- Joined
- 5/2/06
- Messages
- 13,005
- Points
- 273
It's tough to be prop traders these days. That is if you still have a job. The following article by a Bloomberg columnist is meant as satire.
------------------------------------------------
These are dark days if you work in proprietary trading. For the past five years, you have been the king of financial markets, raking in bonuses and enjoying the prestige that comes from making most of your bank’s profits.
Now you are about as employable as a Greek-bond salesman. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are two companies winding down their prop-trading units to comply with new regulations that limit the ability of financial firms to trade on their own account. Plenty more firms will follow suit.
Teams of traders fired by big banks are now setting up dozens of hedge funds. But hold on. Surely the one thing you learned during all those years on the trading desk is that there is no money to be made by following the herd. When everyone else is buying bonds, pile into equities. When the whole world is chasing the gold price higher, buy the dollar.
Who wants to be the 13th former Mega-Bank derivatives trading team knocking on the doors of pension-fund managers hustling for a few million to be invested in your new high- frequency yak-hide futures fund?
Prop Trader Wanted for Promising New Career Path: Matthew Lynn - Bloomberg
------------------------------------------------
These are dark days if you work in proprietary trading. For the past five years, you have been the king of financial markets, raking in bonuses and enjoying the prestige that comes from making most of your bank’s profits.
Now you are about as employable as a Greek-bond salesman. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are two companies winding down their prop-trading units to comply with new regulations that limit the ability of financial firms to trade on their own account. Plenty more firms will follow suit.
Teams of traders fired by big banks are now setting up dozens of hedge funds. But hold on. Surely the one thing you learned during all those years on the trading desk is that there is no money to be made by following the herd. When everyone else is buying bonds, pile into equities. When the whole world is chasing the gold price higher, buy the dollar.
Who wants to be the 13th former Mega-Bank derivatives trading team knocking on the doors of pension-fund managers hustling for a few million to be invested in your new high- frequency yak-hide futures fund?
Prop Trader Wanted for Promising New Career Path: Matthew Lynn - Bloomberg
