At least the staff at Man Group can be in no doubt about where they rank in the firm’s priorities. Peter Clarke, chief executive of the world’s largest hedge fund manager, said: “When there are power problems, we shut off the air-conditioning to humans and give it to the computers.”

You can understand why Man's computers get such love. AHL, Man's flagship computer-driven hedge fund, is what Clarke calls the "engine room of the company in terms of earnings", until recently accounting for around half of the firm's assets under management and three-quarters of its profits.