Traders Suffering Shrinkage
by Todd Shriber
Apparently the couple of years leading up to 2007 are already a bygone era on Wall Street. Bloomberg reports that traders, usually a Wall Street firm’s top earners, look ready to endure the largest pay cuts this year as capital markets revenue has plunged.
In a true case of the bigger they are, the harder they fall, that story points out that Goldman Sachs pared compensation by an average of 26% through the first three quarters of this year. On the other hand, Bank of America, the largest U.S. bank by assets, raised average pay by 10%. Something has to be amiss when Goldman is cutting pay and BofA is raising it.
Don’t fret. There are bound to be a few Goldman traders that can still afford one of these, while it’s not outlandish to say this is the vehicle of choice for more than one BofA branch manager.
After all, Bloomberg has this to say: Goldman Sachs’ $387,655 per worker — down from an average $527,192 in the first nine months of last year — compares with Bank of America’s average $92,723 per employee and Citigroup’s $72,264.
The Bloomberg piece also notes that Goldman’s compensation pool has dwindled by 20%, the second-largest drop to only Credit Suisse. A lot of the new “burdens” faced by traders lie at the doorstep of the Dodd-Frank bill. Knowing that and looking at the results of some critical Senate races on Tuesday, it makes one wonder why the Wall Street crowd wasn’t more pro-GOP with their early campaign contributions.
Shrinkage is inconvenient, just ask George Costanza (hilarious clip here). But at least traders can say their bonuses were in the pool to assuage themselves.
Related posts:
- Goldman Traders Dress Down for CharitySome Goldman Sachs traders left their slacks in the closet this morning and broke out the casual wear for...
- Banks Urge Traders to Cut the $#!%Most seasoned floor traders would agree that, if you listen closely, you’re not likely to go about 20...
- Trading Hit by Low Profits, High Taxes, New RegsIn the wake of trading layoffs at a variety of firms, life could be getting harder still for...
- Hirings and Firings: Musical Chairs Is the Game of the WeekWhile the Volcker Rule is driving hiring efforts in some trading areas, a more chaotic picture is now...
- Traders Making MovesSeasoned proprietary derivatives trading director Nelson Saiers has left Deutsche Bank AG, where he worked for three years....
Short URL: http://www.traderdaily.com/?p=8335
