。
That attracted Mr Sarao, a British trader whose family lived under the main flight path into Heathrow airport. He got his start on the trainee programme of a small UK broker in 2003 and quickly stood out. “He was a bit of a strange character but he was a natural, a genius,” says a person who watched him trade. “He could read a screen like you and I could read a newspaper.” Mr Sarao stayed cool, wearing heavy-duty headphones to block out the noise of a trading floor. “He also used to dress shabbily as he didn’t care,” the person said.
这吸引了萨劳，他的家就在伦敦希思罗机场标准进场航路的下方。2003年，他参加英国一家小型经纪商的培训生课程，由此踏入交易这一行，并很快脱颖而出。“他是个多少有点怪的人，但他是一块天生的料子，一个天才，”曾经旁观他交易的一名人士表示，“他可以像你我阅读报纸一样阅读屏幕。”萨劳始终保持着冷静，戴着重型耳机，屏蔽掉交易室的噪音。“他那时还不修边幅，他根本不在乎这方面，”上述人士表示。
He developed a reputation for making big trades, according to two people familiar with his positions. “One day he traded 5,000 lots [equivalent to a notional value of $250,000] while he was talking to me,” one said.
两名熟悉他仓位的两位人士透露，他建立了进行大笔交易的名声。“有一天，他一边跟我聊天，一边交易了5000手（名义价值总额达25万美元），”其中一人表示。
By 2008 he had started his own firm and bought a seat on the CME, allowing him to trade on Chicago’s markets. Almost immediately the CME noticed his behaviour; by the following March the it had contacted MF Global, his brokerage, to alert them. The company passed the message to Mr Sarao and told him that he may have been breaking the rules.
到2008年，萨劳已成立了自己的公司，并在芝加哥商品交易所买下一个席位，由此得以押注芝加哥市场的走势。芝加哥商品交易所几乎立即注意到了他的行为；次年3月，该交易所联系了他的经纪商MF Global，提醒他们注意萨劳。该公司把交易所的邮件转发给萨劳，并告诉他：他可能在违反规则。
The problem: Mr Sarao pumped large amounts of orders into the e-mini market, then quickly cancelled them. Tracking his trades between September 2008 and October 2009, the CME noted that the tactic “appeared to have a significant impact on the indicative opening price” of the market.
问题在于，萨劳向e-mini市场发出大量交易指令，然后迅速撤销。芝加哥商品交易所追踪了他在2008年9月至2009年10月之间的交易后指出，这种手法“似乎对市场的指示性开盘价产生了重大影响”。
“When prices fell as a result of this activity, Sarao allegedly sold futures contracts only to buy them back at a lower price,” according to the DoJ. “Conversely, when the market moved back upward as the market activity ceased, Sarao allegedly bought contracts only to sell them at a higher price.”
“当这种行为导致价格下跌时，据称萨劳卖出期货合约，然后在更低价格把它们买回来，”美国司法部表示，“相反，当这一市场行为停止、市场反弹时，据称萨劳买入合约，然后在更高价格将其卖出。”
The regulators allege Mr Sarao was rapidly placing and cancelling orders on May 6, 2010. In less than two hours he placed six e-mini orders, which were replaced or modified 19,000 times before cancelling them without completing a single trade. In that same period he accounted for between 20 and 29 per cent of the entire e-mini sellside order book on CME, regulators allege.
监管机构声称，萨劳在2010年5月6日快速下单并撤销指令。在不到2小时内，他发出6个e-mini交易指令，在对其进行了1.9万次替换或修改后将其取消，而没有完成任何一笔交易。监管机构称，其间他的操作介于CME全部E-mini卖方订单的20%至29%之间。
He also executed real trades, boosting his returns. By 2009, Mr Sarao allegedly began to move money offshore to avoid paying taxes on his profits, according to court filings. In 2010 he created a company, Nav Sarao Milking Markets, incorporating it in Nevis, a small island in the Caribbean.
萨劳也会执行实际交易，以提高回报。法院文件显示，到2009年，萨劳据称开始向海外转移现金，以此避免为他的交易利润交税。2010年，他创办了一家名为Nav Sarao Milking Markets的公司，注册地为加勒比海小岛尼维斯。
In 2011 he created a company called International Guarantee Corp that he based in Anguilla with a bank account in Switzerland. He used IGC to make loans to his trading firm and invest in other companies. A year later, according to court filings, he authorised a transfer from another Swiss bank account to the United Arab Bank in Dubai.
