But my best guess is that someone on that risk free arbitrage desk moved from risk free pure arbitrage into very definitely not risk free timearbitrage, or speculation as we should call it, then the market moved against his bet.
In addition to running the restaurant, Mr. Niccolini finds time to appear in films most recently "Arbitrage, " with Richard Gere and write the occasional column for the New York Observer, Details and Gotham magazines.