DAVID LEE HAD been awake all night. His working day starts at midnight and ends when the rest of us are only just getting started.
Mr Lee is a senior foreign exchange dealer at Sun Hung Kai Financial. And the world of buying and selling currencies or gold, which revolves around turning a profit from their constantly fluctuating values, is an industry that never sleeps.
Those who deal in it keep an around-the-clock vigil watching it tick; the US dollar against the Japanese yen, the British pound against the Swiss franc, the European euro against the Australian dollar.
'At midnight in Hong Kong the London market is nearly closing but it's noon in New York. Then there are Chicago and San Francisco,' he said.
By the time he finishes work, the Australian, Singapore and Tokyo markets are open for the next day's relentless money trade.
Since fluctuations between values are minimal compared to, say, a three-to-one punt on a horse, the 'plays' to extract a profit make Monopoly money look like small change.
Dealers do not even think in terms of cash but 'contracts', each worth Euro100,000 ($987,700). Most customers trade 10 to 20 contracts, although some 'go up to 200' - that's Euro200 million, gambled for either a few minutes or a few months.