2011年，他创办了一家名为International Guarantee Corp (IGC)的公司，总部位于安圭拉，该公司有一个瑞士的银行账户。他利用IGC向自己的交易公司发放贷款，并投资于其他公司。法院文件显示，一年后他授权进行了一笔转账，把资金从另一个瑞士的银行账户转移至迪拜的联合阿拉伯银行(United Arab Bank)。
But Mr Sarao’s allegedly manipulative trading continued, and it was not until at least the end of 2013 that US regulators opened their investigations.
但是，萨劳据称的操纵交易行为仍然继续，而美国监管机构至少到了2013年底才开启调查。
The unmasking of Mr Sarao has raised eyebrows among traders and the broader industry. Markets by their nature reflect the choices and actions of numerous people and no single trade or activity can be held responsible for big market swings, observers say.
当局揪出萨劳的举动引发交易员乃至整个行业愕然。观察人士称，从本质上讲，市场反映的是许多人的选择和动作，对于市场的大幅波动，不应该追究任何个别交易或行动的责任。
“It is possible that it [Mr Sarao’s trading] was a factor among many that contributed to what happened on that day,” says Justin Schack, managing director at Rosenblatt Securities. “What is hard to believe is that this guy is the Franz Ferdinand of the flash crash.”
“（萨劳的交易）可能是导致当天市场波动的众多因素之一，”Rosenblatt Securities的董事总经理贾斯汀•沙克(Justin Schack)称，“令人难以置信的是，这个人就是闪电崩盘的弗朗茨•斐迪南（Franz Ferdinand，奥匈帝国王储，他的遇刺成为一战爆发的导火线——译者注）。”
The CME this week reiterated its position that its own investigations, and those of regulators, found that the futures market was not to blame. Regulators say the arrest of Mr Sarao did not mean that their report was wrong or that other players, like large money managers, did not play a role.
上周，CME重申了自己的立场，该交易所自己的调查以及监管机构的调查均认为，期货市场没有过错。监管机构称，萨劳被捕并不意味着他们的报告是错误的、或者其他操盘手（比如大型资产管理机构）没有起到作用。
The official report on the flash crash, released in September 2010, highlighted the impact of a rapidly executed $4.1bn sale of stock index futures by a single institutional investor, Waddell & Reed, which began at 2:32pm EST. A trade of that size went well beyond what Mr Sarao could have done. According to the complaints, Mr Sarao switched off his layering program at 2.40pm that day, two minutes before the S&P 500 really started to plummet. He kept trading during the crash and for years after.
针对闪电崩盘的官方报告在2010年9月公布，报告强调了一家名为Waddell & Reed的机构投资者所做操作的影响。该机构从美东时间下午2:32开始快速卖出41亿美元的股期指货。这种规模的交易远远超出萨劳可能企及的程度。根据诉状，萨劳于当日下午2:40关闭了其“分层”(layering)程序，2分钟后标普500真正开始暴跌。他在暴跌期间继续交易，之后也交易了好几年。
Andrei Kirilenko, professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and joint author of the report into the flash crash, says it is hard to see the connection between the algorithm in his customised program and what happened later. “The complaint says that this algorithm is present a bunch of times before and after the flash crash, but is actually not there during the most volatile period of the flash crash.”
麻省理工大学斯隆商学院(MIT Sloan School of Management)教授、闪电崩盘报告的联合作者安德烈•基里连科(Andrei Kirilenko)称，很难看出萨劳定制程序的算法与随后发生的情况之间的联系。“诉状称，这种算法在闪电崩盘发生前后出现了数次，但实际上在闪电崩盘波动最剧烈的时刻并未出现。”
While regulators debate the structure of the markets, a new vitality appears to have taken hold among prosecutors. “With this turn of events, we need to acknowledge that it is the FBI and the Department of Justice that are now in charge of how this market will operate,” says Prof Kirilenko. “This changes things.”
在监管机构辩论市场架构之际，检方似乎展现了新的活力。“鉴于这一转折，我们要承认，如今是FBI和美国司法部来掌管市场该如何运行了，”基里连科教授称，“这会改变一些事。”
