Some of LTCM's trades were well known to market insiders before LTCM became involved. The Royal Dutch/Shell trade, for example, was the "classic European arbitrage trade" (Wenman interview), and the relationship between Royal Dutch and Shell shares had even been discussed in the academic literature before LTCM was founded (Rosenthal and Young 1990). News or speculation about other LTCM trades circulated freely. "I can't believe how many times I was told to do a trade because the boys at Long-Term deemed it a winner," says the hedge-fund manager James Cramer (2002, p. 179).

Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, loc. 1028