Mr Spencer first got a taste for trading when he made £300 profit dealing in GKN shares while he was still at Oxford studying physics. He now controls 22 per cent of mighty Icap."I'm the sad person you see reading the FT on the beach," he says. But when the beach is in some exotic exclusive location, how tragic can that be?When it comes to personal wealth Crispin Odey, 46 - hedge fund manager, founder of Odey Asset Management and recipient of a predicted £8.8m bonus - can almost give Michael Spencer a run for his money.Mr Odey's personal wealth is "cautiously" put by the Sunday Times rich list at £160m. Mr Spencer is tipped to pick up a bonus of £5m after a very good year for Icap.The man who earned £10m last year has an estimated personal wealth of around £372m. His company operates from 26 offices across the globe and employs 2,900 staff to handle daily transactions of $600bn.

He lives with his wife, Lorraine, and three children in Holland Park, west London, and is chauffeured around in a grey Mercedes. He is acollector of modern art with a penchant for Picasso and Jack Vettriano; his wine cellar, too, is the stuff of legend.All this started modestly. A generous host, he hit the gossip columns last year after he spent £1m luring Robbie Williams to his St Tropez mansion to sing in front of 300 guests at his lavish 50th birthday party. Labour MP John McDonnell struck a chord with ordinary mortals last week when he complained of "obscene profiteering" and said Gordon Brown ought to act.But who are the City's biggest bonus winners shimmying into a swanky New Year while the rest of us face a January of chilly austerity?Michael Spencer, 50, British chief executive of Intercapital (Icap), the world's biggest money broker, is among the most flamboyant of McDonnell's "profiteers". Many are so certain of windfalls that a rush is already reported on Porsches, riverside luxury pads and even cosmetic surgery.Lovely for them, but a bit galling for the majority of Brits, particularly when a generally lacklustre economy has meant cuts to most staff bonuses and in many cases no bonus at all. Lesser, but still substantial, payments will go to many of the other 350,000 City workers.With billions of pounds being divvied up by the likes of Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers, bankers and fund managers all over Kensington, Chelsea and Notting Hill are waiting by their letterboxes.

Amid soaring sales of Ferraris, penthouse apartments and designer jewellery, more than 3,000 top City performers are about to receive windfalls available to most of us only if we were to win the lottery. Brewin Dolphin Wealth Management predicts the top dealers will receive more than £1m each, with the highest bonuses topping £10m. Nearly 3,000 police officers had been drafted in to control the crowds.. The good times are back The money is rolling in. While the rest of us face humiliating conversations with the bank manager after the festive excesses, a glorious bonanza is about to get under way for Britain's financial whizzkids. They also advised people not to drive into London, and women were warned to beware of unlicensed cabs. Road safety groups expressed fears of a surge in accidents as drunk drivers try to get home. Millions of revellers faced a night walking home in downpours as a 24-hour Tube strike brought chaos to London during the New Year celebrations.