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In the mid 1990s, Hamish Watson turned up as a trader on the Sydney Futures Exchange.

It was a locker shed, with a rug of buggers from Sydney's elite private schools, boasted

of their weekend conquest and jostled to be the dominant bull in the paddock.

Millions were made and lost on high risk gambles, predicting where markets may head.

Hamish talked big, but everyone knew he traded small.

He was what they dismissively called a one trade Charlie, a one lot wonder.

He was ridiculed for his fanciable stories.

Hamish had always been a compulsive liar, but his time on the Futures floor gave him the

knowledge to build on those lies, and create a narrative as an investment guru.

He gravitated towards people who lived by the Gordon Gecko ethos, greed is good.

He would give him the lingo and the knowledge that he'd used to lure and bamboozle his victims

for years to come.

He'd refine his methods and his pitch.

He would fan the ambours that would set off the inferno.

For Hamish Watson, his time on the Sydney Futures floor was like an MBA in conmanship.

This is one of his contemporaries from those future floor days, Tom Brown.

He became a local, so he actually said, have a local seat on the floor.

He traded, but he only traded one or two a day.

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