Barry Norris, founder and chief executive of equity asset manager Argonaut Capital Partners, says there are two key rules to successful investing: “A highly sensitive bulls--t antenna. And the ability to see through groupthink.”

Wirecard collided with both of his commandments, he said. Norris shorted the German payments firm through the Argonaut Absolute Return fund, his long-short equity fund, which is up 23% in 2020. Part of this success is due to Wirecard, which has netted Norris £1.28m after the German payments firm filed for insolvency following an accounting scandal and the arrest of its chief executive.