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In the blogosphere, the mainstream media, the FT included, has got Information Arbitrage’s Roger Ehrenberg, the former head of Deutsche Bank’s fund of hedge funds and president of Monitor110, all hot under the collar.

In a strongly-worded post titled “A little perspective please - Wall Street and Trading Risk”, he takes issue with the coverage of Credit Suisse’s reported $120m derivatives trading loss in South Korea.

Mr Ehrenberg writes: “Do you know how many bulge bracket Wall Street trading businesses have suffered a $120 million loss on a particular desk in a quarter (and we don’t even know this to be the case - the loss in question is on a particular strategy)? I tell you how many - EVERY SINGLE ONE.”

Trading desks try to make money by taking risk - so losses of this sort once in a while are the nature of the beast, he argues. Trading businesses have done well over the past three years but within that, desks got hammered in the second quarter of 2004 after a record P&L in Q1. But they still ended up on the year. These outcomes are well within the expected probabilities based on stress tests, he says.

“A $120 million loss on a trading desk, unless the loss was the result of poor controls or a rogue trader, is neither a show stopper nor something that warrants intense eyebrow-raising and upset stomachs.”

Message received loud and clear, Roger.