Barclays fixed income traders may need a lot of lasagne

As we have observed here, Barclays has lost quite a few macro traders to hedge funds and other banks. As we have observed here, Adeel Khan, head of Barclays’ trading business, has been known to bond with his traders over lasagne. Now it seems that Khan may need to stock up on quantities of cheese and pasta again.

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Bloomberg reports that there are issues with some of Barclays’ trading software and that when they crop up, it can cost each trader hundreds of thousands of dollars. Barclays strongly denies this, but it is worth outlining the alleged issues. 

After speaking to ‘half a dozen people with direct knowledge of the issues,’ Bloomberg says Barclays’ high-performing FX options desk and sometimes also its interest rates derivatives desk are afflicted by outages of Beowulf, a Barclays risk engine, that can go on for hours. During these alleged outages, traders can no longer see how the price of options would change when the underlying currency moves. When markets are volatile, this can allegedly cost each trader dearly. They are flying blind. 

There have allegedly been internal complaints about this for a while, but Barclays says it is not so. A spokesperson for the bank told Bloomberg: “Stability-related incidents have fallen by more than 70% over the past four years, and we have seen no evidence linking Federal Reserve announcements to service disruptions.” The spokesperson said, too, that Barclays’ traders “continue to support clients reliably across all market conditions,” and that the bank has “materially strengthened” its trading platforms.

The two things may not be mutually exclusive. It’s conceivable that things are better than they used to be at Barclays, but that in the past things were very bad. Either way, it seems sufficiently frustrating that Barclays’ traders have complained to a journalist. Lasagne should be deployed to placate traders until a fix is achieved. 

Separately, David Solomon, the 64-year-old CEO of Goldman Sachs, has been known to fly to his holidays in the company jet. Jason Carroll, the 48-year-old co-founder and head of electronic trading firm Hudson River Trading (HRT), likes to ride the subway to work.

Bloomberg reports that Carroll – who appears to be worth $27bn and is the son of a coastguard rescue pilot – eschews the trappings of wealth and doesn’t like luxury properties or art. He does, however, like sailing.

Carroll has an estimated 62.5% stake in HRT, but mostly likes to code. Prashant Lal, another partner, is reportedly more conspicuous internally. In this sense Carroll sounds similar to Rob Granieri at Jane Street, although people at HRT do seem to know who he is. 

Meanwhile…

JPMorgan was one of the primary lenders to Situational Awareness through the bank’s prime brokerage business. It cut Situational Awareness off after the losses. (FT)

Situational Awareness has got ClearStreet as its prime broker now. (Bloomberg) 

Citadel made some changes to its international equities business, which will be run by 40 year old Nabeel Bhanji who joined last year from Elliott Capital Management. (FT) 

Jane Street is the new top block trader in Asia. (FT) 

Richard Bloomfield was an M&A lawyer working on the purchase of a maternity wear firm. He pleaded guilty to five counts of insider trading relating to the deal. (Bloomberg) 

James van Geelen, the founder of independent investment-research shop Citrini Research, has sold it to semiconductor and AI researcher SemiAnalysis. He says he’s excited about this. (Bloomberg) 

A Polymarket user made $22k with bets that were all tied to companies KPMG audited. (WSJ)

The UK keeps changing its tax system and only offers a four year deal on taxation of overseas wealth to new residents. “Everyone is looking at the fiscal situation and saying that these sums don’t add up. It’s the tinkering that people don’t like. Once you start tinkering, they don’t know what’s coming next.” (FT)

Elan Capital Management wants a Greek office, too. (Bloomberg) 

It wasn’t just Chris Rokos, other Rokos Partners wanted to go to Greece as well. Chris himself was afraid of an exit tax. (Bloomberg) 

Greece has had a €100k flat tax rate on overseas earnings since 2019. Fund managers moving to Greece will also be charged only 5% tax on carried interest and bonuses. (Bloomberg) 

Long-ex-Goldman Sachs trader goes viral and says that if you want to be successful you must simplify your personal life. Some people disagree. (X) 

“If you’re a high performer with a big personality sat among a room of mediocre people, in this environment, you’ll find yourself getting fired.” (No-Rebates) 

Goldman Sachs owns a 680,000 acre private nature reserve in Chile’s Tierra del Fuego. (SpaceDaily) 

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