Back in December 2007, things weren’t going so well for Matthew Marshall Taylor. He’d just been fired from Goldman Sachs and not only was he out of a job, but his prospects for finding a new one didn’t look so hot, on account of the fact that Goldman planned to put a note in his file detailing the reason he’d been let go– “for building an ‘inappropriately large’ proprietary trading position”– and it seemed unlikely anyone at the firm would be open to serving as a reference for him moving forward. Three months later, however, one bank told MMT that there was room for him at their inn. Morgan Stanley, apparently having decided the incident at Goldman was but an asterisk in what would be a long and fruitful career, told Taylor to come on down, employing him for over four years until he left in July of his own accord and not because of any legal issues relating to his work at Goldman Sachs.
Taylor was accused yesterday by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission of concealing an $8.3 billion position in 2007 that caused Goldman Sachs to lose $118 million. Goldman Sachs fired Taylor in December 2007 and cited “alleged conduct related to inappropriately large proprietary futures positions in a firm trading account,” in a so-called U-5 form, according to a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority document. Morgan Stanley, which had employed Taylor before he joined Goldman in 2005, re-hired him in March 2008, according to the records.
Taylor, who handled client-related equity derivative trading at Morgan Stanley, left the firm in July, according to Mark Lake, a company spokesman in New York. His departure wasn’t related to the CFTC complaint filed against Taylor yesterday in federal court, according to a person familiar with the situation, who requested anonymity because the information is private. Taylor concealed the position by bypassing the firm’s internal system for routing trades to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and manually entering fabricated futures trades in a different internal system, according to the complaint. Goldman Sachs, which wasn’t identified in the CFTC lawsuit, said Taylor allegedly made the trades while employed at the firm.
Anyway, since MMT is a free agent at the moment, if any other banks would like to overlook the blip, please do get in touch directly. Citi, BofA? At least just think about it. He was good enough for Morgan Stanley, he should be good enough for you.
Morgan Stanley Hired Goldman Trader Accused Of Hiding Position [Bloomberg]
CFTC Charges Matthew Marshall Taylor with Fraud for Fabricating and Concealing Trades from His Employer and Obstructing Their Discovery [CFTC]
Amateurs…
Howie Hubler
Yes, but tant pis pour toi if they make you pay it all back.
Come on over, I think we can squeeze you in. Wait……hold on……..no we can't. Wait, …..wait, yes, …..yes we actually can. I think. Definitely maybe.
-UBS
I'm guessing that position would not have been "inappropriately large" if it had MADE $118MM, instead of losing it.
I think you might be guessing wrong, Lamp Shade. This was a limit breach and 3 names gets fired regardless of P&L….just got fired quicker because it was a loss.
Have we ever found out what Matt's middle name is?
Betty
You know what they call a rogue trader who make money? Managing Director.
*made
-not an Asian but evidently a fan of their work
Hell yes!
-kweku
We could definitely use a guy like you here at Rochdale Securities once we raise a little capital. Won't take a minute, really.
I love that 'always with the three names' has numerous entries
Allstars being Michael Kevin Lallana and Michael Steven Poret.
Never liked the guy.
-Pablo Salami
I think we found our new Treasury Sec.
Clearly, this never would've happened had MMT been receiving my daily market commentary emails.
Do they use the First Middle Last name when discussing heinous activity in the press just so there's no confusion when someone Google's your name i.e. you can't pull this one in a future interview:
"I can assure you, there was another Matthew Marshall Taylor in the equity derivatives trading desk at Goldman who went over his VAR limits, it wasn't me"
*makes
- an Asian, evidently
No, that's actually not true. The Times uses middle initials but they are the only publication that uses anything but people's first and last names. A middle name is only ever used if the person regularly uses it (a la Andrew Ross Sorkin).
guest from above here, just realized you were being facetious. Sorry, been a long day, I'll put myself on a commenting time out.
Can someone who knows more about S&T than I do (which is almost everyone) explain to me how someone in "client-related" trading had a prop position at all, let alone one that big?
what happened to the old capital ?
client-related at MS; prop at GS. Got it now?
If you risk 8 Billion to only make 118 Million, it is inappropriate only making 1%. He risk the whole company's state of remaining in business. See Bear Stearns, Lehman Brother, and Long Term Capital and there derivative strategy blow up by the greatest minds on earth. Sometimes brilliant people think their genius will over come everything.
Maybe you should just focus yours on learning how to properly use the English language.
Fluffer
how to use the English language properly.
MS has a very sharp HR (not sure they know much about sharp ratios though)
greg smith u r an ugly bald little man. poor mansw chiklis oh yeah ur wife and sons r fat slobs. go get on gottliebs c*ck