UT Causes Spike in Crude
File this one under "My Kind of Guy".
A rogue trader is being blamed for the spike in crude oil prices this week after a massive amount of unauthorized trades drove the price up on Tuesday:
Prices rose in one hour from $71 to $73.5, the highest level for the year, according to Reuters data. In total, futures contracts for more than 16m barrels of oil changed hands in that hour – equivalent to double the daily production of Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer, and far more than the traditional 500,000 barrels for that time of the day.
Traders said the broker implicated had allegedly accounted for at least half of the unusual activity, with the rest the result of others chasing the rally. Oil prices on Thursday fell to $66.5 a barrel, down almost 10 per cent from Tuesday’s peak.
Nice.
If you're gonna be a bear, might as well be a grizzly bear.
2009 First Year Analyst Bonuses
I heard from a friend that first year bonuses at Citi were $50k, $38k, $25k and $11k. I am surprised no one else has posted this but can anyone confirm? Have any other banks reported?
Favorite Quotations
Share some of your favorite quotes and sayings.
"A wise man told me don't argue with fools cause people, from a distance, can't tell who is who."—Hova
"Beware of geeks bearing formulas."—Warren Buffet
"A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between he does what he wants to do."—Bob Dylan
Bernanke Calls Paulson a Liar
In what is becoming a major case of he said, she said, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke today denied reports that he bullied Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis into the ill-advised purchase of Merrill Lynch:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_bernanke
This is interesting in that former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson admitted under subpoena in December that he was pressured by Bernanke to deliver the threat to Lewis. This is what Bernanke had to say about that:
Citigroup Raising Salaries Up To 50%
In a signal that they won't be repaying TARP funds any time soon, Citigroup is raising salaries (primarily in investment banking and trading) by up to 50% in an effort to retain talent:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=akHCO4dj2KJc
“Citi continues to examine ways to ensure its employee compensation practices are competitive in this very challenging market environment,” Citigroup spokesman Stephen Cohen said yesterday, declining to comment further. “Any salary adjustments are not intended to increase total annual compensation, rather to adjust the balance between fixed and variable compensation.”
Other banks have made similar moves recently. Are the days of slave wages offset by massive bonuses over for good?
Sales Traders needed in NYC immediately
Location(s)
My client "a well known mid level shop" is currently looking to add at least 4 Sales Traders with a minimum of 3 years experience.
Traders from similar mid level shops (Jefferies, Oppenheimer, Piper etc.) are the best fit.
This is an immediate need & I will fill this quick.
For consideration please submit your resume.
Qualitative / Macro S&T Desks
What desks within S&T tend to be more qualitative and macro-focused at the same time? Currencies/FX? Credit?
I believe that I have a good understanding of how the markets move in accordance with different trends and government actions, etc. but high-level quant analysis or programming has never really interested me. I'm more about the cause & effect relationships and the intuitive side of how markets function..








