• 03 Sep 2010 at 1:30 PM

Goldman Sachs Winding Down Principal Strategies Unit

By Bess Levin

The bank plans to hold off on announcing the wind-down while the 65 to 70 members of the global unit seek new jobs, the people said. Some traders and support staff may get roles within the firm. Earlier plans for most members of the Principal Strategies group, led by Hong Kong-based Morgan Sze, to leave together and form a hedge fund were shelved, people with knowledge of the matter said. Now Sze, 44, may set up a fund with a smaller team focused on Asia, they said. Employees in London and New York are considering different options, the people said. The team’s members in New York, led by Bob Howard, are in talks to join another asset-management firm, according to two people. [Bloomberg]

Comments (15)

  1. 1
    Posted by CuriousGuy | September 3, 2010 at 6:15 PM

    so does any shop currently have a prop group? is anyone left?

  2. 2
    Posted by Doode | September 3, 2010 at 6:32 PM

    Somehow I am not worried for any of them :) Do you have any info on other bank’s prop trading/hft group statuses?

  3. 3
    Posted by Boris the blade | September 3, 2010 at 6:33 PM

    the frogs and ze germans

  4. 4
    Posted by du2 | September 3, 2010 at 6:46 PM

    If you can smoke and pick your nose at the same time, you too can prop trade.

  5. 5
    Posted by Pagoda | September 3, 2010 at 6:53 PM

    what if it’s not at the same time but it’s in rapid succession?

  6. 6
    Posted by Guest | September 3, 2010 at 6:55 PM

    Did you just ask for inside intel in a dealbreaker comment forum?

  7. 7
    Posted by Guest | September 3, 2010 at 6:57 PM

    I forgot about Le Frogs. I thought when Boaz departed, the fourth reich more or less eased out of prop.

  8. 8
    Posted by Guest | September 3, 2010 at 7:01 PM

    Isn’t the more egregious crime the use of emoticons?

  9. 9
    Posted by Anon | September 3, 2010 at 7:08 PM

    fact

  10. 10
    Posted by LB | September 3, 2010 at 7:54 PM

    Damn you, Matt Taibbi!

  11. 11
    Posted by derivatives | September 3, 2010 at 8:13 PM

    I know a bunch of guys who work in that group. Quite a few of them have already gotten job offers at citadel and will be moving to Chicago soon. One guy is being offered a base salary of $300K, signing bonus of $50K, and $10K for moving costs, plus bonus of course.

  12. 12
    Posted by Guest | September 3, 2010 at 9:05 PM

    No biggie. I’m sure they will all move to JPM and get jobs with Blythe Masters… doh.

  13. 13
    Posted by Luka01 | September 3, 2010 at 9:10 PM

    Is this for real or is it like an academic exercise where they all pretend to get fired, but then get re-hired by a new, non-arm’s length firm that prop trades for the company but pretends to be independent? Are they really abiding by the Volcker Rule or are they just going through the motions?

  14. 14
    Posted by Dh | September 4, 2010 at 2:54 AM

    If you read carefully you’ll notice the real moneymakers had already moved to a different division.

  15. 15
    Posted by Wllstobserver | September 4, 2010 at 4:40 PM

    too bad giuliani never got bob

Leave a comment

You can log in with your account or comment as a guest below.

   or