You have to wonder what they see coming down the pike.... JPMorgan Said to Shut Proprietary Desk, Shed Traders (Update1) By Elizabeth Hester Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank by market value, will shut down a global proprietary trading desk and shed some of the unit's employees as the firm braces for a recession, a person familiar with the matter said.
Would be curious to know the specifics. Seems that this bunch was a separate proprietary group that was making bets cross markets (or in out of favor securities, such as CDO's etc...) and had underlying core competencies that warranted their moving into the single product trading environment. I would be very interested to know if this was the quant arbitrage/ automated trading group. Anyone know people at JPM? I sure don't.
isn't it obvious? they were using high leverage strategies. The game is over. Word is they will be transfered to low(read new normal) leverage prop desks.
Exactly, trading is very capital intensive for a bank and high risk, they probably don't want that right now. And who knows if their strategies only worked in low volatility times? This might even be a good sign. edit: Here is the link to the story http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aK2joPSFl2eg&refer=home What's amazing is how the big banks and their ivey leaguers lost hundred of millions in trading last quarter.