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May 16th, 2022 - Information Session - Intuition-Based Options Primer for Financial Engineering Certificate

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andy Nguyen" data-source="post: 4119" data-attributes="member: 1">Goldman Sachs 2007 Bonus Pool Is Large Enough for Bear Stearns to Swim InAnd amazingly enough, Goldman's bonus pool this year is bigger than last.Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- When Goldman Sachs Group Inc. employees cash their year-end checks, they'll have enough money to buy Bear Stearns Cos.                      Goldman, the biggest and most profitable U.S. securities firm, set aside $16.9 billion to pay salaries, benefits and bonuses in the first nine months of 2007, according to the company's third-quarter earnings report. The stock market values Bear Stearns Cos., the fifth-biggest firm, at $14.7 billion. Bonuses, the majority of Wall Street compensation, are typically paid after the fiscal year ends this month.                     The figures demonstrate how the industry's fortunes diverged this year during the collapse of the subprime mortgage market and a credit-market contraction that saddled the biggest lenders and brokerages with at least $40 billion of writedowns and losses. Bonuses for fixed-income traders may fall as much as 15 percent, while payments to equity traders and investment bankers may increase as much as 20 percent, according to Johnson Associates Inc., the New York-based firm that tracks pay and hiring trends.                     ``This has been a year of winners and losers on Wall Street and there will be incredible variance on bonuses from bank to bank,'' said Michael Karp, chief executive officer of New York- based recruiting firm Options Group. ``The fact that Goldman Sachs can pay its employees more than Bear's market cap speaks to this disparity.''                      While analysts estimate Goldman's profit will exceed last year's record, they say Bear Stearns's earnings may drop 27 percent, according to surveys by Bloomberg. Goldman gained 12 percent in New York trading this year and Bear Stearns slumped 37 percent. Both firms are based in New York.                     Drop in Bonuses                      Bonuses may drop about 5 percent overall on Wall Street this year from 2006, Options Group has estimated. That masks the gap between firms like Goldman, where money set aside through August already tops last year's $16.5 billion record, and Bear Stearns, where compensation fell 5.9 percent in the first nine months of 2007 to $3.1 billion.                      Goldman employed 29,905 people at the end of August, almost double the 15,516 working at Bear Stearns.                     Bear Stearns Chief Executive Officer James Cayne, 73, has watched the market value of his company decline more than $10 billion from its February peak. Two of the firm's hedge funds, which invested in securities linked to subprime home loans, have filed for bankruptcy protection and Co-President Warren Spector has been ousted.                     Blankfein's Bounty                      Analysts forecast earnings at Bear Stearns, the largest underwriter of mortgage-backed securities this year, to slump amid falling house prices and surging defaults on U.S. home loans.                      Goldman, under Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, 53, navigated through the worst credit contraction in at least nine years, posting record fixed-income revenue in the third quarter, aided by investments that gained in value as mortgage securities fell. The average estimate of 19 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg is that Goldman's earnings will gain 16 percent this year from the record set in 2006.                     The numbers make it likely that Blankfein will once again lead Wall Street CEOs in annual pay after receiving $54 million in 2006. Cayne's $40 million award last year has already lost value -- more than one third of it was stock or stock options.</blockquote>

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