It’s a Friday afternoon in mid-August and Allan, the head of dealing at a UK asset manager, puts in a call to his broker, Paul. He has a large position in an illiquid Italian stock that he needs to offload as soon as possible, and Paul is just the man to find the other side.
The phone rings, and rings and rings. This is odd, Allan thinks, he has known Paul for more than 20 years and he almost always picks up instantly.
