Apr 01 2009
April Fool
Well I was had today. In my job as head of credit risk monitoring for a major international bank, I was cc’d on a e-mail which was sent by the person in charge of our modeling team to the traders. The gist of the mail was that in order to encourage front office personnel to use our new risk modeling tool, all trades simulated today using that tool would be assigned 0 CVAR. In other words, no credit risk, a virtual carte blanche on trading. The small print on the bottom (which I did not see) said “valid only for trades transacted between 11:59 p.m. and 12:00 a.m.
Panic struck. I began feverishly dialing the sender, demanding to know who approved such a preposterous promotion. Much to my embarrassment, it was quite some time before I realized that this was an April Fool’s joke.
The origin of April Fool’s day is not well documented. One theory is that April 1 was once considered to be the first day of the year in France. When King Charles IX changed it to January 1, some stuck with April 1. Those who didn’t adapt to the change were called April Fools. Another theory is that April Fool’s Day was first celebrated soon after the Gregorian Calendar was accepted. Those who still adhered to the old Julian calender were called April Fools
Whatever the origin, I will be sure to check my calendar daily before going to work.
